The plan was introduced to council March 31 but council advanced the discussion during a special called April 3 meeting.
Bee Cave Public Library Director Barbara Hathaway told council she has been working with a number of people, including volunteers from Score Austin, a nonprofit organization that helps advise small business owners.
"We should have it up and functional certainly by the end of next week, if not sooner," Hathaway said.
The plan from the chamber seeks to utilize area librarians to provide information and staff a Small Business Assistance Center that would assist business owners in need of aid, among other functions.
"This is going to be an absolute godsend to people in our community that are struggling to stay afloat," Council Member Jon Cobb said. "This is the kind of thing that makes me proud to live here."
During the March 31 meeting while representing the chamber, Adrian Overstreet, owner of the Bee Cave Austin Sonesta Hotel, said the chamber has been working on helping small businesses who have been getting more desperate as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Even though the stimulus package passed, there is likely much more time between now and when assistance arrives, Overstreet said, adding the process to get the money will likely be extraordinarily complex.
"The city has a great resource, which is the library," Overstreet said. "That's what librarians do for a passion and a living is they accumulate information. Since they're not checking out books right now, this seemed like a logical fit for librarians."
