County Plans to Expedite Relief Grants for Local Bars and Restaurants

Struggling local bars and restaurants will be able to apply for relief grants from Centre County in the coming weeks.

The grants will come from a portion of the county’s $14.7 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding received through the state. Though Centre County commissioners already planned to use a sizable amount of that to support local businesses struck by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, they said on Tuesday they will work to get it to food and drink establishments first, given the additional challenges brought by new restrictions on bars and restaurants announced by Gov. Tom Wolf last week.

Those new mitigation efforts include reducing occupancy of bars and restaurants to 25% capacity, allowing alcohol service only with meals, and allowing service only at a table or booth. Nightclubs also were ordered to close.

‘You’re talking about restaurants that make up the real flavor of our community,’ Commissioner Steve Dershem said. ‘I think about the restaurants that have been in business for decades and to lose those would be just tragic. Every corner of our county has those special places. I think we need to work very hard to make sure our local folks are taken care of first and foremost.’

While the formal process for applying, as well as how much will be awarded, has not yet been set, Board of Commissioners Chair Michael Pipe said the county plans to have applications out by the end of July or beginning of August and award funding by the middle of August.

Grants will be made available to other types of businesses as well, but Pipe said the county wants to first address the urgent needs of the hospitality industry.

‘We really feel we need to get some money out right now to the restaurants and bars that are affected by this order and do that without haste,’ Pipe said. ‘We were already going to do a business grant program and application process, but this essentially frontloads it and gets them the money they need.’

Commissioners have previously discussed a total business grant program of about $7 million, though have not yet set an amount. While business grants will make up the largest category of allocations, Pipe noted that the county also must disburse CARES Act funding for personal protective equipment, nonprofits, municipality needs and county expenditures related to the pandemic.

‘We have limited resources. So there will be decisions about who we can help and what that amount is going to look like,’ Pipe said. ‘We want to let our local hospitality know — restaurants and bars that were affected by the governors order and will be affected indefinitely, it sounds like — that relief is coming from our standpoint and we’re going to help out in any way possible.’

How much is allocated to bars and restaurants will be in part driven by the number of establishments that apply and their needs.

Commissioner Mark Higgins said the county has already been working with Penn State’s Small Business Development Center on an application that will be about two or three pages. Some counties, he said, have had applications that are a dozen pages long.

Higgins added that state rules for allocating the funds prioritize businesses that have not already received federal assistance, such as the Paycheck Protection Program or Economic Injury Disaster Loans, but those that have are not necessarily excluded.

‘I will say, I wouldn’t necessarily disqualify somebody because [they already received assistance],’ Dershem said. ‘There are some folks that are going to need help even with those programs.’

All three commissioners said the grants should go only to locally-owned businesses, though there is still some uncertainty over how that would be defined.

They agreed national, corporate-owned chains would not be eligible, but Dershem and Higgins suggested local franchisees of a national brand might qualify.

Pipe said the application should ask whether a franchisee has received federal relief through its national chain.

‘If a national chain has not given franchisees funding, we would want to take that into consideration,’ Pipe said. ‘…[T]hey’re not the folks we’re talking about first and foremost but we do want to keep them in mind and certainly they can apply.’

He added that just as state grants require a company to be headquartered in Pennsylvania, the local grants should require businesses to be headquartered in Centre County.

‘If somebody is a resident, let’s say, of Florida and they have properties here, they might not rise to the top of the list,’ Pipe said. ‘But somebody who is headquartered here in Centre County, that would rise to the top. That’s how I would view it.’

The county will get applications out ‘as soon as we can,’ Pipe said, but the commissioners want to ensure they are following all of the state’s requirements for allocating the funds.

‘The last thing we want to do is put a business in a position where there has to be money given back,’ Pipe said. ‘We’re going to do this with diligence but also with as much haste as possible.’

Centre County has hired Mary Kay Williams as county relief block grant coordinator, administrator Margaret Gray said at the start of Tuesday’s meeting. Williams is returning to Centre County government after formerly serving as its director of human resources.

Commissioners also agreed to urge federal elected officials to support the RESTAURANTS Act, a bill proposed in Congress that would provide $120 billion to help independent restaurants with the economic impact of COVID-19. The bill would provide grants to cover differences in 2019 revenues and projected revenues for 2020, which bars and restaurants could use toward payroll, benefits, rent, mortgage, protective equipment, food and other costs.

Wolf urged Congress last week to pass the bill. He was met with derision by Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey and Rep. Fred Keller, R-Kreamer, whose 12th district includes parts of Centre County. 

‘This gives new meaning to dining out on someone else’s tab,’ Toomey wrote on Twitter. ‘PA restaurants don’t want a bailout. They want to safely reopen.’

‘Governor, this is a problem you created,’ Keller wrote on Twitter. ‘Rather than ask Congress to clean up your mess, reverse your shutdown mandate and stop destroying Pennsylvania businesses.’

Commissioners said they would send letters to Keller, Toomey, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Howard Township) to support including the bill in a potential new federal relief package.

‘We are a hospitality community with the university and the amazing attractions we have here from a tourism standpoint,’ Pipe said. ‘This would offer our support to say please work on this legislation and include it in some way, shape or form in that fifth COVID-19 relief package.’

‘It’s badly needed,’ Higgins added. ‘The restaurants and bars are one of the most affected industries nationally at this point.’