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Facility will rely on $1.4M reserve to pay salaries, bills

Facility will rely on $1.4M reserve to pay salaries, bills

The Blair County Convention Center won’t be accepting the $175,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan it recently secured through First National Bank.

Richard Karcher, who chairs the authority that manages the convention center, said Friday that the better option is to forget the loan and rely on the center’s $1.4 million reserve to cover expenses the likely-forgivable loan would have covered.

While the center’s reserve has long been viewed as a resource for capital improvements, Karcher said the reserve also provides protection during dire circumstances.

“And we do have dire circumstances,” Karcher said.

During Wednesday’s meeting of the convention center authority, Executive Director Rocco Alianiello reported submitting a Paycheck Protection Program loan application on behalf of the convention center.

The Small Business Administration, based on federal legislation, rolled out the loan program during the pandemic as a way to help small businesses keep workers on their payrolls. Nationally, the program generated ongoing debate over what businesses qualify for the loans and how the money can be spent.

While the convention center furloughed eight full-time and 20 part-time employees after closing in March because of the pandemic, it currently employs four full-time staff members whose salaries could be covered by the PPP loan, based on posted guidelines. The money also can be used to pay the convention center’s utility bills running about $7,000 a month, the guidelines indicate.

But acceptance of the government’s PPP loan — along with likelihood of it being forgiven if the convention center meets all program’s rules and guidelines — is generating a debate that might be halted if the convention center walks away from the loan.

“We’ve worked hard to get where we are and to have money in the bank,” Karcher said. “As for who should get the (PPP) money and who shouldn’t … I don’t want the perceptions coming out of that debate to tarnish what we’ve built and accomplished.”

Most of the convention center’s revenue comes from conferences, banquets, meetings and events. Those ended in March when the facility closed its doors because of the co­rona­­­virus pandemic and stay-at-home orders. The center also gets about $220,000 annually from the county’s hotel tax, but that income will be less this year because of the coronavirus.

As for when the center can reopen, that depends on when and how coronavirus-related restrictions are eased.

In the meantime, Karcher said he talked with authority members and is satisfied with allowing the center to depend on its reserve instead of a PPP loan.

“It just feels better,” Karcher said.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.

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