Blair County businesses and organizations are poised to receive between $160 million and $320 million in federal coronavirus aid, figures from the U.S. Small Business Administration show.

When the economy was largely shut down in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress quickly passed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which earmarked $349 billion to provide forgivable loans for businesses and organizations to cover payroll costs and some expenses. Congress later added another $310 billion to the program.

According to the SBA, as of 5 p.m. Thursday, $518,069,384,207 had been approved for 4,938,733 businesses, with an average loan of $104,899 provided by 5,456 lenders.

The SBA will forgive loans if all employee retention criteria are met, and the funds are used for eligible expenses.

Steve McKnight, president/CEO of Altoona-Blair County Development Corp., said the program was likely among the most impactful emergency relief programs.

“The goal of retaining employees for a defined period of time was easily understood by local businesses. While none of these crisis loan and grant programs are without challenges, the response to has generally been favorable as we understand it. At this point though, there can be no substitute for a return to normal operations as quickly as possible. I think we all recognized that providing direct grant programs indefinitely is not sustainable locally or nationally over the long haul,” McKnight said.

Businesses and organizations of all types across central Pennsylvania were among those applying for the loans. A list of approved PPP loans over $150,000 show more than 240 were approved in Blair County totaling between $120 million and $283 million. The loans were intended to retain 17,200 jobs.

Although the SBA released the names of the recipients, it did not specify the exact amount of each loan, instead breaking them into categories that range from $150,000 to $350,000 all the way up to $5 million to $10 million.

In addition, the SBA released a separate list of PPP loans less than $150,000, but it did not name the recipients. Blair County recorded about $46 million in the smaller loans.

Numerous Blair County businesses and nonprofit organizations received PPP loans.

Team Ten LLC, the partnership group that oversees American Eagle Paper Mills in Tyrone, received more than $2 million, said Clark Adelman, secretary/treasurer of Team Ten and vice president of finance and administration for the mill, which employs more than 220 workers.

“Because of the fact the country was shut down and business had decreased, it was crucial. … It was critical to keep operations and employees working as much as possible. We had some weeks when we didn’t make paper; it was like a partial shutdown. We did that to control inventory due to the lack of sales because of the pandemic,”Adelman said. “We are still not out of this situation; it helped us get through this so far.”

Both Barnhart Family Enterprises Inc., Claysburg, and McLanahan Corp., Hollidaysburg, received loans of between $5 million and $10 million.

“Our PPP Funds were used exclusively for payroll expenses. It enabled the employment of specific strategies that ensured full employment for all employees. Without the ability to employ the aforementioned strategies, it would potentially have caused some furloughs,” said Barnhart Chief Operating Officer Tim McCarthy.

“The PPP money allowed us to keep our employees on the job, it was important to us to keep our employees,” said Andrea Ritchey, McLanahan director of marketing and communications.

Allegheny Lutheran Social Ministries received between $2 million and $5 million.

“The funds received have been used for payroll, benefit, utility and mortgage expenses,” said Andrea Schurr, director of mission advancement. ALSM serves about 3,000 individuals in eight central Pennsylvania counties.

Joe Hurd, president/CEO of the Blair County Chamber of Commerce, has received positive feedback about the program from area businesses.

“Most of the feedback that we’ve received from our members about the PPP program has been positive, although that positivity has evolved over time. When the program started, many businesses that applied and were deemed eligible couldn’t access the program right away because they had been mandated to close. So they essentially had the funds but had no one to pay them to and the clock was running . … We got many calls from exasperated business owners looking for ways to stop the clock until the business was permitted to reopen,” Hurd said. “Once the deadline was extended and more money was allocated to PPP, things improved. We still get occasional calls from businesses that either haven’t received the OK to be part of the program or from ones (like our chamber) that were ruled ineligible from the start and were still holding out hope that the guidelines would be broadened to include them.”

Hurd did say the program had a flaw.

“If there’s been an obvious flaw in the PPP, it has been that businesses have had to take some “creative” measures to make sure they comply with the specific rules that allow them to have the PPP loan forgiven. All in all though, I’d say that the PPP has kept a lot of businesses from financial disaster. For a government program, it actually had a considerable upside,” Hurd said.

Businesses and organizations could apply and be approved for the loans and then decide against going through with the loan program. Indeed, the Blair County Convention Center opted out of its $175,000 approved PPP loan.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 946-7467. Mirror Assistant Managing Editor Steve Carpenter contributed to this story.