Trending
Paul Randazzo of Mama Randazzo's likes to get compliments about the food his restaurant serves, but he likes it even better when people notice that his staff is "attentive, polite, understanding and kind," he said Friday.
Randazzo, sitting in his establishment on Broadway in Juniata, had just participated in a press conference that included the state secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development, who had come to tout a coronavirus relief program for the hospitality industry.
The program provided Randazzo's with $25,000, which Randazzo directed toward salaries, hazard pay and bonuses.
The money from the COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program, coupled with funds from the Paycheck Protection Program, helped Randazzo be the kind of boss he wanted to be throughout the crisis -- providing for the people in whom he takes pride, the owner said.
"I spend a lot of time with them," Randazzo said of the staff. "Good people, who are fun and energetic."
Paul Randazzo takes care of them all, said server-bartender Alexa Weston.
Weston's mother had breast cancer recently, and Randazzo helped organize a benefit at the restaurant, working the event on his day off and donated lots of the necessities, Weston said.
"He goes above and beyond," she said.
No one at the restaurant lost their job during the pandemic, although a few who wanted to go on leave out of concern for their safety did so, Weston said.
Because many staffers depend on tips, the bonuses and hazard pay were critical, creating a "nice little cushion," Weston said.
Everybody is back to work now, she said.
Randazzo appreciates the money -- and the signal it sent that governments were aware of the problems the hospitality industry was facing, he said.
He also appreciates how quickly the state disbursed Blair County's $1.3-million share of the $145 million total program funding and how quickly in turn Altoona Blair County Development Corp. got it to the recipients, he said.
The money was in his account within a month of his first having heard of the program, Randazzo said.
"I wouldn't go as far as to say that without it, we wouldn't have survived," Randazzo said. "But it would have been much more daunting."
Economic development organizations like ABCD and community development financial institutions in other counties that distributed the money generally have a good handle on which businesses need the help, DCED Secretary Dennis Davin said at the event.
Blair's money went to 47 small businesses, said ABCD CEO Steve McKnight.
There were 60 applications, including some from organizations that didn't qualify, like social clubs, or that didn't provide the needed information on time, said Patrick Miller, executive vice president of ABCD.
The money was allocated based on a formula that took into account COVID-related losses, Miller said.
The money for the bipartisan program came from an excess in the state's workers' compensation reserve fund.
It's important to help places like Mama Randazzo's survive, because they're part of Altoona's "identity," said Mayor Matt Pacifico.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.