Millions in federal relief funds flowed to county
Loans helped keep 100K jobs during shutdown
Millions of loan dollars from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program flowed into accounts of nearly 9,000 Anne Arundel County businesses and organizations over the past few months, including between $2 million to $5 million to Annapolis’ St. John’s College, to help prevent having to furlough employees.
The loans in Anne Arundel County retained more than 100,000 jobs, according to data released from the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Department of the Treasury.
The program is part of the federal government’s coronavirus pandemic response. The virus has sickened 3 million people across the United States, and killed roughly 130,000, including 5,391 sick and at least 202 deaths in Anne Arundel County. More than 70,000 county residents have been left unemployed since the beginning of March as a result of pandemic-related closures.
The loan amount varies greatly with 11 businesses receiving between $5 million and $10 million, with most going to technology, brokerage and health companies, some of which retained up to 500 jobs, and the lowest loan appears to be for $17 to a veteran-owned limited liability corporation in Pasadena, which reportedly retained two jobs.
Among the companies and organizations that received loans of larger than
$150,000 are specialized housing facilities, nonprofit organizations, private schools and churches. Exact dollar amounts were not included for businesses that received more than $150,000, and names of businesses were not included for those that received fewer than $150,000.
The average loan size for the 7,000 businesses that received a loan of less than $150,000 was roughly $38,000. The loans don’t need to be paid back if they’re used for certain purposes, such as payroll. Statewide, data shows that roughly 900,000 jobs have been retained through this program.
The loan amount received by St. John’s College, a private institution in Annapolis with roughly 500 undergraduate students, is unclear. “The Paycheck Protection Program funding allowed St. John’s College to avoid reducing or furloughing our staff or faculty because of the necessary and unavoidable costs of dealing with the pandemic,” spokesperson Michael O’Conner said in an email to The Capital. “We did not want to add to the strong negative impact of COVID-19 on the entire college community.”
St. John’s College stopped holding inperson classes because of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March.
Other mainstays of Anne Arundel County also received federal funding, including the Naval Academy Athletic Association, Gibson Island Corp. and Tsunami, a downtown Annapolis restaurant co-owned by Mayor Gavin Buckley. A representative from Tsunami could not be reached Thursday for comment.
Nonprofit Historic Annapolis saw a revenue drop of roughly 60%, said communications director Carrie Kiewitt. A state grant that makes up one-third of its budget was cut by 10%, corporate donations and sponsorship have dried up as businesses too are strapped for cash, and earned income from the museum store and in-person event ticket-sales came to a screeching halt in mid-March. Historic Annapolis typically does about several major events and at least 30 weddings per year, all of which had to be canceled or postponed.
Without the $280,000 loan, Kiewitt said employees would have had to be laid off. Roughly 90% of the loan was used to uphold employee pay, and the other 10% was used to cover utility bills.
“It’s taken a substantial hit,” Kiewitt said. “There is no doubt, without that PPP loan we would have had to lay people off.”
The coronavirus pandemic also threatened the finances of Langton Green, a home for people with intellectual and development disabilities in Annapolis. They had to furlough a handful of employees, and tried their best to lockdown the facility to outsiders, Deputy Director Christopher Jones said. Still, they had four positive cases.
Langton Green serves residents who can’t afford to pay full-price with the help of state funding, and Jones said they applied for the loan because they didn’t know how the state funding would be impacted by the pandemic. He said they haven’t used it, but applied for it as a safety measure.
He said they are grateful for the $1.8 million loan because they did not have to furlough any more employees. The employees that were furloughed found other employment before they were asked to come back, Jones said.
Even though they haven’t been allowing visitors since mid-March, Jones said they are keeping residents busy with puzzles, games and outdoor activities like gardening.
At the Hyatt and Weber law firm in Annapolis, Managing Partner Alan J. Hyatt said he applied for the loan during initial uncertainty of the pandemic. As coronavirus closures made it impossible and then difficult to meet with clients, and court closures paused litigation, he worried about the economic threat to the firm.
“There were things going on that needed legal attention but the courts were closed, the administrative bodies were shut down, so there was no opportunity to go forward,” Hyatt said.
They were granted a $565,000 loan and did not have to furlough or lay off any of the 35 employees. Now, Hyatt said he’s not sure if he would have had to, but the fear was there in the early weeks of the pandemic.
Hyatt also serves as the chairman of the Severn Bank, though his law firm does not borrow from the bank. In that role, he said he’s seen the PPP program be vital to small businesses across the county which would have otherwise shuttered.
There appear to be some inconsistencies in the data released by the Treasury.
Reliable Contracting, a Gambrills-based business, is listed as having received a loan between $5 million and $10 million, but the company’s treasurer and part-owner said they didn’t receive any loan at all.
She said they did apply, but never heard back on whether they received it. They did not receive any money, Baldwin said.
“I don’t know where it went, (but) we didn’t get it,” Baldwin said. “Last week we were struggling to make payroll. It could have been helpful then.”
Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, a nonprofit organization that promotes the city to tourists, is listed as having received between $2 million and $5 million in treasury data, but acting CEO Dani Bottcher said that is incorrect.
The quasi-government agency with 11 employees received $173,000, which she said helped ensure everyone received a paycheck through June 30, and helped pay the mortgage and power bills, she said.
The marked designation of $2 million to $5 million that appears on the treasury report would have been more than the organization’s total budget, Bottcher said. The organization is listed as having retained 12 jobs, though they now only have 11 employees.
Former CEO of Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Connie Del Signore was fired in April after an investigation. The results of the investigation have yet to be formally published, but Del Signore publicized accusations that she misused funds, drank at work and permitted racist and sexist remarks in the office in a recently filed lawsuit. In the suit, she claims she was the victim of a plot to get her fired by the head of Historic Annapolis.
Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County is a nonprofit organization funded in part by the local hotel tax. The visitor’s center on West Street in downtown Annapolis is set to reopen on July 15, after a host of safety measures are implemented through another local grant.