The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Businesses look forward to new round of PPP funding
ANSONIA — The printing industry wasn’t exactly going gangbusters prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
“My industrial accounts have all dried up in the last 30 years,” Frank Halpin, owner of Ever Ready Press on Clifton Avenue, said
Thursday, recalling the closures and down-sizing of the large companies whose humming factories used to dot the lower Naugatuck Valley.
And months into last year, COVID-19 stay-home orders meant a loss of revenue from many of the customers that remained.
“A lot of my business comes from municipalities and schools, churches, restaurants and bars,” Halpin said.
Suddenly, those restaurants didn’t need menus and place mats. Schools, towns and cities weren’t using the forms and passes Ever Ready supplied them with.
Which meant a serious crunch for the family business — its two employees are Halpin and his son — which has been in operation for more than 90 years.
Then, his wife, who was working in the COVID wing at a hospital, came down with the virus soon after Easter. Halpin tested positive too, but was asymptomatic.
So when the Paycheck Protection Program launched last year, Halpin filed for some help.
“As a matter of fact it was pretty easy,” he said. “I got the figures from my accountant, I applied online through Wells Fargo and they took care of the whole thing.”
Created under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, PPP loans are forgiven if businesses retain their workers for the duration of the pandemic. In Connecticut, businesses received some $6.7 billion under the program through commercial banks, eclipsing unemployment benefits that have been paid out since the start of the pandemic by the Connecticut Department of Labor.
A searchable database of Connecticut PPP loan recipients under $150,000 is available at ctpost.com.
The $5,859 approved for Every Ready by the Small Business Administration May 1, 2020 was dwarfed by the amounts paid to much larger companies.
But Halpin said the aid served its purpose for the Ansonia business — preventing unemployment.
“They didn’t give me as much as they could have, I guess, but every little bit helps,” he said. “In these days, it’s pretty good because business has been slow.”
And still is — which means Halpin and other business owners will welcome another anticipated round of PPP funding for which the application process begins this month.
The money could be a stopgap for struggling businesses waiting for the economy to reopen fully as more and more people are vaccinated for COVID-19.
“I’m just hoping that it gets over with pretty quick and we get back to some semblance of normalcy,” Halpin said.
Anna Llanos, owner of Danbury’s Mothership on Main bakery and cafe, would more than welcome a new round of PPP funds.
“Important isn’t even the word for PPP,” Llanos said after a visit from Sen. Richard Blumenthal this week. “It’s a lifeline.”
A $900 billion federal stimulus bill, known as the CARES Act 2 — signed by President Donald Trump — is expected to bring as much as $9 billion to Connecticut. About $3 billion of which be loaned to small businesses to keep workers on the payroll.
The PPP is being restarted under the coronavirus relief bill Congress approved in late December, providing for $284 billion in new loans. The first two rounds, which began April 3 and ended Aug. 8, gave out more than 5.2 million loans worth $525 billion.
But for many businesses, including restaurants, gyms and retailers that depend on people gathering in large numbers or in close quarters, the money was nowhere near enough as the pandemic continued longer than anyone expected. It’s estimated that well over 100,000 small U.S. businesses have failed since the outbreak began.
Moreover, many companies weren’t able to get loans, including newly formed businesses and those whose financial records didn’t meet bank requirements. Many businesses applied to multiple banks, often because they couldn’t get a response to their applications and subsequent inquiries — and many of these business owners gave up in frustration or ran out of time.