Recovery Resources: Hospitality grant applications and vaccination news

Local hospitality businesses can apply for CHIRP grants starting March 12
Area hospitality businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will be able to apply for grants under the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program (CHIRP) as early as March 12. Under the program, the DCED will allocate $145 million to counties based on their populations and the counties will contract with one or more Certified Economic Development Organizations or Community Development Financial Institutions to disburse the money through grants. To be eligible, businesses must be in North American Industry Classification System subsectors 721 (Accommodations) or 722 (Food Services and Drinking Places); have fewer than 300 full-time-equivalent employees; be worth no more than $15 million; be able to demonstrate a decline of at least 25 percent in quarterly revenue between 2019 and 2020; have been in operation on Feb. 15, 2020 and must not intend to cease operating within one year of applying for a grant.

• Montgomery County will receive $9.4 million under CHIRP and will make the money available through the MontcoStrong 2021 Pennsylvania Hospitality Industry Recovery Program. The program, which will be administered by the Redevelopment Authority of Montgomery County, will require grant applicants to submit documentation for past expenses, rather than allow them to get a grant and report their expenditures after a prescribed period of time. Applicants also will need to provide documentation proving they’ve suffered a financial loss from COVID-19. Grants will range from $5,000 to $50,000 and will be awarded on a rolling basis. Applications will be made available online at 12 p.m. March 12.
  
  
• Chester County will get $5.9 million under CHIRP and will distribute the money through a grant program administered by the Chester County Economic Development Council, which will accept grant applications from March 15 through April 12. The agency will hold an informational webinar on the program at 11:30 a.m. on March 12.
  
  
• Delaware County anticipates receiving $6.4 million in CHIRP funds, according to Radnor Township. The county will establish its program for disbursing the money by March 15 and review applications from eligible businesses on a rolling basis until the funds are exhausted or June 15, whichever occurs first.

Accountants, others call for PPP Extension
The American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants has joined the organizations calling for the Paycheck Protection Program’s application deadline, which currently is March 31, to be pushed back. An article in the Journal of Accountancy said the Small Business Administration’s platform for processing the applications has been experiencing problems that have led to refusals to accept some applications and catching other applications in validation checks meant to detect fraud. The AICPA wants the deadline moved back at least 60 days. Forty-eight nonprofits, including some of the country’s largest, wrote a Feb. 25 letter to four Congressional committee chairs and ranking members asking that the deadline be moved back to the end of the year. Additionally, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which already has urged President Biden and Congress to extend the deadline, has been gathering signatures for another letter it plans to send to Congress.

PreK-12 teachers and staff to get J&J vaccine
The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the departments of Education and Health are partnering with the state’s 28 Intermediate Units (IUs) to establish sites to administer the Johnson & Johnson single-dose COVID-19 vaccine for PreK-12 teachers and staff, Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday. Each IU region will have at least one vaccination location, most of which will start administering vaccinations between March 10 and March 13. Eligible school staff will receive information about vaccine locations and registration instructions. The initial priority is vaccinating staff who have regular and sustained in-person contact with students during the regular school day. The state will receive 94,600 doses of the vaccine this week.

State’s vaccine distribution has shortchanged suburban Philadelphia counties
Analyses by The Philadelphia Inquirer and WPVI’s Action News Data Team have found that the four suburban Philadelphia counties have received some of the fewest vaccine doses, relative to their size, from the state. WPVI said its analysis found that, for every thousand residents, Delaware County has gotten only 134 doses; Bucks County has gotten only 168 doses; Chester County has received only 171 doses; and Montgomery County has received only 221 doses. In contrast, Montour County has received more than twice as many doses — nearly 45,000 — as it has people — 18,529. The Pennsylvania Department of Health told Action News it is working on an in-depth analysis of vaccine distribution in the four suburban counties and plans to share its findings later this week. Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon, who represents parts of Philadelphia and Delaware County, tweeted that the Department of Health had told her it would be sending additional doses to the region over the next couple of weeks to bring the area in line with the state average.

Mass vaccination site being built in King of Prussia may not get vaccines
A mass vaccination site being constructed near the King of Prussia Mall may not be able to get vaccines from the state. “At this time, the Commonwealth's limited vaccine allotment does not allow for the execution of large-scale vaccination clinics, although our planning to support those events is ongoing so that we will be ready once the vaccine supply is sufficient to support it," a spokesperson from the Department of Health told Patch. The site is being built by Mountain Productions, which usually builds stages for concerts, for 15toKnow, which operates COVID-19 testing sites in Montgomery County.