Alabama Covid-19 grant recipients say cash has covered holes caused by pandemic

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    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — Faced with a looming deadline to spend the money it got under a massive federal COVID-19 relief package, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey put together a pair of grants to help small businesses and other organizations.

The gifts were small — $20,000 or less. That’s tiny compared to the budget even of most small businesses. But Mobile-area recipients say the money helped during a terrible year.

“We’re very grateful to Governor Ivey and the state of Alabama,” said Gina O’Brien Finnegan, director of development for the Mobile Symphony Orchestra. “It’s very helpful because this was – just between March and December, we’ve incurred more than $50,000 in extra expenses. So, that really helps us to pay for this in a time when other revenues are down. So for us, it’s a huge help.”

The two programs, Revive Alabama and Revive Plus, totaled about $300 million. It was part of roughly $1.8 trillion that Congress sent as part of the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March.

At one time, the state has a large chunk of unspent money, with a deadline to spend it by the end of year. The state’s pace drew fire from some advocacy organizations.

But the state has spent more than $1.5 trillion of that total on expenses ranging from health care to schools to local governments and nursing homes.

The Revive Plus program was available to businesses, churches and nonprofit organizations. The state spent all but about $26 million from the nearly $207 million budget. The application period has closed, although some applications that made it in by the deadline have not yet been processed. State officials say they continue to review those.

Applicants had to be from Alabama and meet a few other criteria. But they had wide discretion for how to spend it.

“Those grants were fairly, if you need it, you can have it,” said Casi Callaway, executive director of Mobile Baykeeper. “And we needed it.”

Callaway said her environmental organization suffered a major blow because the pandemic shut down fundraising events, which typically produce about 25 percent of its budget.

“And we couldn’t have any last year,” she said.

Callaway said the $20,000 Revive Alabama grant helped replace some of the $250,000 hole the pandemic punched in its budget. She said it helped pay for water quality monitoring kits and other items.

Finnegan, of the symphony, said the grant her organization got paid for professional videos of its productions since live audiences are limited. She said it also helped gaps caused by reduced ticket sales and higher costs. The symphony now is putting on more performances because of limitations on crowd size but has fewer overall paying customers.

The additional performances mean the organization has to pay higher fees to the Saenger Theatre.

“We bring people together. We bring an orchestra together,” said Finnegan, who wrote the grant application. ‘We bring people together to celebrate and experience great music, and so we’re, we’re doing that, but we’re all separated, so it’s interesting and weird.”

Finnegan said it is not just the audience that is spread apart.

“Even for the musicians, they don’t sit next to their seatmate anymore,” she said. “They’re all spread out. … That affects you’re playing.”

Sally Ericson, a spokeswoman for Bellingrath Gardens and Home, said her organization used its $20,000 grant help make the attraction safer for visitors.

“We used it to purchase plastic shields for the cashiers in the gift shop and in the cafe and in the entrance building,” she told FOX10 News. “We also used it for sanitary supplies and hand sanitizer stations for use in all the buildings, and most importantly, we were able to cover the extra salary costs that we incurred. We had to add some hours to some of our part time employees scheduled, so that they would have enough time to go around and do a rigorous hourly cleaning cycle.”

Gina Maiola, a spokeswoman for Ivey, said the governor considers small businesses critical to the state.

“Governor Ivey has been a champion for them,” she said in a statement to FOX10 News. “After our country began reopening in the late spring, Governor Ivey has remained committed to keeping businesses open and Alabama on the path to recovery.”

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