Washington County Restaurants Get Slice Of COVID-19 Funding From State
CHARLEROI, Pa. (KDKA) - The restaurant industry was one of the hardest-hit industries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But thanks to funding from the state, many will be able to survive.
On Wednesday, several of those restaurants were officially recognized in Charleroi.
One of the restaurants is the River House Café in downtown Charleroi on McKean Avenue. This restaurant received grant money from CHIRP, which is the COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program.
Businesses adversely affected by the pandemic received between $5,000 and $50,000. In Washington County alone, over $1.9 million dollars in grant funding has been approved.
The commonwealth's Secretary of Community and Economic Development Dennis Davin was there to recognize this accomplishment.
"One thing we didn't want to happen is to have businesses close and we didn't want them to lay off employees. Unfortunately, that happened in a lot of cases but this money went a long way to keep many open," said Davin.
The county says it still has $300,000 left to give out to any restaurants in need. The deadline to apply for chirp funding is June 15.