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PPP loans keeping small organizations going

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Bob Kramer is A-OK with PPP.

“I have nothing bad to say about the program,” the president of rose plastic USA said over the telephone Tuesday. “It’s a godsend from our side. We’ve had a big drop in orders from April to the present, but we’ve been able to keep staffing levels where we wanted them to be.”

rose plastic – yes, all lower case – is a Germany-based global manufacturer of plastic packaging for the tooling industry. Kramer heads the parent company’s North American division, which operates out of California Technology Park. Its primary market is packaged cutting metal tools.

The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t prevented rose from blooming, at least to an extent. Its parent, rose plastic AG, authorized construction of a medical-packaging facility at the California location, where screws, sharp medical objects and other medically related items will be made.

Yet COVID-19 has had an impact on the firm. “Most elective surgeries have gone away,” lamented Kramer, who is pleased to be among the many PPP loan recipients nationwide.

Loans from the Paycheck Protection Program enable small businesses to pay up to eight weeks of payroll costs, including benefits. Funds also can be used to pay interest on mortgages, rent and utilities.

The U.S. Small Business Association will forgive the loans if employee retention criteria are met and the money is devoted to eligible expenses.

PPP was established by the federal CARES Act in March, in response to the pandemic shutting down businesses. The SBA oversees the program, which was extended in early July. Applications are being accepted until Aug. 8.

These funds have helped to sustain businesses, companies, nonprofits and other entities at a time that many have closed, at least temporarily, and/or severely curtailed operations. Some loans have been disbursed in the millions of dollars, some in the hundreds of thousands, but most are less than $150,000.

Recipients can be accessed online – by state, by ZIP code. The amounts listed are not specific, but in ranges such as $2 million to $5 million or $150,000 to $350,000.

More than a half-trillion dollars have been disbursed nationwide through the program, including $3 billion-plus in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

It’s not surprising that in Washington County, the majority of organizations that have gotten loans worth at least $150,000 operate in the Canonsburg (15317) and Washington (15301) ZIP codes.

Besides the borough, the Canonsburg ZIP includes Southpointe and parts of three densely populated townships: Peters, North Strabane and Cecil. A total of 186 loans – up to $10 million – were disbursed there. Of them, 32 were for $1 million or more.

Recipients in the Washington ZIP code area, which encompasses the city and at least part of six municipalities, got 126 loans – 12 for $1 million or more.

The Waynesburg ZIP area (15370) led Greene County with 27 PPP loans, three of them for at least $1 million. Elsewhere in the two counties, the Charleroi ZIP (15022) got 24 loans; Monongahela (15063), 14; Finleyville (15332), eight, and Burgettstown (15021), five.

These are politically charged times, to be sure, and the loan amounts and organizations selected may be adding to the turbulence. The Observer-Reporter reached out to eight PPP loan recipients, seeking reaction, and got only two on-the-record responses. One business official declined to comment, saying that business had gotten grief within its industry on other issues.

Waynesburg University spokeswoman Stacey Brodak was the only individual to comment other than rose plastics’ Kramer. She said in a statement: “… our people are important to us and they embody the mission of our institution. We are grateful to be able to receive the PPP loan because it is enabling us to keep all of our employees a part of the university community during these uncertain times.”

Here is a link to the 661,218 organizations that have gotten loans between $150,000 and $10 million: projects.propublica.org.

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