SALISBURY – An $806,000 grant is expected to benefit the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center.
On Tuesday, the Wicomico County Council voted unanimously to accept a grant award of $806,937 from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
Officials say the Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism will use the funds to cover expenses incurred at the civic center during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a memo, Finance Director Pam Oland noted the $806,000 grant was similar to a $1,613,874 award the county accepted from the SBA earlier this year. To that end, the administration came before the council this week seeking acceptance of the second grant award.
“On August 17, 2021, the County Council approved resolution 95-2021 which allowed the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center to accept a grant in the amount of $1,613,874 from the U.S. Small Business Administration for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG),” she wrote. “Since that time, the U.S. Small Business Administration has approached the County and offered a supplemental award of up to $806,937.08 to be spent in the same manner as the first grant and to allow expenditure of the funds through June 30, 2022 versus December 31, 2021.”
The acceptance of grant funding from the SBA comes more than a year after the county had to transfer $530,000 to cover a shortfall in the civic center’s budget.
Each year, the venue – which operates under the umbrella of the county’s recreation, parks and tourism department – receives appropriations from the county to fund salaries, benefits and other expenses to balance the budget. As a special government fund, the facility also relies heavily on event revenue to make the overall budget work.
At the start of the pandemic, however, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Director Steve Miller came before the council to discuss revenue challenges at the facility.
In recent years, he noted, net revenues have been increasingly difficult to achieve, and each year a larger percentage of county appropriations is used to cover employee benefits. But when the facility was forced to close in response to the pandemic, officials said it only exacerbated the civic center’s financial problems.
As a result, the county was left to cover the shortfall in fiscal year 2020.
