Historic Fort Steuben to receive federal aid

STEUBENVILLE -- With its revenue stream severely crimped, Historic Fort Steuben is getting federal aid to help keep the doors open for the next two months.

Mayor Jerry Barilla, president of Historic Fort Steuben and the Steubenville Visitors Center, said he received word Sunday morning that they'd been approved for nearly $21,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program, designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll. The SBA will forgive loans if employees remain on the job for eight weeks and the money is used to cover payroll, rent, mortgage interest and utilities.

"We didn't get the money yet but we've been approved," Barilla said. "I signed the papers Sunday."

Barilla said the grant will be "a huge asset" for the cash-strapped fort, which closed in January after another highly successful Nutcracker Village extravaganza.

"That was right after Christmas," he said. "For January, February, March and April we haven't had any income come into the fort itself. We've had people buy memberships, but we haven't had any money come in from the gift shop being open or admission."

Barilla said the money will help them "avoid layoffs and sustain ourselves for the next two months."

"It will allow us to keep employees there, three people," he said, pointing out they'd had to cancel their annual membership dinner and fundraising promotions that go along with it, as well as the fort festival in early June. Both are traditionally moneymakers.

"We don't get any funding for the fort now from (any) state or federal agency," he said. "We depend on donations, memberships and admissions, that's how we pay our bills, through those avenues. This will help sustain us for the next two months."

Barilla said he was out walking Sunday when he got the call that their application had been approved.

"The woman said they were working diligently, even on Sundays, to get all the money out," he said. "She said there was such high demand, they'd been overwhelmed."

He said he was overjoyed to take that call.

"I'm just so happy, it was a worry here," he said. "We don't have a steady income, something that's constant so we don't have to worry about it. We have no constant source of funding, this place does not function that way. It's a variable income and it's hard to forecast what we're going to do, how we're going to spend money, the things we'll need, so we have to be more astute with our spending and (focus on) things that are necessary.

"It's a struggle, but we've managed to do OK."