Mahoning rental, catering businesses bracing for empty summer calendars

Though Gov. Mike DeWine could later this week reveal a path for restaurateurs and bar owners to safely reopen, party rental and catering companies which rely on large gatherings to make ends meet are still figuring out how to outlast a socially distant summer.

Ohio's ban on gatherings of more than 10 people happened at one of the worst possible times for Tim Patrick, the 12-year owner of Buckeye Tent and Party Rentals of North Lima. St. Patrick's Day, which fell on March 17 this year, has traditionally marked the beginning of his seasonal revenue stream, which flows through to high school graduation season in the summer.

"It was very, very bad timing, as far as coming out of our offseason, when COVID-19 impacted us," Patrick told Mahoning Matters last month. "We quickly had to pivot from planning to create more jobs to survival mode."

Even graduates' commencement ceremonies will be different this year, according to new guidelines approved by Mahoning County Public Health and released Monday by the county's Educational Service Center.

Patrick said he and his competitors in the local party industry seem to agree: Until there's a coronavirus vaccine, their businesses will remain on hiatus or severely limited. He said he feels it's likely they'll be last in line for reopening considerations, and their 2020 season is already a goner.

The "consumer confidence" the DeWine administration has strove to rebuild seems to have a bigger impact here than on eateries or "nonessential" retail — even without a mass gathering ban in effect, the larger the gathering, the greater the risk, by epidemiological guidelines.

Though May and June are two of the busiest months of the year for A La Cart Catering of Canfield, all the graduation banquets and wedding receptions and anniversaries already on its calendar were canceled or postponed by patrons, said owner Shelley Criswell.

Though the mass gathering ban has strained business, Criswell said she understands its goal to protect her patrons' health. She said she feels the state's coronavirus response is "being handled very well," evidenced by the number of elderly, golden-anniversary celebrants who canceled well before the ban included a hard-number limit.

Banquet venue Waypoint 4180 of Canfield, which has coordinated a free pizza lunch for first responders today, just opened in September. Its last scheduled event was March 15, said Nancy Sullivan, executive director of marketing.

"It's really been a shock trying to adapt when we were just trying to get our name out there," she said.

Though the facility opened only seven months ago, Sullivan had been booking events since early 2018 — all of which have since been canceled or pushed back by patrons "because of the fear," she said.

"It breaks my heart with what's going on with these brides. It's supposed to be the best day of their lives and we're working around this virus; this pandemic," she said. "The nice thing is: I'm a firm believer in relationships. And my relationships with my brides and grooms and corporations goes a long way."

Though many restaurants don't survive their first few years, Sullivan she "absolutely" expects people will be able to find Waypoint 4180 after re-emerging from isolation.

Criswell said A La Cart has started offering "drive-thru dinners" with a limited menu to stay on top of bills and keep her people employed. The caterer is also delivering boxed lunches to businesses, as well as home meal deliveries for grieving families.

A La Cart cooks up one specialty item each day — this week it's stuffed shells with meatballs, then sausage, peppers and onions, then fish on Friday — which can be ordered by phone at 330-533-0363 and picked up on the venue's wraparound driveway. Weekly menus are on its Facebook page.

Criswell said her funding application in the first round of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program was delayed to the second round, as the bank couldn't keep up with applicants. The program offers a loan for 2 ½ times the business' reported payroll, utilities and mortgage costs. Seventy-five percent of that will be forgiven if used for those purposes, and the remaining 25 percent has a 1-percent interest rate, with payments beginning in September she said.

Patrick, who's unable to pivot like Criswell has, said he's almost entirely reliant on the PPP as well as the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which have thus far yielded little for him or other "mom and pop"-sized small businesses.

Only about a fifth of the small businesses that applied for the first round of PPP funding were actually awarded, according to NPR. And Patrick, who's a one-man operation, said he feels he's being outbid for relief by businesses that, though they fall within the SBA's classification, may have hundreds of employees, more resources and perhaps even a finance division.

So far, he's received an EIDL deposit, with the prospect of more funding, but his application still hasn't been approved since Mahoning Matters first talked with him in mid-April. Because of his bank's huge backlog of PPP applications, he didn't even make the second wave, he said.

He's still not meeting his obligations, and many have been placed in deferral, he said.

"[It's] now getting to the point where we are on the clock. We don't know how we are going to continue to pay our bills and manage ballooning debt if something doesn't give soon," Patrick said Monday.

This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 4:11 AM with the headline "Mahoning rental, catering businesses bracing for empty summer calendars."