Worcester County Commissioners are seeking forgiveness of a state loan provided for a Pocomoke restaurant 16 years ago.
The Worcester County Government Center in Snow Hill is pictured.
File photo
By Steve Green, Executive Editor
The county is seeking forgiveness of a state loan provided for a Pocomoke restaurant 16 years ago.
On Sept. 1, 2008, Worcester County received a $525,000 Community Development Block Program grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). About $500,000 was for the construction of the restaurant originally opened in 2012 as the Riverside Grille. Since the spring of 2019, the restaurant is now under new management as Dockside. About $25,000 of the grant was to be used for general administration. On Feb. 1, 2012, an amendment to the grant added $98,000 for the purchase of kitchen equipment.
In a letter to DHCD Office of Community Development Programs Director Cindy Stone, Worcester County Commission President Chip Bertino detailed an aspect of the grant that has become impossible for any of the three restaurant operators to successfully meet.
“Each restaurateur has struggled with meeting the CDBG National Objective of benefiting low- and moderate-income persons through job creation. The grant calls for 35 full-time permanent jobs with 18 going to low to moderate income employees. After years of inability to meet the national objective, a consensus is that the national objective numbers submitted with the grant application were inadvertently inflated,” Bertino wrote. “Despite the attempts of three different operators, the restaurant has been unable to meet the grant’s employment goals over the past 12 years. The highest employee numbers since the grant agreement was executed occurred during the first 6 months of the restaurant opening in 2012. Since that time period, there has been a decline in the number of jobs created. It is anticipated that those numbers will not be attainable by any lessee at this property.”
Bertino added, “In addition to the fact that none of the officials who initially applied for the CDBG funding are involved at this point, the County has struggled with obtaining job creation forms from each of the lessees and has had difficulty gathering the data needed for the semi-annual reporting to CDBG. Furthermore, the $98,000 in kitchen equipment is past its useful life after 12 years and has had numerous repairs.”
County Administrative Officer Weston Young reiterated to the commissioners the grant terms are impossible to meet and the request for forgiveness is supported by Pocomoke. He said getting out of the grant would allow county staff to focus on other aspects rather than meeting the grant’s paperwork monitoring requirements.
“We are trying to get out of this agreement. The restaurant owners are not able to meet the terms of the grant and will not be able to …” Young said.
With no further discussion, Commissioner Ted Elder motioned to approve the forgiveness request with a second by Commissioner Jim Bunting. The matter passed unanimously.
After the vote was taken, Bertino pointed out during a recent walking tour of Pocomoke DHCD Secretary Jake Day was informed the request would be forthcoming.
“Mr. Day was open to working with us …,” Bertino said.