La Crosse Center gets $2 million in COVID grant money

Thousands of businesses and entertainment venues around the U.S. have been applying for billions of dollars in pandemic relief money from Washington. 

The La Crosse Center has qualified for close to 2 million dollars in a Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. 

Art Fahey, the center director, says the city council has to formally accept the money before it can be spent.

The civic center had to lay off some workers and cancel several events after the pandemic hit in March of last year. 

Fahey says a million-dollar contingency fund for the Center got whittled down to $200,000 before the grant money became available.       

The Small Business Administration grant of $1.9 million comes from a $16 billion fund approved by Washington. 

Fahey says the grant would help compensate for events which had to be cancelled between March of 2020 and the end of this year because of COVID-19.        

The $42 million renovation of the La Crosse Center also led to several events being postponed or cancelled since early 2020. The expansion project is said to be 90 per cent complete, but more street improvements have to be done on Front Street and 2nd Street.