MACON, Ga. — Loggers and lawyers, hospitals and hotels, kaolin truckers and concrete pourers.
Those Central Georgia businesses all lined up for federal loans to save jobs threatened by the COVID-19 crisis.
The federal government this week released lists of millions of businesses and non-profits nationwide that got forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program.
That includes more than 7,000 in Central Georgia.
All told, local businesses got at least a half billlion dollars in loans, and possibly much more.
Three Central Georgia businesses got more than $5 million apiece from the feds.
They are:
- KaMin, a kaolin exporting company in Macon. The federal records say the loan would them save 30 jobs.
- A Perry company, Florida Concrete Services. They listed 465 jobs.
- And in Sandersville, Howard Sheppard, a kaolin-trucking company. They did not list how many jobs the loan would affect.
13WMAZ called all three to ask how COVID-19 affected their business and how they used the money, but they did not return our phone calls.
Some other top recipients on the list include:
- Big contractors like the Dublin Construction company, and Parrish Construction in Perry.
- Hospitals in Eastman, Sandersville, Hawkinsville, and others.
- Law firms like Macon's James Bates Brannan and Groover,
- and other big Macon employers like Cherokee Brick & Tile, Lowe Electric, and Goodwill Industries.
All of those organizations got more than $2 million in loans apiece.
The purpose was to preserve jobs during the pandemic and those loans do not have to be repaid if the employer used most of the money to make their payroll this spring.
According to the federal records, those 7,000 Central Georgia companies employed more than 74,000 people.
These Central Georgia received $1 million or more through PPP:
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