Montgomery's ARPA Funds: Where's the Money?

0:00It's April 7. I'm Corey with the story, and this is Birmingham News today. Local news powered by AI. Montgomery's sitting on $5 million in federal ARPA funds meant for local small businesses, but they've only dished out a tiny fraction so far, while dropping over 1 million on administration. Gateway Solutions, the group handling the SBOSS program, has pocketed $1,160,000 since early this year, management, with their president Nicole Thompson at the helm. Small business owner Wade Preston, who runs Proveil Coffee Roasters and Proveil Union, fought hard through COVID without laying off a soul, and he watched this program closely from the jump. He applied for both spots, scored about $37,500, half grant, half loan for one shop, got denied on the other, and says that's the only payout to any business yet. Meanwhile, the City Council meets Tuesday to tweet the setup and rush out the rest before the deadline hits, but folks like Preston are asking, straight up what happened

1:02to the first half of that cash.