The Brown County Music Center now has more than $1.7 million to spend after receiving a federal COVID-19 relief grant for independent music venues across the country.

At the end of July, it was announced the music center had received $1.795 million from the Shuttered Venue Operators grant program, which was approved as part of a COVID-19 stimulus package.

More than 8,200 venues applied for the grant across the country, with 102 of those in Indiana. The money received is intended to cover or reimburse expenses from March 2020 to December of this year. The music venue has one year to spend the money after being awarded.

The venue received a total of $1.847 million, but $89,000 was deducted from that amount to pay back a Paycheck Protection Program loan the BCMC received to cover salaries.

While applying for the grant, Executive Director Christian Webb and the music center’s controller Jeff Overby had to submit a budget for how exactly the $1.847 million would be spent.

In the budget, $700,000 was set aside for payroll and $100,000 was set aside for supplies. Another $100,000 was budgeted for equipment or equipment maintenance. There was also $350,000 budgeted for mortgage payments with $200,000 set aside for utilities.

For contractual obligations, like with Live Nation to book national acts for the venue, $110,000 was budgeted.

Another $100,000 was budgeted for payments to independent contractors, landscapers and security, and then $10,000 to cover operating leases, which is mostly for the ice machines, Overby said.

There was $3,900 budgeted to start paying back a $150,000 loan the venue received from the Small Business Administration early in the pandemic, but those roughly $650 monthly payments will not have to start being made until 2022. In the meantime, that money can be spent elsewhere, Overby said.

There was $30,000 budgeted for administrative costs, like buying office supplies, and $40,000 for insurance payments. A budget of $150,000 was included for advertising.

Under “other” expenses, Webb and Overby budgeted $837,000. Overby said those could be any project that adds to the building or to the office.

“It’s not maintaining the building; you can add things with that money,” he said.

For “other business expenses,” $63,100.02 was budgeted.

The venue has one year from receiving the money to spend it all, but Overby said he foresees Congress changing that date range since the awards were made in July instead of April like what was previously expected.

Each set of budget numbers can be changed up or down 10 percent without needing additional approval from the United States Small Business Administration. Numbers can only be changed before the entire grant fund is spent.

“This (rule) may change, but as long as we don’t disperse all of the funds, we have the ability to change how we spend it,” Overby said.

The venue will be required to submit a final budget once the grant is closed out showing exactly how the money was spent.

At a meeting on July 29, management group member Jim Schultz asked if $700,000 was realistic for personnel and payroll costs. Overby said he and Webb did not have much payroll history to go on when they estimated that cost.

“We may not get to that amount, but I would rather have a cushion there than not,” he said.

Covering various expenses with the SVOG money would free up the music venue’s own operational funds to cover other expenses, like possibly paving and expanding the parking lot which is mostly gravel.

The money also has to be kept in an interest-bearing account, but any interest collected over $500 must be mailed back to SBA. Overby recommended keeping the money with the State Bank of Lizton, which holds the music venue’s mortgage.

Financial check-in

Innkeepers tax collected from tourists who stay overnight in Brown County has been used to pay the mortgage on the music center. The venue will be required to pay interest only until the end of 2021, which is about $37,000 a month.

The music center was one of the first businesses to close once COVID-19 hit Brown County. It was transformed into a community center and was the site of government meetings, jury trials and the health department’s COVID-19 testing and vaccine site.

The health department and clinic operations moved from the BCMC to 200 Hawthorne Drive over the summer and jury trials have returned to the courthouse.

Because of the functions it was hosting, the music center received $239,000 in CARES Act money per a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the county commissioners and the music center. The music center also had an MOU with the commissioners and the Brown County Health Department for $20,000, which came from grant funding, not the CARES Act. The health department MOU was extended through June 30 this year, bringing in an additional $5,000 to $6,000 a month to the music center.

Last April, when not as many visitors were coming to the county or paying innkeepers tax due to the pandemic, the Brown County Council also approved transferring $150,000 from the county’s motor vehicle highway fund to a special line in the county’s general fund to pay the music center’s mortgage. The $150,000 was paid back to the county from the innkeepers tax fund at the end of last year.

In 2020, the music center received more than $120,000 in grant funding to help cover costs, including PPP funding.

The music center’s net income for June was negative $39,888.99, according to the profit and loss statement.

Ticketmaster wired the music center $115,000 for ticket revenue from shows sold over the pandemic and new shows. The BCMC is owed another $112,000 for the Willie Nelson show and will receive that once his reschedule date is officially announced.

The box office also earned $15,000 in June, not including $5,500 that had to be paid out in refunds, and that was with not having scheduled box office hours. “We’re looking forward to seeing what we’ve done in July with the box office being open on Tuesdays and Fridays,” said Audience Services Manager Andrea Swift-Hanlon.

The venue also is holding three dates in December for groups to schedule their Christmas parties at the BCMC, which could bring in additional revenue.

Music is coming

Hard rock band Halestorm will kick off the BCMC’s return to live shows on Sept. 11.

At least five more shows are set to be announced in the next month for dates in November and December.

Before the brand-new music center closed due to the pandemic, it had been open for 197 days. “At an average of 30 days a month, we have more shows on the books the last four months of the year than we did in the 200 days we were first open and, again, we’re not done yet,” Webb said.

Even though every other music venue has tickets on sale, causing some saturation in the market, Webb said he thinks the shows on the BCMC schedule, like Clay Walker and Chris Thile, will be “very well enjoyed in Brown County.”

“Unless the artist cancels, we are moving forward. We are ready. We can’t be more excited to move forward,” Webb said.

Staff changes

At the July 29 management group meeting it was also announced that Hanlon will receive a new title: Director of operations.

“Over the last year and a half or so I have seen incredible growth and maturity from Andi,” Webb said.

BCMC Technical Director Matt Kincer also returned full-time at the beginning of this month. He will be working on cleaning equipment and checking systems ahead of the first show in September.

The management group also voted in July to put Webb, Hanlon, Kincer and Overby back to full-time pay status. Hanlon, Overby and Webb had been working at 50 percent of their salary during the pandemic.

The music center has invited its volunteers to come work again. Within 48 hours of sending out the invites, 66 volunteers said they would come back and do training. The venue is also accepting applications for new volunteers, who will begin training in September.

Volunteer applications, calendar and tickets can be found on the BCMC website at www.browncountymusiccenter.com.

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The Brown County Playhouse also received money from the Shuttered Venue Operators grant program: $164,357.

Executive Director Hannah Estabrook said at the end of July that the money will be spent on operating expenses, like payroll. Similar to the Brown County Music Center’s plans, the Playhouse plans to use the grant money to reallocate money from the regular operating budget to cover expenses, like a new projector and equipment around the building.

“We are incredibly excited to have received this grant. It was quite a long and interesting process,” Estabrook said.

The application was initially supposed to open in January but did not open until March, and then the portal crashed three times while she was submitting the application, she said.

“It’s been a long time coming. We’re pretty happy,” she said.

The Brown County Playhouse reopened its doors in March 2021 with a sold-out show on the calendar. The Playhouse closed on March 15, 2020, after COVID-19 prompted stay-at-home orders.

In May 2020, it reopened to show movies and some live performances with a 50-percent capacity limitation. In November, the Playhouse closed again for movies and performances, but the box office staff was still working and theater tours were still being offered to visitors.

The theater went completely dark in January 2021 and staff returned in March.

A Theatre Brown County LIVE Radio Theatre Production, “Harvey,” will take the stage at the Playhouse this weekend on Aug. 13 and 14 at 7:30 p.m. with a 2 p.m. show on Sunday, Aug. 15.

Pacifica Quartet will perform on Aug. 21 as part of the six day ChamberFest in Brown County, a festival of chamber music.

Keeping to the the roots of the theater, the plan is to have more community theater productions this year, too. The first production, “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” is set for September.

See the entire calendar and buy tickets at browncountyplayhouse.org.

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