A Lexington coal company got millions in virus relief as many smaller businesses wait

It is extremely rare that Crossings, a bar in downtown Lexington, closes its doors to the public. It’s open seven days a week, including on Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. When the bar closed for a staff party one Monday last year it was the first time it had been closed in years, said owner Rebecca Richter.

Everything’s different now. The point of a bar is to gather a crowd and, as crowds have been forbidden to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, Crossings has been shuttered since March 15.

It’s one of the countless small businesses across Kentucky trying to survive until the pandemic passes.

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One of those bigger businesses that received money was Ramaco Resources, a publicly traded coal company valued at more than $100 million that’s based in Lexington but has no mines operating in Kentucky. Ramaco received an $8.4 million loan — one of only 4,412 companies across the country that received a loan larger than $5 million through April 16, according to the U.S. Small Business Adminstration. The mining industry as a whole received 11,618 loans for a total of $3.8 billion, according to the same data.

Read more: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article242318376.html