By HOI ABC
PEORIA – The president and owner of Peoria Charter Coach says the company will close in November if a federal relief package aimed to help struggling businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is not passed.
In an interview with the Washington Post published Oct. 8, Bill Winkler said politicians in Washington, D.C., are to blame.
“It’s everybody. Get together, help us out, that’s what we put you in office for. This is unprecedented — it will never happen again. Unprecedented times means unprecedented decisions,” Winkler told the Post.
According to our news partner HOI ABC, Winkler says Peoria Charter has seen a 94% reduction in business and has refunded over $500,000 in deposits. He said in July the company went from having 140 employees to just eight.
“We are being failed by the Democrats and Republicans. While airlines, Amtrak, and mass transit has received over $65 billion in federal aid, the motorcoach industry has received $0. Now, the airlines are wanting to get back in line for round 2 before small business even gets a chance to save our businesses,” Winkler said in statement Thursday.
Previously, in April, the company received $1.2 million in relief from the Payroll Protection Program.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced he would cease talks on any relief package until the election is over.
But the president then reversed course and said he would sign off aid to the public.
Winkler says before the pandemic hit, Peoria Charter was transporting half a million passengers a year over 3.8 million miles.
“This is not the story of a struggling business having troubles made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. We were growing. In the last 6 months before March 2020 we broke sales records each month. We were doing the best we had ever done in our 79 year history and it all came crashing down seemingly overnight,” Winkler said.
