POA updates its members on COVID-19 fallout

By Tiffany Cribbs
CLPOA Senior Communications Specialist

The Canyon Lake POA would like to update our members about how we are operating under the COVID-19 pandemic conditions, operationally and financially.

The Board and Management have chosen to continue to pay the majority of our employees since the shutdown. Most of these employees are working remotely or on-site and performing their normal functions.

Many of our restaurant employees have chosen to file for unemployment until we are able to reopen. The unemployment benefits that are available to food servers can provide them with both the wages and the tips that they would normally earn, rather than just paying them their base wages during the shutdown.

The county recently issued strict guidelines to allow to-go food to be served at golf courses and we are looking at that now. When we decide to offer to-go food, we will do so at the Country Club Bar & Grill first and then, in the future, the Lighthouse Restaurant & Bar with very limited menus. We look forward to re-hiring these restaurant employees as soon as possible.

After the CARES Act passed on March 27, the Canyon Lake POA applied for, and received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan from the Small Business Administration, equal to approximately two and a half times our monthly payroll.

These funds will allow us to continue to pay most of our 140 employees, despite some of our revenue centers being shut down. This is exactly what the PPP program is designed to do. The PPP funds we received are 100% forgivable, as long as we maintain our employment levels over an eight week period. Provided we use these funds for payroll only, the United States Treasury will pay back these funds directly to the SBA lender.

In other words, although this is a loan, the Canyon Lake POA will not incur any debt to weather this crisis. The short term negative impact to our financial status should be minimal, and the long term member bad debt impact will be monitored.

A large portion of our staff initially worked remotely during the first few weeks of the closure, however many are now back on-site working under social distancing guidelines.

We have converted many of our in-person member services to virtual services that can be done via the phone, email or online. We have also installed tempered glass transaction windows in our Member Services office under the assumption that social distancing practices will continue for many months to come, even after we are allowed to reopen for in-person services.

The county just released new orders extending its current orders until June 19. The county is also still requiring one person per golf cart on the golf course, although both the city and the Canyon Lake POA management have written to the county requesting this requirement be relaxed to allow family/household members together in one cart.

We also understand that many of our members are experiencing severe financial stress, and we want them to know that we are here to help. The Canyon Lake POA has payment deferral programs available and members can call 951-244-6841, extension 315, to learn more about these options.

We also have a new online services center that provides quick links to our virtual services. This website is www.canyonlakepoa.com/ onlinecenter.com.