OBSERVER Photo by Gregory Bacon Webb’s Hotel and Candy Gifts saw a drop of business due to the pandemic. Because of this, they were able to secure a loan from the county IDA as part of the federal CARES Act.

MAYVILLE — Darel Webb has seen a drop in business this year at his businesses in Mayville. He is the owner of Webb’s Candies and Year Round Resort, located at 115 West Lake Road.

Due to COVID-19, the hotel in particular lost a lot of business, so he applied for, and was awarded, a low-interest loan from the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency’s CARES Act Revolving Loan Fund.

“We’re using most of the money remodeling some rooms in the hotel and the rest of it going to operating expenses,” he said during an interview. “We’ll be purchasing some inventory and equipment.”

Webb’s Year Round Resort is a 52-unit resort lodge. Most of the customers are vacationers from out of town, but this year due to the pandemic, business dropped off significantly.

“We’re open year round, but we make most of our money in the summer — June, July and August,” he said. “Most of the hotels around here were down 50%.”

It’s hard to say how they’ll do over the next few months. The resort has had some success in the winter, but only when there’s a lot of snow for snowmobiles.

“The trails haven’t been open that much in the last five years,” Webb said.

Although the hotel has lost a lot of business, he has had a good showing for the candies shop. Webb’s Candies sells homemade chocolates, peanut butter brittle, salt water taffy and more. Webb said many of the customers were from out of town.

“We had tourists from Buffalo and Ohio. They just come down for the day. They want to get out,” he said. The on again and off again Ohio travel ban did affect them, though.

His business also has a miniature golf course. While that was supported by the local residents, business was down there as well. “The golf got stuck in with the hotel so the huge lack of business affected that,” he said.

Webb feels the loan will help them get through this difficult time.

Last month the county IDA awarded 28 businesses and non-profit entities in its first round of funding. The funds were from a $10.5 million grant through the CARES Act, which enabled the county IDA to establish a new revolving loan fund.

The IDA is now accepting the second round of applications for the CARES Loan. Businesses or non-profit entities that would like to apply can visit www.ccida.com for more details.