Doors of Veterans Business Resource Center to stay open a little longer

Veterans Business Resource Center in St. Louis, a provider of small business training to military veterans, is keeping its doors open for three months longer than expected.

 It’s not that the Central West End center is getting more money. Rather, executive director Patrick Heavey has been allowed to reallocate funding, originally designated for a training program, as money for operational costs, such as rent and salaries.

Heavey announced last week that the center would have to close in April because its federal funding was cut in half this year. But staff from the office of Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., renegotiated the center’s contract with Washington, D.C.-based The Veterans Corp., Heavey said. The corporation redirects federal money to veterans-geared programs, and that money has been the main source of funding for the St. Louis office.

The contract changes will keep the center open until late July, Heavey said. After that, “we don’t know yet.”

Bond is working on a solution. He hopes to get money for the center when Congress discusses supplemental funding.