An overdue $712,500 grant from the city to the Jacksonville Cultural Council should be issued later this week, the city said Monday.

The payment, which helps local non-profitable cultural institutions stay afloat, typically would have been released toward the end of 2011. Now it is more than a month overdue.

“We need this money or we’d be in trouble,” said Emily Lisska, executive director of the Jacksonville Historical Society, one of the 22 organizations that would receive some of the money. “It’s a crucial part of our budget.”

The city has not provided an official explanation for the delay, said Robert Arleigh White, executive director of the Cultural Council, although he understands the administration was reviewing the contract that needed to be signed before moving ahead.

That contract was signed on Friday, said Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Karen Bowling, after some discrepancies were addressed.

The effect on each group varied depending on its level of financial stability, White said.

“I know there have been some layoffs, some suspensions,” he said. “Some agencies have had to look at lines of credit and some have dipped into cash reserves.”

The historical society has managed to hang on in part by planning ahead — it budgets based on money being held up and in part with the help of a new fundraising event.

Still, the $40,000 a year it gets from the city is vital to its operations.

“If the situation went on for much longer, it would get difficult,” Lisska said.

With that situation all but settled, the next question: When will the money for the second quarter be issued?

That funding typically is disbursed in mid-February, White said, but the city has not yet given an indication if it will stick to that schedule.