‘It’s a life raft for a lot of them’

With businesses slowly preparing to reopen during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Paycheck Protection Program continues to provide relief to small businesses locally and nationally as the second wave of applicants began Monday morning.

“We have none denied, they’ve all been approved so far,” said president of First National Bank, Randy Huewe. “On Monday, we were able to get another 35 or so approved.”

First National Bank has assisted in the applications for approximately 130 small businesses in the Union County. Adam Snodgrass, president and CEO of Iowa State Savings Bank, said their institution has seen all 61 processed applications receive approval.

“While not all entities commonly thought of as a small business are eligible to participate in the Paycheck Protection Program, and some do not meet other program requirements, the vast majority of businesses do qualify and are able to receive assistance,” said Snodgrass.

The Paycheck Protection Program was part of the CARES Act passed in March and is designed to assist small businesses by providing loans designated for certain expenditures. Additionally, the loans are forgivable if 75% of the money is spent on payroll.

“They businesses have been very grateful,” said Huewe. “It’s a life raft for a lot of them to be able to keep their employees and be able to be ready when they get back to being open and serving a regular crowd of customers. Regardless of what business you’re in, almost everyone has some impact from this at some point.”

Bill Oetken, owner of Oetken’s Office Machines, is just one of many Union County participants in the program. Oetken said the program has been beneficial.

“This is gonna help pay my employees for a couple months, which is a real help,” said Oetken.

Oetken said the process wasn’t difficult, and his bank assisted him with the application.

“It was a simple process,” said Oetken. “I had been getting online and applied as soon as I could and then talked to my banker... we worked together and it was pretty simple, just took a couple days.”

As easy as the process may be, technical difficulties and lack of communication from the Treasury and the Small Business Association has caused trouble for banks and applicants. Huewe said First National managed to avoid the problems during the first wave, but troubles during the launch of the second wave pestered banks of Union County.

“With the second batch, we knew everyone was going to be ready for that,” said Huewe. “At 9:30 a.m., everyone was at their computer and hit the button, which caused the SBA site to crash.”

Despite these issues, the application process has continued, albeit at a slower pace at points.

“Banks of all sizes from across the country began experiencing slowness and loss of connectivity to the website,” said Snodgrass. “The website slowness extends the time it takes to successfully submit an application, but we have been able to process applications and receive loan approvals.”

The application process is still open, and the loans are distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. Businesses who qualify are encouraged to apply.

“Without question, PPP has benefited local businesses,” said Snodgrass. “ISSB processed and funded several million dollars in PPP loans with the first round of funding, and we expect to fund a large amount of loans with the second round of funding.  In many cases, the money provided by the program allowed businesses to maintain employment rather than consider staff reductions.”