Theresa Opeka
389 Country
North Carolina Labor Commissioner Luke Farley told Council of State members Tuesday that small business owners in western North Carolina feel like every day is Groundhog Day, referring to the 1993 Bill Murray movie, after the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene in September.
“Those are their words, not mine,” he said. “They feel like nothing changes and nothing really moves forward, and I told them I would convey that.”
Farley recounted a recent visit he and his senior staff made to Spruce Pine, specifically Lower Street.
“One business owner expressed something to me that really got my attention, and I think ought to be a concern for all of us is that if they don’t get their small businesses reopened soon, it is going to have a terrible cascading effect on the small towns of western North Carolina,” he said. “If the businesses don’t get opened, the workforce that formerly staffed those businesses is going to move away in search of work elsewhere. Workers are also customers, so the customers are going to be gone, the tax base is going to be permanently eroded, and these towns are going to be hollowed out, and they will not be able to recover.”
Farley said that, unfortunately, the same exact thing has happened before with other small towns, pointing out Fair Bluff, Columbus County, as an example. The town’s population is half of what it once was after it was devastated by Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, and they don’t want to see that happen again.
“So, getting the small businesses back up and running and making sure workers are able to get back to work and earning a living is key to recovery in western North Carolina,” he stated.
Small business owners in Spruce Pine told Farley that the biggest challenge in reopening their businesses is bureaucracy and red tape on regulations to rebuild them. He mentioned that while they were there, no work was happening in any of the businesses that were cleaned out and gutted.
“There are permits and inspections and environmental assessments and it just goes on and on, and so what I came away from that is that money is crucial,” he said. “Obviously, we have to get funding out there, but money alone is not what’s going to help these towns rebuild. There has to be some regulatory reform that speeds up the rebuilding process so that people can put back what was there just as quickly as possible, they can get their lives back together, they can get their businesses open, and people can go back to work, and go back to earning a living.”
Farley added that his department will focus on ensuring workers have jobs to return to and advocating for regulatory reform for businesses.
North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said that many faith-based organizations like Samaritan’s Purse and other volunteers have shown up to work, but the lack of county inspectors has caused them to wait every day, slowing down the recovery process and asked if the state could do something to remedy the situation.
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall told Council members that her office emailed the 25 counties affected by Helene to inform them about the Western North Carolina Small Business Initiative, created by Dogwood Health Trust last fall.
Small businesses with an annual revenue of up to and including $2.5 million were eligible to apply for grants of up to $50,000 from the program.
She said that within one hour, over 1,000 of the emails were opened, and many clicked through to the application.
The application window closed on Feb. 21.
Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, noted that the $35 million grant program, a partnership of Dogwood, The Duke Endowment, and the state, has already issued 989 loans, and 600 more grants are going out this weekend.
“The demand for this product has been overwhelming, and I appreciated the points from Mr. Farley, and we’ll go back and look and see if there’s anything that the state is doing to slow down the revitalization of these small businesses, but there is no question that cash is one of those issues,” he said.
Comentários