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CBA Update on 4/13/20

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CBA Update on 4/13/20

By The Chamber For a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro

4/12/2020

Carrboro Business Alliance

To: Carrboro Business Alliance
From: Katie Loovis
Date: Monday, April 13, 2020
Subject: CBA - Five updates

Dear Carrboro Business Alliance,

Five updates for you since our last communication:

First, an important staffing update.

Annette Stone, one of our Carrboro Business Alliance (CBA) Leadership Council members and the Economic Development Director for the Town of Carrboro has announced her retirement and has moved on from her role. We are so thankful for her many contributions to our local business community and are beyond grateful for her hard work to launch the emergency loan fund. We wish her the very best in her new adventures. While we will miss her in this town role, we are happy to report that Annette joined the Chamber and the CBA, so you may see her on some of our upcoming zoom calls! Her love for Carrboro is strong. If you would like to stay in touch with Annette and send her your good wishes, you can reach her on her personal email.

In the meantime, Town Manager David Andrews is in constant communication with us to ensure a smooth transition for our local business community. He knows this is a critical position for the Town and he plans to hire someone who will move Carrboro’s economy forward while working closely with local small businesses and attracting new investment and investors to Carrboro. He is in the process of appointing an interim and will launch a national search for a new economic development director ASAP.

If you have questions of the town, the Manager David Andrews has invited you to contact him directly. Also, Rebecca Buzzard in the manager’s office is available to help you navigate answers to any town questions. If you have questions about the town’s emergency loan fund, then you can contact attorney Robert (Bob) Hornik directly via email. I am happy to help you as well.

Second, good news.

The Town of Carrboro approved 10 local enterprises for emergency loans and 3 more have conditional approval. Checks are being cut and distributed by the town’s legal and finance team this week. Discussions are underway about how to invest the balance of the emergency loan fund. Stay tuned. In the meantime, more good news: We got word late last week that several local businesses submitted federal emergency loan applications and the funds have already appeared in their bank accounts.

Third, scheduling.

As you already know, today at 3pm, we are helping host a call with minority business owners to help them navigate federal emergency relief funds. The zoom call was initiated by Delores Bailey of EmPOWERment. If you can join and/or extend the details to minority business owners in your network, please do so (but only through trusted email networks, not public social media or websites for zoom security reasons): Join Zoom Meeting (ID: 373 208 509).

Reminder on federal funding.

There are five federal funding streams available to help your business right now, and you can learn about those resources and more on our COVID-19 Resource Page and our running google doc of answers to common questions. Get free and confidential help with your loan applications through the regional Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC), which serves SBTDC Center in Chapel Hill serves small and mid-size businesses throughout Alamance, Chatham, Lee, Orange, and Person Counties.