Today we received updates from two hard working Texans at the State and County levels. After a few days of waiting were simply following up on Governor Abbott’s request earlier this week to the Small Business Administration (SBA). If you’re overwhelmed with news, or didn’t know, this past Tuesday Governor Abbott requested the Economic Injury Disaster Declaration for the entire state of Texas be issued by the SBA. What’s at stake is the ability for small businesses in Bexar County, which includes Helotes, to apply for Disaster Loan Assistance from the SBA.
In an email reply to us from Seth Christensen, J.D., the Chief of Media and Communications for the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), “Governor Abbott requested the SBA Disaster Declaration on Tuesday, so we are awaiting word from them. If/when granted we will post the information on our website so that small business can start applying for that assistance.”
Before Texas could send in the request to the SBA, the counties needed to do their work. Our county level officials came through and submitted the required Economic Injury Worksheet to TDEM earlier this week. According to Scott Lampright, MBA, CEM who is the Assistant Emergency Management Coordinator for Bexar County Office of Emergency Management, “Bexar County submitted the required Economic Injury Worksheet to the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) on 3/17/2020.”
Along with Mr. Christensen and Mr. Lampright, many of us continue to wake up, prepare for the day and head off to work. Those of us who own, work for or have deals with a small business struggle each day with ever increasing uncertainty. A bright spot in such a gloomy time is that we have fellow Texans working for small businesses in our communities.