COOK- Local business owners who came to a meeting on Tuesday at Cook Community Center looking for thus far elusive answers to the question of what financial assistance is available for their flood-ravaged establishments left only with a promise that help would be on the way soon.
To be sure, the meeting announcement circulated on social media encouraged business owners “to meet with staff members from the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation to discuss your recovery needs,” and said nothing about assistance programs, but with only promises of help in their pockets nearly a month after the flood, many came expecting to hear about assistance they could apply for now. But the meeting was intended instead to be a listening session for the IRRR reps to gather information about the extent of damages that they can use to develop the agency’s plans for future assistance.
In addition to the five IRRR staffers at the meeting, representatives of the Entrepreneurship Fund, a Duluth-based lending organization, the Small Business Development Office, and state Sen. Grant Hauschild’s office were also on hand to get a better handle on what assistance business owners need.
“We’re here to talk a little bit about on the business end what kind of program we may have,” said Matt Sjoberg, IRRR Executive Director of Development. “The first step, of course, is to ascertain where the needs are to come up with some sort of a program. We don’t know what it looks like right now. That’s why we’re here today to listen to you.”
Before moving into meeting individually with business owners, Sjoberg asked if there were any questions. After a brief pause, Guy Albertson was the first to speak.
“I do have a question,” he said. “At this point, you have nothing set up, you have no program set up, and there’s no single point of resource for people to go to because you don’t have a plan. Is that correct?”
“Correct,” Sjoberg responded. “This is the first step, to determine where the needs are. The commissioner (Ida Rukavina) is very motivated to help, and whatever form that takes would likely require a meeting of the IRRR board, and the commissioner is ready to call a special meeting once we determine both on the business end and the community end what the needs are.”
Albertson noted that people had filled out forms several weeks ago for the county asking what their needs were, and that given past disasters in the state, there should be some sort of a plan in place already.
“You’d think there would be a template, as opposed to sending roughly ten people up here to find out what the problem is,” he said. “From my standpoint, that’s the biggest disappointment, that there’s still no planning. Normally when something happens you develop a plan so the next time it happens you have a plan for how you’re going to attack it.”
Chris Ismil, another IRRR representative, responded.
“We’re trying to gather (information) because what you need is different than what he needs, and we need to understand that so that we don’t create a cookie cutter response that goes ‘Here’s our program’ and it helps only two businesses instead of ten businesses,” he said.
As Hauschild’s legislative assistant Jamie Hysjulien commented about research she’s been doing to identify possible federal assistance programs, it became clear that there was confusion about what information businesses owners needed to be reporting to what agencies. Hysjulien’s remarks gave the impression that in addition to the county reporting form, damage reports should be made to FEMA and to the state’s emergency center.
“I’m using those reports right now to try to research what different programs we have and how we can plug different things in, and what you reported to FEMA is what we’re going to use,” she said.
Albertson gave voice to the confusion that was clearly rippling through the crowd.
“You’re telling me now that there’s three reportings that we should have filled out and I only filled out the one,” he said. “We don’t all know where to go to and there’s no one-stop shop, there’s no clear instructions. That’s a major problem. Nobody knows how to do anything.”
“I’m not sure whether or not the one you did with St. Louis County is already connected to FEMA now,” Hysjulien said. “I’m trying to learn as much as I can.”
Sjoberg noted that the IRRR was venturing into foreign territory when it comes to flood relief assistance.
“I can tell you that I’ve been with the agency for 34 years now and this is certainly unprecedented as far as number one, the disaster, and number two the agency’s response,” he said. “We’ve never had anything like this in the last three and a half decades.”
Ismil reinforced the point.
“This is foreign to us because it’s just nothing we have dealt with,” he said. “It’s a journey for us and were just getting started and getting into it, too, with anything we can get. We need to know exactly what you need to be operational. Are you closing your doors permanently, or no, we’re going to stay open but we need this kind of help.”
Ismil also said that unlike other government agencies, the IRRR is “nimble” and can respond faster to needs.
“This isn’t a three months later you’re going to hear from us,” he said. “If there’s going to be a program to help, we can turn that around pretty quick. The commissioner will call an emergency meeting and we’ll get things approved.”
Another audience member tried to provide some context for the collective sense of discouragement.
“We’re expressing frustration to you because we’re not able to get any answers from anyone else,” they said. “That form that we filled out for the tax abatement was a very minor form, and I don’t know how they could come up with a total number (for a damage estimate) based on the information they would take from that. I don’t think we’re trying to yell at you guys, but I think there’s frustration because I don’t think we’re all sure where we’re going.”
Sjoberg tried to give a bit more information about what business owners might expect from the IRRR.
“Just to temper expectations, the agency is not set up to make grants to businesses,” he said. “Our grants typically are run through a municipality and those are for infrastructure type things. This is a very unique situation. In all likelihood, any kind of program that we have would be a loan payment program with very good terms.”
Northland Small Business Development Center Regional Director Vicki Hagberg told attendees that their consultants can be helping hands as business owners navigate the uncharted course through the maze of getting assistance. She said they can not only assist with calculating physical damage to property, but also with estimating the economic toll of losing business during the peak of tourism season.
“It’s all the information hopefully that you’re going to need in one spot,” she said. “We can’t do it for you, but we can help guide you through that process. We’re all going to help you out, we’re all going to make sure that you get paired up with the resources you need to help. This is our community, too, and we’re here to help.”
At that point the meeting transitioned into individual meetings with business owners, who answered a prepared set of questions to provide the information the IRRR was seeking.
Another IRRR-sponsored meeting will be held next week, this one for community stakeholders to assess needs for public assistance, which will almost surely be another target for IRRR assistance.