Restore La. Small Business Loan Program Accepting Applications – American Press

Applications are now being accepted for small and micro business loans, and an idea to highlight Southwest Louisiana music icons and other notables was announced at Monday’s Downtown Development Authority meeting.

The Restore Louisiana Small Business Loan Program is a federally funded loan program that will provide assistance for non-construction expenses to eligible small businesses and nonprofits affected by disaster events in 2021.

Their office is now open in the Seed Center, according to Lori Marinovich, assistant director of planning, City of Lake Charles. “Remember, it’s a zero percent loan and 40 percent is forgivable,” she added.

Bam Arsenault, owner of Panorama Music Exchange, has worked on the Zypian Music Foundation Wall of Fame Project.

“I want to reach out from our local past and bring things to our present so they can be there for the future,” Arsenault told the DDA board and administration.

He wants to achieve his goal of a walk of fame that will honor local musicians and other greats, and he is looking for board members to help guide the decision on who will be recognized.

His grandparents opened a music shop on Iris Street “right after the war,” he said. They were in business at that location for 50 years.

“I decided after I got back into business at Panorama Music Exchange to start a fund in their honor. My grandfather’s goal in life was to use music as a way to heal the world. That’s how he saw it.”

He showed board members a granite prototype designed by Rick Solari that would be featured at certain points in Downtown Lake Charles’ sidewalks.

It includes a QR code that allows access to information about the artist or other notable people using augmented reality.

“Everything about whoever has been recognized will be at their fingertips. People coming from all over the world – maybe they know who the Hackberry Ramblers are and maybe they don’t – but they’ll be able to see what those people did and why we have stuck them on the pavement.”

Criteria will be drawn up to determine which people, places and things are to be recognised.

“On January 22, 1965, Little Richard played at Bamboo on Hwy. 14,” Arsenal told the DDA board. “No one knew it at the time, but the 22-year-old guitarist in Little Richard’s band was Jimi Hendrix. The Bamboo was a place where things like that happened. Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and Merle Haggard played there.”

Arseneaux has worked out how signage will be installed, withstand the weather and be maintained, even in the event of pavement repair. He is using his own resources at this time and plans to raise the money to cover the cost of the Walk of Fame with grants and crowdfunding.

Ideally, he would like to start the sidewalk and QR code sidewalk efforts at the four corners of Ryan and Broad Streets during one of Lake Charles’ music and arts festivals.

To qualify for the small and micro business loan, the business must have 1-50 full-time employees; has been open at the time of the disaster; have a minimum of $25,000 in annual gross receipts prior to the Catastrophic Event; be located in one of the programme’s eligible parishes; experienced a financial or physical loss as a result of a catastrophic event in 2020-21; and has a justified unmet need. Loan award amounts will range from $10,000 minimum to $150,000 maximum, based on a calculation of unmet need and eligible expenses.

The state has awarded $96.1 million through the Small Business Loan Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In total, HUD has allocated more than $3 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds to the state for long-term recovery efforts for Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Ida and/or the May 2021 severe storms.

Information on all Restore Louisiana recovery programs can be found at restore.la.gov.