Business Management

March 31 deadline set for business loan applications.
The Winona County Economic Development Authority says not all the businesses affected by last August”s flood have applied for assistance through the county”s business recovery loan fund.Now, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development has set a March 31 application deadline to meet a June allocation and planning deadline.
‘We were forced to do that by DEED,’ said Linda Grover, county EDA director. ‘I wanted to keep it open as long as we could.’Grover said 45 applications have been submitted so far, but preliminary indicators by the county assessor showed nearly 100 businesses were damaged. The statistics indicate folks are slipping through the cracks, she said.’A few things are happening: People don”t want to deal with the government, or they may believe thisprogram is more complicated and they don”t want to give up private financial information,’ Grover said.