State attorney’s office making ‘major announcements’ at Collier County Courthouse press conferenceTake Two Coffee to celebrate grand opening in Fort Myers
Credit: U.S. Small Business Administration. U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney of Congressional District 19 worked with a federal agency to give local businesses a chance to recover from the water quality crisis last summer. The U.S. Small Business Administration is offering low-interest loans to Southwest Florida businesses impacted by the red tide outbreak in 2018. “This declaration allows the SBA to approve low-interest loans for Southwest Florida businesses that have been adversely affected by red tide blooms,” Rooney said. The loans are available to businesses in 13 counties, including Lee, Collier and Charlotte. The application deadline is June 4. For more information and to apply online, visit the SBA website. Businesses can also get info. and loan applications by calling the SBA’s customer service center at 1-800-659-2955 (1-800-877-8339 for the deaf and hard-of-hearing), or by emailing disastercustomerservice@sba.gov. Loan applications can also be downloaded at sba.gov/disaster. Completed applications should be mailed to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155. “Our local business community has suffered greatly from the toxic algae released into our ecosystem, and an excessively large and long-lasting red tide outbreak,” Rooney said.