By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
CARRBORO – In a reflection of the state of the economy and hard times for small businesses, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen gave words of caution on Tuesday before approving a loan for Second Wind Juice Bar and Café, a restaurant planned for the space next to Armadillo Grill on Main Street.
The business had requested a $90,000 loan from Carrboro’s Revolving Loan Fund, which provides loans to small businesses in Carrboro at low interest rates. However, the board approved just $45,000, which was recommended by the town’s Economic Sustainability Commission (ESC). And the loan comes with a few conditions: Applicants Sherry Pate and Jerry Glass must secure an additional $45,000 from another source, submit a marketing plan prepared by a professional marketing agency and proof of a budget adequate for that plan, and spend personal cash identified for the start-up of the business prior to using loan funds.
“I really like the specificity,†board member Lydia Lavelle said. “Some thought really went into figuring out how best to make this loan. … This is the way that we want these loans to be made.â€
“It’s kind of a new day of funding business, and the climate is so different, so I think it’s a really good thing to take an extra-special look at these applications,†she added
Pate and Glass propose the business as a juice bar and sandwich shop geared toward athletic individuals and teams. They submitted their application to the ESC earlier this year and made modifications to their plan upon receiving recommendations from the commission.
Board member Dan Coleman said that while he supported approving the loan for the business, he was concerned about how the applicants responded to the initial recommendations of the ESC.
“I was really disturbed when the applicants came in and made the allegations against ESC members back in June,†Coleman said, referring to statements made by Pate and Glass suggesting a conflict of interest with their application and certain commission members.
“My hope is that now that they’ve gotten the support of the commission and board that they’ll see how things are done in Carrboro,†board member Jacquie Gist said.
Also on Tuesday, the board approved loan modifications for both Neal’s Deli and Carrboro Creative Coworking, whose accounts were past due with the town’s revolving loan fund. Carrboro Creative Coworking owner Brian Russell recently announced that the business will close in September, at which point the assets will be dissolved with the proceeds to go toward the loan.
People should read the story about this on squeezethepulp.com- there you will get a more complete picture of what has happened with these loans. Pretty disgusting, really.