The Eureka branch of the Small Business Administration Disaster Outreach Center is one of nine California branches that were closed after a seven-week temporary outreach program. Tuesday was the last day of the operation of the outreach branch.

The SBA DOC provides assistance to small businesses that have suffered from a natural disaster through loans. The Eureka branch was located on the waterfront on Commercial Street, as it catered mostly to fisherman and other small business owners that suffered losses from the restrictions on salmon catches along the California and Oregon Coast.

Roy Castellini and partner Allen Shapiro are client services representatives with the SBA, and ran a circuit of three outreach locations, including Eureka, Crescent City and Brookings, Ore.

Castellini said that the team would spend a few days in each location, where one of the pair would stay in the office while another visited businesses in 16 fields to explain the program and determine if the business needed assistance.
The disaster assistance loan program is due to the Declared California and Oregon Salmon Fisheries Disaster, which took place May 1 through August 31. According to Castellini, the deadline for filing applications for economic injury is April 6, 2007.

The loans have an interest rate of 4 percent and are intended for working capital to small businesses that are affected by the salmon emergency.

“There was concern by the U.S. Commercial Department that the Chinook, or king salmon, of the Klamath River were in danger,” Castellini said. “So the area directly around where the Klamath enters the sea is severely restricted. But since the Klamath salmon mingle with the salmon from the Columbia and Sacramento rivers in the sea, salmon fishing was restricted along 750 miles of coastline, from Point Sur to Cape Falcon up in Oregon.”

Castellini said that the restriction not only affects fishermen, but marine supply, seafood restaurants and many other businesses related to the fishing industry. In each of the three towns the team visited, they would go to the Harbor Authority, or the City Manger in Eureka, for referrals to impacted businesses.

Castellini said that over 40 local businesses were contacted, and California has given out approximately $350,000 in loans.

“It appears from the people we have talked to that it was a hardship,” Castellini said. “A lot of people appreciated us coming out here, whether they chose to take advantage of the loans or not I don’t know.

Rick Jenkins, communications supervisor of the SBA, said that the outreach program was necessary to reach the businesses that were affected by the disaster.

“We would be in the communities where this disaster (had effect). It is a lot better to sit down and talk to someone face to face than over the phone; you can get a lot more information,” Jenkins said. “Over a month later, we’ve talked to just about every business that has been impacted in some way or another. So now that we’ve reached that stage, it is no longer necessary.”

Jenkins said that the SBA has given approximately $250,000 in loans in Oregon and approximately $340,000 in loans in California. There were 18 branches throughout the California and Oregon Coast.

California branches in Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay, Monterey, Moss Landing, San Francisco, Bodega Bay, Fort Bragg/Noyo Harbor and Crescent City were also closed.

(Laura Provolt is a general assignment reporter and can be reached at lprovolt@eruekareporter.com.)