Monday – February 12, 2007

STATE APPROVES $1 MILLION IN BRIDGE LOAN FUND FOR BUSINESSES IMPACTED BY TORNADO -- Gov. Charlie Crist’s office has announced that $1 million has been approved for bridge loans to help tornado-affected businesses get back on their feet. The county Department of Economic Development last week worked with area banks to form the required loan committee and has been identifying eligible businesses that will be approached about bridge loan possibilities. Florida's emergency bridge loan program provides temporary loans up to $25,000 to impacted businesses interest free for six months. This provides businesses immediate access to cash to assist in the initial recovery of their business while insurance and other longterm disaster recovery loans from the SBA are processed. Businesses impacted by the tornado should contact the Department of Economic Development at 386/248-8048.

COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TEAM ASSISTS TORNADO-AFFECTED BUSINESSES -- Since the recent tornado, the Volusia County Economic Development Department has aided in the business recovery efforts to re-establish operational services for Frontier Communications. Economic development personnel helped to coordinate business damage assessments and employment impacts in preparation of requesting state assistance for local business recovery. Special thanks to the City of DeLand, the Workforce Development Board/Center for Business Excellence, the DeLand Chamber of Commerce and the county Property Appraiser Office for outstanding dedication and deployment of personnel during this most recent emergency recovery effort.

TORNADO DAMAGES 40 BUSINESSES IMPACTING UP TO 300 WORKERS -- The county’s Department of Economic Development estimates that up to 40 local businesses received physical damages ranging from light to severe and up to 10 or more were impacted due to spoilage from the loss of electrical power. It’s also estimated that around 300 area workers were impacted by the storm damages and will be subject to temporary or longterm layoffs due to the tornado. According to the county Property Appraiser Office, area businesses sustained just over $19.5 million in storm-related damage. If your company’s employees have been impacted by temporary or permanent loss of employment, please contact the area’s One Stop Center personnel to report the layoffs. Local employment assistance is available to help. Please contact Lori Stone Maushund, Center for Business Excellence, at 386/323-7087.

MANUFACTURING SPACE NEEDED FOR SMALL PRODUCTION GROUP -- The county Department of Economic Development is working with an out-of-state plastic products manufacturer in trying to find 5,000 - 10,000 square feet of production space. The company specifically has requested only property in the New Smyrna Beach, Port Orange, South Daytona, Daytona Beach area. Any viable sites in these areas will be considered. If you have or know of an existing facility that meets these minimum requirements and you would like to have this information passed along to the client, please contact John Kizer, Business Specialist, at 386/248-8048.

DAYTONA BEACH MANUFACTURER RECEIVES TRAINING GRANT – The Crane Technologies Group, a Daytona Beach manufacturer of automotive components, has been awarded a $99,962 Incumbent Worker Training grant from Workforce Florida, Inc. The grant will support 155 of the company’s workers in upgrading job skills in areas of lean manufacturing, quality systems, basic CAD and network implementation training. The workforce training grant is part of a $368,124 training initiative being supported by Crane’s new management in cooperation with the Florida Manufacturing Extension and Daytona Beach Community College. If you would like to learn more about qualifying for an Incumbent Worker Training grant, please contact Doug Vimmerstedt, Special Projects Coordinator, county Department of Economic Development, at 386/274-3438.

NEWS ITEMS WANTED! – Please send your business news items to Dave Byron, Volusia County Community Information Director, 123 W. Indiana Ave., DeLand, 32720-4612, by fax at (386) 822-5072 or by e-mail at dbyron@co.volusia.fl.us