Perryton Mayor Symons praises SBA loan assistance in city recovery

With the announcement that the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) approved disaster declaration assistance to Perryton and the surrounding counties, Perryton Mayor Kerry Symons spoke about efforts to rebuild the city.

Symons said that the SBA has people already in place to help those who need assistance.

“The support for the city is going great; we have about eight people from the Small Business Administration (SBA) with an office set up taking applications,” Symons said. “We are having an unbelievably positive response to the SBA coming, with about 20 to 30 applications being done per day. Hopefully, now that we have the SBA here, many of our businesses will be able to rebuild and bring their services back to the city.”

He said that residents have had a great response to this assistance and urged residents to work with the SBA to find out what can be done to rebuild. Symons stressed that residents and businesses need to record their damages and reach out to the SBA staff available in the city. He said these requests and applications must be done as soon as possible.

“The state was here to help us immediately; the amount of support that we received from different departments of the state was the best thing that could have helped us,” Symons said. “It sure makes us proud to be a Texan."

Symons said that the outreach from the Texas Panhandle and the rest of the country has been extremely helpful in getting the city with its businesses and residents back on their feet after the EF-3 tornado and severe weather struck in June.

The majority of donations go through the Amarillo Area Foundation and the United Way. He said that donations have also been accepted for the city for park renovations. Some other charities have helped with construction material and volunteer work in the area.

“The approval for the SBA assistance in the city by our residents has been very positive,” Symons said. “These low-interest loans can apply to homeowners, renters and businesses."

Symons said that the city has purchased a temporary fire department that will allow it to move its department from the county exposition center soon. He said that completion of the city hall project would still be another six to eight months before it is finished.

“Hopefully, we can move out of the county-owned facility and into our temporary fire station in the coming weeks," Symons said. “We are rebuilding city hall as we speak; they are working seven days a week on city hall trying to get the fire and police stations and city offices back in that building."

Symons said that it was challenging getting the coordination in response to the natural disaster the city has faced. He credits a great city staff for working to take care of those affected by the tornado.

“We have great people that have stepped up and worked extra time to make sure that all of our city services are available to everyone,” Symons said. “We have been trying to find ways to help the individuals of our city, and our city with trying to write grants that can bring some dollars to back to Perryton to help reestablish our city back to where it was.”

Praising the many organizations and churches that worked with tornado victims, Symons said that these groups have done an excellent job helping residents and continue to do great work.

Asked if any upgrades could be done to help with emergency sirens, Symons said the problem was that the tornado hit where the electricity came into the city.

“The power was knocked out before the tornado hit the city limits,” Symons said. “The warning came, and we did not have time to respond, as it, the tornado, just dropped out of the sky.”

With the utter destruction of the mobile homes throughout the city, Symons said that due to these homes being the quickest source of housing, many will still opt to go that route. He said that some groups are interested in building more permanent homes in those areas.

The city manager of Perryton, David Landis, also spoke about the approval of the SBA assistance and the need to work fast to get applications done.

“We were very pleased that Gov. Abbott’s request to the United States Small Business Administration was approved for a disaster declaration for our area,” he said. "What this does is, it allows people and businesses in Ochiltree and surrounding counties to apply for low-interest loans to help them in the restoration of their properties."

He said that loans are also available for economic injury loans. According to Landis, the deadline for application of physical damages is Oct. 23, and for economic injury, it's May 22, 2024.

“We hope that this spurs some successful applications for some of our most impacted folks to begin resuming business," he said.

Landis added that part of the reason the request was submitted about two months after the disaster was so businesses could better evaluate the economic and physical damages they have suffered.

“By waiting until this was when this was declared, we have 60 days from this point forward,” Landis said. “So, actually, this was a strategically timed request from the governor to give us the time to assess damages.”

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Perryton mayor praises SBA assistance approval in tornado recovery