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Western Mass. Small Businesses Try Again For Federal Aid

A high school sports banquet at The Log Cabin in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 2017.
Chris Marion
/
Daily Hampshire Gazette / gazettenet.com
A high school sports banquet at The Log Cabin in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 2017.

The federal government opened up applications for another round of financial relief for small businesses on Monday morning. Several western Massachusetts companies said they have applied but aren’t confident they will receive money.

The initial Paycheck Protection Program opened in early April, but the money ran out before many business owners got funding.

One of them was Peter Rosskothen, who owns The Delaney House hotel and The Log Cabin banquet facility, both in Holyoke.

Rosskothen said the banks he works with weren’t able to get his paperwork submitted before the money was gone. He’s just applied again.

"I’m very hopeful, and I’m crossing every one of my thumbs and my fingers and everything and hoping it will happen, but I’m not confident," he said.

Michael Zaskey owns a company in Chicopee that supplies audio, video and lighting for events. He also wasn’t able to get funding in the first round and has applied again.

"If we don’t get this money and something beyond, we’ll be out of business," he said. "I mean, it’s pretty simple. You can’t continue to operate a business with no revenue coming in."  

Both men cautioned that even if the money comes through, it’s only a short-term solution. They don’t expect business to return to normal for a year or so.

A company in Chicopee made out better in the first round. Chicopee Industrial Contractors got the financial aid it applied for through the Paycheck Protection Program.

CEO Carol Campbell said business is down by more than half.

"We've kept all our employees working," Campbell said. "We've not done a layoff at all, even with a reduction in outside work, so the money has helped with that a thousand percent."

Campbell declined to say how much the company received. The Small Business Administration did not immediately answer our request for information.

Before joining New England Public Media, Alden was a producer for the CBS NEWS program 60 Minutes. In that role, he covered topics ranging from art, music and medicine to business, education and politics.
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