Lawrence businesses seek help
Baker, Rivera promise loans, ‘creative recovery’
Business owners in Lawrence are anxious about getting back up and running after a series of gas fires and explosions left thousands without service in the Merrimack Valley, but neither Gov. Charlie Baker nor Mayor Dan Rivera had a positive spin following a meeting yesterday.
“No one was really happy. We’re not happy either,” Rivera said after meeting with the Lawrence business community. “We had a good conversation but people left here with more information needed.”
State officials, including Baker and Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash were in Lawrence yesterday to speak with the community when they announced they are working on a “creative recovery process” to help businesses get up and running sooner than the Nov. 19 deadline.
“Businesses are important because if we can lift up a business, we can lift up four, five, 10 families in one shot,” Rivera said.
The officials are working with a coalition of banks to create a $1 million loan fund for businesses in the affected area, “to try to get them some working capital in hand,” Rivera said. The funding, once available, would be accessible to businesses in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover.
Baker said they are working to figure out a model, how it would work, how it would be funded, and sorting through any legal issues relative to what he referred to as a “bridge loan.”
In the third of a series of meetings with local businesses in the Merrimack Valley, Baker said there were a lot of particular questions for each small business circumstance and their employees.
“We walk away with a whole bunch of questions that we can get people answers to,” Baker said. “This is about as big an inconvenience you can possibly imagine for small businesses.”
Meanwhile, over 240 workers were digging up the streets in the three communities yesterday, marking the start of intensive construction to replace the gas lines where an over-pressurization caused explosions earlier this month.
About 60 Columbia Gas crews, the bulk of which were in South Lawrence, began to dig up the streets to access main lines, which need to be replaced first, according to Columbia Gas spokesman Scott Ferson.
Residents also began receiving automated calls from Columbia Gas regarding free temporary electric heating sources, and troops from the Massachusetts National Guard were on the ground yesterday distributing heaters to homes inspected to ensure that the space heaters can be used safely.