ANTIGO — The deadline for area small businesses negatively impacted by the unusually mild winter to apply for low-interest federal loans was extended late last week, according to a press release Thursday from Gov. Tony Evers.
The application period for the loans, Economic Injury Disaster Loans provided through the U.S. Small Business Administration that can provide an individual business-owner up to $2 million to alleviate economic hardship caused by the lack of snow, was extended to July 31, 2024 for Langlade County and most other counties in the state.
The meager snowfall this winter severely limited the area’s winter recreation tourists — and in turn, their visits to local dining and lodging establishments, according to Langlade County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Angie Close.
“Mainly lodging facilities and restaurants are the ones that have been contacting in regards to programs,” Close said. “It’s a lot to do with snowmobiling. Langlade County has 530 miles of snowmobile trails. I think we are the largest in regards to how many miles we have per our county, so when you take that away for the whole winter, that’s a huge economic impact to our businesses and our local economy.”
Sleep Inn Manager Coco Guenther said the lack of snow this winter “hurt bad” at her hotel, where groups of snowmobilers reserved rooms far in advance but then backed out when the trails remained closed.
“When we do the blocking for the rooms we give them a 10 percent discount, so you’re talking almost $3,000 or $4,000 for just a weekend that we would have lost, and that’s not including what the other people in this town lost, the restaurants, the bars, the snowmobile clubs,” she said.
Guenther said hockey teams visiting the area for tournaments “kept us alive,” but their business could not make up for the loss of the snowmobilers.
“We cut back on the housekeepers and kind of switched days with them to help with the money situation,” Guenther said. “But we’re still under renovation, and that put that to a halt, too. We got the nine rooms and we’ve got to have them done by June, and I think we’ll only have four extra rooms, because that’s all we can afford, to get those four done.”
Casey Smith, president of the Kettlebowl Ski Area Board of Directors, characterized the year as being historically bad.
“We only opened two days,” Smith said. “So that is the worst year I can ever remember, and the older people at the hill, in the last 25 years, they can’t remember a year that’s been like this either…Obviously, we didn’t have to operate this winter, but we have all the expenses that we still acquire and we still did all the updating for the hill. Last year we stuck about $20,000 into updates on the hill, so we don’t get the revenue to compensate for that.”
Smith said the affordable Kettlebowl skiing operation, which is funded through the Langlade Ski Club, will still be viable despite the lost season.
“We run fundraisers and we have a lot of donors that donate money to keep the hill running and to keep it at a low cost,” he said. “That’s the only way that we can actually operate. Typically, we run at about a $20,000 loss a year, just because we try to keep the tickets as cheap as possible so everybody can use the hill. But the fundraisers and the donations cover that typically. Without the fundraisers and donations, we would definitely be closed, or we would have to jack the prices up significantly to cover costs.”
Close emphasized that these EIDLs, which have a maximum interest rate of 4 percent, were not grants.
“I think a lot of businesses, because of what happened with COVID, they’re looking for grants, and this is not a grant, this is a loan,” Close said. “I think that’s where that might deter them from moving forward. However, it’s very low-interest, if any, depending on the terms and depending on the need. SBA will determine that. If you go to the SBA web site under the disaster loan page, each business is going to be different depending on their determination of the need.”
Guenther said she likely would not seek one of the EIDLs.
“You’ve got to pay them back too, so one way or another, it’s not going to help,” she said.
Close, however, who discussed the loans at a Feb. 26 County Board meeting, said several local business owners that own hotels or restaurants have contacted her about the loans.
“It’s important because it’s another resource or tool in our toolbox to help businesses that have been negatively impacted due to the lack of snow,” Close said. “There really haven’t been other programs that are available for this lack of snow, so making this as part of that is a helpful tool to have. I want businesses to be aware whether or not it fits for them.”
Business owners that suffered economic injury as a direct result of the lack of snow may apply for the EIDL loan at lending.sba.gov, or learn more by calling SBA’s customer service center at (800) 659-2955 or contacting Angie Close directly at aclose@co.langlade.wi.us.
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