Spurger meat market ready to get back to business. Check it out:
(Beaumont Enterprise, The (Texas) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Sep. 24--For all the signs of normality at Tom's Meat Market, normal still is a long way away.
Customers shuffled about the store's concrete floor midday Wednesday the same way they have for 30 years -- lining up at the rear counter and placing their lunchtime orders as meat sizzled on the grill.
The aroma of toasting buns and sauce-soaked barbecue beef, and the sound of laughter from customers and owners Randy and Sandra Holcomb filtered between shelves that once overflowed with canned goods and echoed off rumpled, water-damaged wall panels lined with photos of sponsored little league teams, sagging wooden beams and deformed, water-stained ceiling tiles above them.
"It's the only one," said Jack Jeans, 73, a loyal customer, said of the store's presence in Spurger while waiting for a few pounds of fresh stew meat. "When you come here, Randy cuts it just the way you want it."
But the walls and roof are lasting signs of Hurricane Rita's unexpected swipe at Spurger one year ago that brought the family-run business to its knees as the Holcombs still find themselves searching for assistance to rebuild the business Randy's father, Tom Holcomb, built from ground-up in 1976.
"I really wasn't expecting what happened," said Randy Holcomb, 43.
FRUSTRATION
The family could only listen in darkness while huddled in the kitchen of their adjoining home on Sept. 24, 2005, as Rita's winds peeled off a 60-foot chunk of the uninsured store's tin roof "like a Spam can," splintered the attached smokehouse in two and rolled its remains onto FM 92.
Rita's rains did the dirtiest work, flooding the store ankle-deep with water that wiped out merchandise, rendered meat coolers useless, caused the store to close for three weeks and forced loyal customers to travel as far as Lufkin to find a good meat market.
The family sank about $10,000 of their savings into making the building functional again, but the damage was done. The Holcombs said they haven't been able to afford to completely stock the store's shelves since, and some customers have chosen to shop elsewhere.
"I thought I could at least obtain a loan," he said. "My wife and I weren't looking for any free money, and it took everything we had just to get where we could open up."
The Holcombs had to get rid of three employees because of the revenue decline, and say they have tried for and been denied help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
"Everywhere we call, they refer us to someone else," said Sandra Holcomb, 44. "We're just about run out of options."
RESOURCES
Though options are dwindling for business owners, those still struggling to ward off Rita's lingering effects have at least a few chances to score assistance.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provided hurricane recovery grant money to the Deep East Texas Council of Governments, but it's mostly for residential purposes, said Walter Diggles, the council's executive director.
State officials still have not determined how much of the $428 million in additional aid granted to Texas for hurricane recovery eventually would go to Deep East Texas or Southeast Texas -- the two areas that suffered the most damage -- or whether the funds can be applied toward small businesses, Diggles said.
Help also still might be available from the U.S. Small Business Administration's Small Business Development Center, which is administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, said Weldon Gibson, a consultant with the Lamar University SBDC.
"Published deadlines have passed, but they are saying that if you have anybody that still has needs, to have them write a letter and submit the documentation," Gibson said.
The SBDC loans can cover physical repairs or recover economic losses. Applicants who previously were rejected can submit appeals, Gibson said.
The Lamar SBDC, one of four centers serving Southeast Texas and Deep East Texas, has processed "literally hundreds" of loan applications, Gibson said.
Loans of as much as $15,000 are available through SB Alliance Capital, a Beaumont-based organization created in 1984 to promote business growth and development.
The loans are zero-interest for the first year, and recipients can work out a payment arrangement for the next four years, said Jim Rich, SB Alliance Capital's executive director and Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce president.
The group serves Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Newton, Orange and Tyler counties, Rich said.
TRY AGAIN
"We're not anywhere near out of money, and if we needed more, we could get it since disaster loans were part of the funding request that the governor submitted to Congress," Rich said.
Hardin, Jefferson and Orange business owners still can apply for $5,000 grants from the Southeast Texas Workforce Development Board's Small Business Capitalization Grant Initiative, workforce liaison Pamela Wise said.
The funds come from a first-ever U.S. Department of Labor program geared toward businesses with between two and 25 employees that have paid unemployment insurance for at least 18 months, said Karen Bourdier, economic development research manager for Entergy who serves on one of the approval panel.
Recipients must complete a business recovery plan and agree to a post-grant evaluation, Wise said.
"You don't have to pay it back, but you're certainly accountable for it," she said.
Randy and Sandra Holcomb said although they are frustrated, they will continue to serve customers while trying to find help.
But help must come soon to save the family business that they hope to pass to the next generation, they said.
"There's times I just want to give up," Randy Holcomb said. "But this is what I've done all my life, and I'm just not ready to give it up."
msmith@beaumontenterprise.com
(409) 880-0736
Copyright (c) 2006, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Technorati
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Digg
