PPP FAQs From Trustmark

We received further guidance from Trustmark on the PPP. Please see the attached document for more information to help you properly prepare and apply for the PPP.

PPP Update From Trustmark 040320

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Financial Resources During Coronavirus Crisis

As we all know, the Coronavirus (Covid-19) originated from China and is sweeping around the world. It has reached every state in the US and continues to spread. The United States has moved into crisis mode and trying to slow down and stop the spread.

Yesterday, Governor DeSantis executed Executive Order 20-91 (read the whole thing here). The summary of it is that all non-essential businesses are ordered to shut down and “all persons in Florida shall limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities.” It goes into effect April 3 at 12:01 AM (Thursday night / Friday morning). And remains in effect until April 30 at 11:59pm.

Essential businesses are allowed to stay open. In Section 2 on Page 3 of the Executive Order 20-91 it lists the essential businesses. Basically if your business aids in the health or basic needs of a person, aids in the safety of a person or aids in helping essential businesses operate, then you are considered essential.

This, obviously, will have dramatic effect on many businesses in a myriad of different ways. Those that provide many things needed for basic living, like food and toilet paper, are seeing a boom in their business. While others who sell retail items like furniture or clothing are ordered to shut down and could see a decline in their business.

Regardless of which side of the coin you are on, your business will be affected in some way. Even those who have an increase in sales may have to reduce their hours of operation and employee count.

The Federal Government has created 2 ways to help small businesses with financial resources during this time. One is the EIDL and the other is the PPP. The Federal Government as issued the SBA $350 billion towards this facilitation. Here is a link to the page where you can read about them both – https://www.sba.gov/page/coronavirus-covid-19-small-business-guidance-loan-resources. And this is available to small businesses with 500 employees or less.

The EIDL is the Economic Injury Disaster Loan. You apply for this online with the SBA (click here). The EIDL takes about 15 minutes to fill out. It will allow you to request a $10,000 advance. And, from all of the sources we polled, the advance is a grant so you do not have to pay it back. Then the SBA will contact you about the loan application process. The EIDL will loan businesses up to $2 million for 30 years at 3.75% interest. This loan is directly issued and administered by the SBA.

The PPP is the Paycheck Protection Program. The application for it will be available online, at many banks, starting April 3, 2020. This is backed by the SBA but it is administered through your bank. The PPP takes your payroll expenses for 1 month and will issue you a loan for 250% of that amount. The loan is at 4% interest and has a $10 million cap.

It can be used for payroll, keeping group benefits, mortgage interest (no principal) payments, rents including under a lease agreement signed before 2/15/20, utilities and interest (no principal) on any other debt that was incurred prior to 3/1/20. To clarify, payroll costs include salaries, wages, and payments paid to employees and independent contractors, including yourself, up to $100,000 each. It also includes medical insurance payments, retirement benefits, state/local tax, and payments for sick leave, family leave, or vacation.

No collateral is required. No personal guarantee is required. And the loan is 100% non-recourse. That means there is no penalty for not paying it, at all. But there is an even more unique part of this. If you maintain your workforce past the 8 week time period (after you receive the funds), the principal can be completely forgiven. So, all you would owe is the 4% interest on it.

Contact your bank to find out their process for application.

The Coronavirus Pandemic and Crisis is affecting us all. We urge everyone to seek accurate and up to date information for your personal health and the health of your business. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide any other business or financial information or insight that we acquire and pass it along to you here. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us and we will do our best to help.

We wish everyone to stay safe and stay well.

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FMA April 2020 Events

Due to the Coronavirus / Covid-19 crisis and the statewide lockdown, the Freeport Merchants Association is cancelling all FMA sponsored events for the month of April, 2020

We have not received any feedback on the Florida Dept of Transportation meeting. But we would assume it is cancelled.

We will be putting out updates and resources for small business later today or tomorrow.

Stay safe and stay well.

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Florida Department of Transportation Meeting In Freeport

Our VP, Chase Barfield, is on the Committee for City Facilities Planning. They had a meeting this morning and he learned of a Florida Department of Transportation meeting that is happening in Freeport in April.

The following is the notification from FL DOT District 3 Project Manager, Tori White.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will hold a public meeting concerning a project on Tuesday, April 7, 2020 at the Destiny Worship Center, 16019 Hwy 331 Business, Freeport. The public meeting will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. CDT.

This meeting is being held to provide interested persons an opportunity to express their views concerning the proposed improvements.

The intent of this study is to widen an eight-mile portion of State Road (S.R.) 20 from two to four lanes from King Road to County Road 3280 (Black Creek Boulevard) in Walton County, and provide pedestrian and bicycle accommodations.

Maps, drawings, and other information will be on display at the meeting. FDOT representatives will be available to discuss proposed improvements, answer questions, and receive comments. Additional project information is available and can be viewed on the project website (www.nwflroads.com).

This meeting is being held without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, or family status. Persons who require special accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act or persons who require translation services (free of charge) should contact the Project Manager, at the information listed below, at least seven days prior to the meeting.

Should you have any questions regarding the project or this meeting, please contact Tori White, Project Manager toll-free at (888) 638-0250, ext. 1455, via email at tori.white@dot.state.fl.us, or by mail at 1074 Highway 90, Chipley, Florida 32428. You may also contact Ian Satter, FDOT District Three Public Information Director, at (888) 638-0250, ext. 1205, via email at ian.satter@dot.state.fl.us

The original notification can be found at the link below.

FL DOT Meeting 040720

This Highway 20 road widening is going to affect businesses and traffic flow. If you have input, want to be kept abreast and especially if you own a business along the Hwy 20 corridor, we suggest that you attend.

The Freeport Merchants Association will continue to keep you notified as we receive updates.

The FMA – Uniting The Merchants of Freeport

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Freedom For Merchants Prevailed

There was a Freeport City Council Meeting this morning from 9am to 10:30am and freedom for merchants prevailed. This was a particularly important meeting for the merchants of Freeport. Why? Glad you asked.

For months the FMA Board, Membership and other Non-FMA Member Merchants have been attending Planning and Development Board Meetings, workshops and City Council Meetings that pertained to the suggested change of the land development code.

The suggested changes would have removed the choice of type of building on 331 and the choice of signage on 331 and Hwy 20. Essentially, if you have a metal building on Hwy 331, it must be clad on all sides that it can be seen from the road. For the most part, that is 3 sides. Many merchants choose metal buildings because of their cost effectiveness. And others like its aesthetic. One of the changes would have removed this as an option.

The other suggested change would have been to only allow monument signs with 911 addresses on them. This is an aesthetic (fashion) preference that is not one held by all merchants but the cost to implement it would apply to all merchants moving forward (one council member said that current signs would be grandfathered in). However, with this change, the choice of monument, monopole or dual pole sign would be completely removed and the only option would be monument.

The City Council asked The Planning and Development Review Board to examine this. The summary of the results is that the Planning and Development Review Board voted UNANIMOUSLY against adoption of the proposed land development code changes. Their results, minutes from the meetings and comments from the workshop were all given to the City Council. They voted on this today.

The result of that vote was in support of Freedom for the Merchants of Freeport to be able to choose whether they wanted a metal, brick or concrete building and whether they can have a monument, monopole or dual pole sign. We wish we could report that the vote in support of the Merchants and their Freedom was unanimous. We are happy to report that is was near unanimous.

If you want to know how your representative voted and why, feel free to contact them and ask them directly – City Council Contact Info. You can also read the minutes and listen to the audios for the meetings here.

The FMA Vice President, Chase Barfield, spoke to the Mayor and the City Council on behalf of all Merchants who had expressed their opinions to the FMA. He thanked those on the Council for their support and conveyed that he hopes he can sway those who did not support to change their mind because the cost to implement these changes would fall COMPLETELY on the backs of the Merchants. To which some Merchants stated they would go out of business if they had to comply with these changes.

And all of these changes are being proposed because of aesthetic (design and fashion) choices that emanated from outside of the City of Freeport. Suggestions from others who want a uniformity between Freeport and South Walton. Freeport is not alone as this push for uniformity is county wide.

We are happy that most of the City Council voted in favor of the Freeport Merchants and to help maintain Freeport’s unique identity. We hope that this does not make it to the City Council again. But if it does and our membership feels the same, The Freeport Merchants Association will stand up again and fight for your rights of choice as a Merchant.

FMA – Uniting The Businesses of Freeport.

Victory For Freeport Merchants

We just had a victory for the Freeport Merchants. As many of you are aware, we have been both following and participating in the discussion around the change to the Freeport Land Development Code. For those of you who are unaware, this pertains to external (outside of Freeport) entities and people trying to influence a change in the language and regulations of both signage and building construction in Freeport. This would have removed choices from the merchants while at the same time placing the financial burden on the backs of the Freeport Merchants. You can read a more in depth article about it here.

As soon as the FMA became aware of what was proposed to transpire, we felt it necessary to get involved. Our mission is to unite the businesses in Freeport, whether they are a member or not, and to be a voice for the merchants. So, we met with the City Planner, Latilda Hughes-Neel, to learn the details. Upon sharing of the proposed changes with us and making us aware of the Planning and Development Board Meeting, we studied the changes and subsequently attended that board meeting.

During that meeting, multiple members of the FMA stood up and spoke to the point that these changes were coming in from outside of Freeport, without the merchants being consulted or having any say in the matter and the net result was less freedom of choice and bearing the burden of the cost of these changes.

The Planning and Development Board heard our plight and chose to schedule a workshop the next month.

The FMA, along with a multitude of other non-member merchants, showed up to the workshop in force. Everyone was passionate, thoughtful and quite helpful with commentary on the topics at hand. The entire Planning and Development Board was attentive to the comments and helpful with the questions.

They concluded and set a meeting to have time to review and reflect on what they learned and vote on whether to make a recommendation to accept or reject the changes.

The meeting took place last night, Wednesday, October the 2nd at 6pm.

We are happy to report that the proposed changes and additions to the Land Development Code, that were initially influenced by entities outside of Freeport, were rejected. The merchants of Freeport have retained the ability to have single pole signs and to have metal buildings without expensive facades. Most importantly, the rules, regulations and laws of the City of Freeport were not influenced by external factors that do not live and work in Freeport.

At this time, we would like to thank The Planning and Development Board for the way they handled this whole endeavor. They did so with an open mind, careful and considerate thought and included those who would be affected most into the conversation. They truly have Freeport’s best interest at heart.

So thank you to Ricky Fannin, Kasey Cuchens, John Konopacki, Steve Thomas and Michael Gilley. You are an effective board. Keep up the good work.

We would also like to thank the City Planner, Latilda Hughes-Neel. Without her painstaking thoroughness of documenting everything and taking the time with our membership to explain the proposed changes to the land development code, the merchants may have ended up with a lack of choices and literally paying for that lack of choices. Thank you Latilda for the work you and your office does.

We would also like to thank Clay Adkinson, City Attorney, for explaining to the merchants and to the board what the proposed changes meant and the various options that were available.

Finally, we would like to thank every single merchant (member and non-member) who talked with the FMA, showed up to meetings and workshops, shared information or stood up and spoke. Without the support of each and every one of you, we could have never accomplished this. So, thank you so very much.

This shows that the future of the City of Freeport is influenced by those who show up and care. We invite all who read this, merchant and non-merchant alike, to pay attention to what is happening in our fair city. We are growing and we are growing fast. More and more people are taking interest in our city and if we collectively want to participate in the direction of its growth, we must first care and we must also show up and make our voices heard. Do not be or add to the silent majority.

And to any merchant that wants to have their voices heard but speaking up is not your talent, contact the FMA. As we said, we are here to unite and give a voice to the Merchants of the City of Freeport.

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Calling All Freeport Merchants

The purpose of The Freeport Merchants Association is to unite the businesses of Freeport, Florida, deliver education and information to help them with their businesses and to represent their collective interests. A time has come now where we are calling on all Freeport merchants.

Some of you are aware and many of you are not, about a few suggestions that were placed for consideration with the Freeport Planning & Development Review Board. The suggestions were placed by one or more members of the Freeport City Council. And some of those suggestions were influenced by people and organizations from outside of Freeport.

Why is this an issue that we are addressing? Because, ultimately, it is the merchants who will incur unneeded or cost prohibitive expense for these decisions. The suggestions were made without consulting a single merchant that the FMA has spoken with. That means that we, the merchant class who will pay, was not sought for any input or opinion. The FMA sees this as unfavorable to our merchants and counter to the principles upon which we stand.

There was a meeting on August 7, 2019 at City Hall where the Freeport Planning & Development Review Board convened. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss whether to make formal suggestions to the City Council for the adoption of edits or amendments to the Land Development Code. Other than the board and staff, the only other people in attendance were members of the FMA and a President of an Engineering Firm. Not a single merchant was in sight. This told us that the Merchant Class in Freeport is mostly unaware of some of the suggested changes.

More to the point, the main changes we focused on were signs and buildings. One suggestion was to prohibit all monopole or single pole signs along Highway 20 in Freeport. If this were to go into effect, one outcome could be the removal (after a set period of time) of all existing pole signs, to include the new O’Reilly’s sign and older ones like B&M Tire. Signs that look good and are in good condition, but because they are counter to a new vision or what is “scenic” so they would be removed if it becomes part of the code and the rule to change them after a period of time is put into effect.

In addition, along Highway 331, both north and south of Freeport, the prohibition of monopole (single pole) and dual pole (two pole) is being suggested. The only qualified sign would be a more expensive monument sign, complete with 911 address on it as a requirement. Again, an external organization is attempting to influence what they believe is “scenic” without consultation of the merchant class or regard for the expense to the merchants or their freedom of choice where a monopole or dual pole sign would be preferred.

Please note that we are not advocating for an anarchy with signs. We believe in maintaining standards and we want Freeport to look visually appealing. But forcing the merchants into one style lacks both choice and the ability for variety. We are comprised of people from all over the world here. There are different tastes in design that should be allowed to be expressed. And, when it is difficult enough for businesses to capture the attention of the public and get noticed, causing an unnecessary increase in expense while simultaneously restricting choices is counter to freedom and solid business practices.

Another suggested change was to prohibit metal buildings along 331 (the north and south corridor in Freeport) that are not completely clad in stucco, concrete and brick. Many merchants construct metal buildings in order to save money on construction. They are also low maintenance structures and look quite nice if designed to be aesthetically appealing. Forcing the cladding of the building in stucco, concrete or brick negates a lot of the cost savings that are initially received from the metal building construction. And the reason for it is nothing more than aesthetics (the looks…how “scenic” it is). Again, passing on the expense of this onto the merchants that it affects without soliciting an opinion or any insight from them.

That sounds like an awful lot of bad news. But, there is a super bright spot. The Freeport Planning & Development Review Board decided that the opinions of the merchants were important in this process. They understood that this would put an undue burden and additional expense on the merchants. And that the merchants have not had an opportunity to give their opinions on whether they agree or disagree and if they disagree then what alternatives or suggestions do the merchants have.

This is why the Freeport Merchants Association is calling all Freeport merchants. This goes out to both members of the FMA and non-members alike. On August 28th (Wednesday), 2019 at 6pm, there will be a workshop put on by the Freeport Planning & Development Review Board at City Hall. All merchants are invited to listen and participate.

Let there be no mistake. If you are a Freeport Merchant, this will affect you whether you attend or not. At least if you attend, you will demonstrate that we, as a merchant community, care about helping to form the plan that charts our destiny in Freeport. Even if you are not good at or scared of public speaking, just your attendance is requested to show support. We would like to fill City Hall with Freeport Merchants who want to give polite yet constructive insight and be an asset to this process.

Do not be the silent majority. The FMA is happy to lead but we need your support to work with the Freeport Planning & Development Review Board so that they can make informed decisions and recommendations that take our positions into consideration. If you have any questions, please use our contact page to submit them. We look forward to seeing you there.

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Land Development Code

Signs are very important to merchants. It is one of the few ways they can get the attention of potential customers and direct them to their place of business, whether physical or virtual.

We have had many merchants ask questions about the rules (ordinances) around signs within the City Limits of Freeport because the general feeling is that there are heavy restrictions on the kind and type of signs that are allowable.

We have received comments from some merchants that their feeling are that the sign ordinances are anti-productive for business and actually hurts their ability to prosper.

Additionally, merchants (members and non-members alike) do not understand why some places are allowed to have feather flags (pennant types) and they are not. Or what the rules are about electronic signs.

So, we did some research and found the City of Freeport Land Development Code. This page has every rule and regulation in regards to signs, buildings, zoning and more.

Here is the link – https://www.freeportflorida.gov/planning/page/land-development-code

We urge all merchants to read through the ordinances to eliminate any confusion. The signs are in Article 5, Section 5.06 (starting in page 66). You will also need Appendix B for some definitions.

Please review and bring any questions you may have to our next Freeport Merchants Association Meeting on Thursday, June 20. It is at the Freeport Community Center and starts at 8am. We would love to hear your questions, input and insight. The more the Merchants of Freeport understand the rules, the more effective we can be as a business community.

The Freeport Merchants Association – Serving & Uniting The Business Of Freeport

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February 2019 Morning Meeting Highlights

The Freeport Merchants Association February morning meeting had some valuable knowledge and great conversation around topics that seemed to have an effect on many small businesses in the area. Here are the February 2019 Morning Meeting Highlights.

Nanci Watkins, founder of JNS Financial, spoke to the membership on tax changes for 2019 and how they impact small businesses. She went over increases in deductions for LLCs, S-Corps and Partnerships and how you can deduct more than twice what you could last year.

Nanci shared some important updates on meals and entertainment, a very important distinction on charitable giving amounts, depreciation, conversion to cash basis and more. This info is worth thousands to our members and we thank Nanci for sharing.

We also had a discussion around City Ordinances as they pertain to signs and flags. It seems that many merchants are unclear on the ordinances for signs and flags as well as what options they have to gain attention for their businesses. It was a lively and informative conversation. If you are a Freeport Merchant with questions, comments or concerns about this topic, please contact us with your input.

To all FMA Members, if you did not attend, we will post the Minutes to the Meeting in another post. If you are not an FMA Member and you would like to be able to benefit from information that can help your business and network with other like-minded business owners, we invite you to join us.

FMA – Uniting The Businesses of Freeport

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FMA Listed On City’s Website

We are happy to announce that the Freeport Merchants Association was listed on the city’s website yesterday. If you go to http://freeportflorida.gov and hover over Community at the top, you will find the FMA listed under Organizations.

We thank the City of Freeport for their cooperation in listing our organization so that we can continue to help the merchants in Freeport, Florida.

If you are a Merchant in Freeport, Florida and would like to be a member of the Freeport Merchants Association, please visit our New Member Sign Up page. If you have any questions about the benefits of being a member, please contact us.

Shop • Eat • Live • Local

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