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Houghton County asks state and federal officials to add it to drought declaration to access SBA loan aid
Summary
The board unanimously adopted Resolution 24-06 asking state and federal officials to include Houghton County in a drought declaration tied to SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan eligibility, citing a warm winter's impact on tourism.
The Houghton County Board of Commissioners on March 12 adopted Resolution 24-06 requesting state and federal consideration to add Houghton County (and encouraging support for Baraga and Keweenaw counties) to a drought declaration that would permit affected businesses to apply for Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
Administrator Benjamin Larson said the resolution responds to a March 4 governor’s press release describing a warmer-than-normal winter that hurt winter-tourism businesses. The motion to adopt the resolution carried 5-0 (Yes: Anderson, Janssen, Tikkanen, Keranen, Britz).
The resolution points to the cancellation of local winter events in nearby areas as evidence of economic strain and asks state and federal representatives to ensure affected counties not listed in the governor’s release receive the same opportunity to pursue SBA relief. The board directed the county clerk’s office to send the adopted resolution to State Representative Greg Markkanen, State Senator Ed McBroom, U.S. Congressman Jack Bergman, U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, and Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The action is a formal request and does not itself allocate county funds; it asks higher levels of government to consider Houghton County when issuing drought-related disaster declarations and loan eligibility.
