Leaders talk loans, other programs to help pay for storm damage

About two-dozen Santa Cruz County residents Wednesday got the chance to learn about some ways to pay for storm damage to their homes and private roads at workshop at the county building.

Flowers are blooming and the sun is shining in Santa Cruz, but make no mistake lots of people still have storm damage on their minds.

“We saw a couple of avalanche areas where several times it went across the creek re-diverted the creeks and caused it to wash out about 40 feet of road,” said Gary Walchi who lives near Loma Fire Burn Scar.

The morning workshop focused on how people can rebuild their private homes and roads.

“Our damage isn’t nearly as bad as a lot of the people here, but we wanted to see what other people are doing,” said Daniel Young of Live Oak.

One option is through the U.S. Small Business Administration.

“The idea is helping communities, businesses and homeowners get back to pre-disaster condition after they were hit with these terrible storms and flooding,” said Garth McDonald with SBA.

SBA is not just giving money out but you can apply for a loan with a fixed interest rate as low as 1.875 percent though that can vary from person to person. The loans get more complicated when you are trying to repair a private road that goes through an entire neighborhood because SBA could put a lien on everyone’s home.

This can be tricky in Walchi’s experience.

“There a lot of internal politics with people and it’s hard to develop the community when the houses are so far apart,” said Walchi.

Another option discussed was something known as County Service Area (CSA). That means the county will handle repairing the road but everyone in the neighborhood has to pay for it through their taxes. The county was very clear about the pros and cons.

“It’s much easier than individual people going along the road and getting a few dollars from their neighbors every time the improvements need to be made,” said Patrick McCormick from Santa Cruz County.

The program isn’t cheap, $10,000 up front just to get started. It’s also lengthy. It takes eight to 10 months which means if your private neighborhood wasn’t already a part of CSA that means you aren’t covered by the recent federal declaration. However, county officials say it could be helpful later on down the road when more storms hit.

Additional photos provided by Gail Ow.