May 28 - June 4, 2020
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Courtesy photos/NWHS PTSO
May showers bring – boxes of food, bags of food, shopping carts full of food! NWHS students, staff and PTSO members helped collect and organize food donations at Northwest Guilford High School May 19-20 for the northwest Guilford area Backpack Ministry. In photo on far left, NWHS PTSO president Stephanie Brady is assisted by volunteers Patricia Annunziato and her daughter, Caitlyn. In photo on far right, Cheryl Katowitz and her son, Tyler, help collect donated food items. See details on p. 23.
From ‘high anxiety’ to ‘relief’ for small business owners Applications for PPP loans give Bank of Oak Ridge glimpse of emotional ups and downs during the COVID-19 outbreak by CHRIS BURRITT OAK RIDGE – Bank of Oak Ridge said it has processed about 500 applications for Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans since early April. Loans averaged about $92,500, or approximately $46 million in total. Behind those mid-May numbers, according to Brady Young, the bank’s chief retail officer, is a rollercoaster of emotions for small business owners during the COVID-19 outbreak. In North Carolina, businesses deemed “nonessential” from restaurants to hair salons to fitness centers were forced to close temporarily or
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curtail operations. For those that remained open, sales sank as many consumers stayed at home to avoid catching the illness. “Anxiety has been high for our small business owners,” Young said in a recent interview. It was especially high for owners who didn’t receive loans in the first round of funding by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), forcing them to wait to see whether they’d get approval when money began flowing again, the banker said. For Bank of Oak Ridge, virtually all of the businesses for which it processed loan applications wound up getting funds, Young said. From the first to second phase of funding, the average size of loans decreased, signaling that “we were able to help more and more small businesses get through this period of uncertainty.”
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News in brief .................................................. 2 Your Questions................................................ 4 Well-Spring residents, family reunite – safely .... 5 Summerfield Town Council meeting ................. 6 Stokesdale Town Council meeting .................... 9 Naturalized citizen helps those back home ......12 Crime/Incident Report ....................................14 Community Calendar .....................................14 NWO Kids’ Korner ..........................................15 Student Profiles .............................................18 Quarantine Book Club ................................... 20 Grins and Gripes ........................................... 22 Volunteers collect food for Backpack Ministry...23 Facebook Comments .................................... 26 Classifieds ....................................................28 Index of Advertisers .......................................31