Downtown Highland Park companies compelled to shut for every week whereas legislation enforcement authorities investigated the Fourth of July parade capturing — the place a gunman killed seven folks and wounded dozens extra — are simply beginning to calculate the financial and human affect of the occasion.

Retailers, workplaces and eating places situated past the four-square-block police perimeter had been impacted too as folks handled the trauma of the bloodbath’s aftermath.

“The tail on the impact of this tragedy can be a really lengthy one,” U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, stated after a information convention Monday, the place federal and native officers talked about obtainable enterprise aid.

Schneider, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and officers from the U.S. Small Enterprise Administration mentioned aid obtainable to companies and different organizations impacted by the capturing Monday on the non permanent SBA Enterprise Restoration Middle in downtown Highland Park.

The SBA is providing loans of as much as $2 million to assist companies and never for revenue organizations recuperate from the affect of the capturing. Geri Sanchez Aglipay, the regional SBA administrator for the realm, stated impacted enterprise in Lake, Prepare dinner, McHenry and Kenosha counties are eligible.

Rotering talked concerning the not too long ago authorized $500,000 grant program for companies compelled to shut between July four and 10 as a result of they had been situated inside the investigation’s perimeter. Bearing the brunt of the injury inflicted by the gunman, these firms had been singled out.

“A few of their staff had been shot at. They’re coping with the bodily injury and the emotional trauma,” Rotering stated. “The trauma was felt by 1000’s who had been on the parade and need assistance. They have to be served.”

[ Highland Park parade capturing: What we all know concerning the victims, suspect, neighborhood and aftermath ]

Highland Park grant candidates should apply by Aug. 19, in keeping with a information launch from the town. Awards can be decided on a first-come, first-served foundation, and calculated on historic income information. Eating places can apply for as much as 75% of losses, and different companies as a lot as 50%. They have to conform to pay the wages of staff scheduled to work then.

Liliana Tschanet, a public affairs specialist with the SBA, stated she is strolling round downtown Highland Park assembly with companies within the space to be taught their wants and allow them to know concerning the company’s mortgage packages.

The SBA Enterprise Restoration Middle is open from 9 a.m. to six p.m. weekdays, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays within the foyer of the First Financial institution of Highland Park at 1835 First St. Aglipay stated representatives are there to assist folks with the applying course of and reply questions.

Although the useful resource middle closes completely on Aug. 11, Aglipay stated the deadline to use for a mortgage is April 25 of subsequent yr. One of many causes for the nine-month window is that a few of the prices will not be identified for some time, because the “lengthy tail” Schneider described grows.

“Persons are nonetheless coping with when to come back again to downtown Highland Park,” Schneider stated. “1000’s of individuals had been affected by this. Folks must come to phrases with it, and the financial affect is unknown.”

Companies and never for revenue organizations can apply for a mortgage for as a lot as $2 million with a time period so long as 30 years, in accordance SBA documentation. The rate of interest is 2.935% for companies, and 1.875% for not for revenue operations.

Aglipay stated if a enterprise applies for a mortgage for a specific amount and later learns its losses had been higher, they’ll search extra so long as SBA procedures are adopted. The assets of some neighborhood service organizations, reminiscent of those that provide counseling, had been severely taxed.

“They’d an exponential improve in demand,” Aglipay stated. “They’d to usher in extra folks, and they’re nonetheless doing it. This was an enormous tragedy in Highland Park.”