Friday, July 30, 2004
BY JOHN FERAK, WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
WAHOO, Neb. - Kids came for the candy. Parents waved to friends sitting on antique John Deere tractors. And grandparents caught a glimpse of the tradition known as the Saunders County Fair Parade.
Children scramble for candy as the Wahoo State Bank balloon makes its way down the parade route Thursday.
Spectators overflowed the downtown streets of Wahoo for Thursday night's annual parade - the biggest community event tied to the weeklong Saunders County 4-H Fair at the county fairgrounds.
Mead residents Dale and Marilyn Benal arrived an hour early to set up folding chairs under a maple tree at the corner of Fourth and Linden Streets.
"We've been following it a long, long time," Marilyn Benal said. "It's a lot better. There's more participation and more interest. It's also very patriotic."
Several American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars groups from surrounding communities including Ashland, Yutan, Valparaiso and Prague walked the parade route or rode in military jeeps.
At Fourth and Broadway, 92-year-old William Vavak and his 82-year-old wife, Clara, sat on lawn chairs. These retired farmers made the 15-mile drive from Mead to watch the 90-minute parade.
"It's something you look forward to every year," William Vavak said. "Wahoo's the county seat so everybody comes to see it."
A few feet away, dozens of small children held plastic bags as they waited for candy thrown from firetrucks and floats.
"I come to meet friends and stuff," said 10-year-old Amanda Ruhe of Mead, who stood with a friend collecting candy. "The best part is the Hummer limo."
More than 100 units were featured Thursday night.
Three men with accordions played polka music on a truck promoting Wahoo's Starlite Ballroom.
Antique farm tractors wound through the parade route with firetrucks and high school bands.
The Wahoo State Bank's gigantic inflatable pink pig drew roars from the crowd.
"Boy, that's really a big pig," Clara Vavak said.
Near the downtown phone booth dubbed the "Home Office for the Late Show with David Letterman," Lori Celesky of Wahoo waited to see her husband ride on the Lewis and Clark bicentennial float. A group of neighbors came up with the float theme.
"The parade is a big deal for the people of Wahoo," Celesky said. "Our community is growing and we see that rejuvenation with more young couples moving in and others who want that small-town atmosphere."
When the parade ended, Marilyn Benal prepared to head to the County Fair.
"Oh, we've got to play bingo," she said. "I bring my quarters that I've been saving up. Even if I lose it goes to a good cause, the VFW."
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Peoples Bank of Commerce and Highland Bank illustrate the growing interest of smaller banks in participating in SBA lending programs.
By Mark Anderson/F&C Finance Writer
If there is any doubt that loan programs offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration are filling a genuine credit need, just look at the recent pace of SBA lending and borrowing in Minnesota.
Minnesota’s SBA office is on a pace to once again set a record for loan volume, the second consecutive record-breaking year and the eighth year in which volume exceeded the year earlier.
Part of the impetus for that growth comes from the increasing number of community banks that participate in SBA lending programs. Many are snatching up experienced SBA lenders and strengthening their program administration to win new customers.
The two most recent SBA expansions were announced by a pair of fast-growing metro banks, Peoples Bank of Commerce and Highland Bank.
Peoples Bank, a $233 million asset bank that is headquartered in Cambridge and has five other Twin Cities offices, created an SBA-origination and processing department from scratch this spring, hiring an experienced three-person team in one move. The three were all members of the SBA division at the former Signal Bank and then Associated Bank Minnesota, which acquired Signal in 2002. Both banks were perennial Minnesota leaders in SBA originations.
Greg Kennedy will direct the new unit, headquartered at Peoples’ downtown St. Paul branch, and he’s joined by business development officer Dennis Welch and SBA administrator Ev Sanders.
Peoples created the department after watching the rapid growth of the SBA office at one of its affiliated banks in California, Kennedy said.
“They saw that [SBA] was a helpful product to have as part of the mix in commercial lending. Some customers just don’t fit in the commercial lending box” because of the age of their company, its assets or cash-flow characteristics. The SBA loan terms, which allow lower down payments, longer amortization terms and reduced risk for the lender, means “we can bring in those kinds of deals,” Kennedy said.
The Peoples team is taking the same sales-oriented approach that Kennedy & Co. took at Signal.
“They’re looking for us to originate loans, and they’re looking for us to have an impact quickly,” Kennedy said.
They plan to convert some of their prior relationships into new Peoples bank customers and to eventually win referrals from the bank’s regular commercial lenders.
The early record indicates that those plans are already working. Kennedy said that after the first month of unpacking and meeting new colleagues, the team brought in eight new loans in the next 60 days, at an average of about $250,000, and he said the pipeline is strong.
Early this month, Highland Bank announced a milestone for its two-year-old SBA business when it was named a preferred lender for the agency’s 7(a) loan program. The 7(a) is the busiest of the agency’s programs, providing term loans for working capital, equipment and real estate. Highland is one of only 15 Minnesota lenders to gain that status.
Preferred lenders are given authority to process loans, bypassing much of the review that SBA offices normally conduct, and reducing the approval period from between two and three weeks to two to three days, said Kim Storey, vice president for SBA lending at Highland.
Banks win that authority after they have successfully completed scores of loans and demonstrated reliable underwriting and servicing over a period of years.
The result is more predictability and quicker turnaround for borrowers.
“It’s a competitive environment,” Storey said. “Businesses know they can negotiate with a number of banks on pricing, and if time is one of the factors they want to negotiate on, this gives us an advantage.”
Highland, with $400 million in assets, started building its SBA program in late 2002 after hiring Storey, another Associated Bank veteran who was groomed as a small business lender at the former Riverside Bank in Minneapolis.
In 2002, Highland failed to reach the state’s top 25 rankings, with fewer than nine SBA loans. The next year, with Storey leading a new dedicated SBA program, the bank jumped to 18th place with 34 loans worth $5 million. The bank was on a pace to match that this year by June 30, the end of the SBA’s third quarter.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
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Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Adelante Con Tecnologia, which is Spanish for "moving forward with technology," shows low income Latino parents the value of having Internet access in the home. Parents participate in a three-hour training simulation that highlights culturally appropriate Internet content.
The program is delivered in Spanish. Parents successfully completing the simulation get incentives that make putting technology in the home affordable. Since its launch, at the beginning ofJune, more than 40 low income Latino parents have taken the pilot training.
The simulation covers a lot in three-hours. Basic computer training is followed by an introduction to the Internet and browser software. Then participants learn how to navigate the web, search for items of interest, and visit culturally appropriate websites such as Univision, the Mexican Consulate, the Spanish version of Yahoo and other websites.
Participants learn how to get a free e-mail account, send and read email, send pictures and video, chat online, pay bills online, search for jobs online and make purchases online. Internet security and tips on buying a computer round out the experience.
Adelante website at www.adelantect.org
Monday, July 12, 2004
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Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Hispanic small-business owners may soon have a new bank focused just on their needs.
Articles of incorporation have been filed in Arizona for Sonoran Bank, which hopes to open in Phoenix next spring with capitalization of $7 million to $9 million. It would be one of the first banks in Arizona to specifically target the Hispanic small-business market.
The bank would focus on lending amounts of $50,000 to $300,000 or perhaps a half-million dollars, a need not being met by large banks, said Ernest Garfield, owner of Interstate Bank Developers, who is guiding the board in creating the bank.
"Big banks do a great job on consumers and a great job on large businesses," Garfield said, "but they really do not do the type of job that small businesses need."
Chairman of the board of the new Sonoran Bank is Ricardo Torres, former publisher of La Voz, a weekly Spanish-language newspaper.
Initial reaction among Hispanic small-business owners was positive. Rachel Gomez, vice president of Rio Mirage Cafe, a Mexican food restaurant in El Mirage, said she and her husband, Alex, struggled to get the funding they needed to start their restaurant.
"We really need a bank that will really help Hispanics get started," she said. "I know so many people who would love to be in business if they could just get a small loan."
