More than 45-hundred jobs were created or retained in Iowa during the past fiscal year, thanks to loans from the U-S Small Business Administration. Cheryl Eftink directs the S-B-A office in Des Moines, and says there were 484 loans made statewide during the fiscal year for about 82-and-a-half million dollars. Eftink says the small businesses that received the loans were widely varied — from barbershops to high-tech computer outfits.
The S-B-A’s fiscal year ended September 30th. Eftink says the counties that got the most loans were also the most heavily populated — Polk, Linn, Scott, Woodbury and Johnson. While 14 Iowa counties statewide saw no S-B-A loans at all, Eftink says that does not mean there was no development in them. She says they help people who have trouble getting loans from banks, so development can go on without the SBA’s help.
The 14 counties that saw no S-B-A loans during fiscal ’01 are: Butler, Chickasaw, Clay, Franklin, Guthrie, Iowa, Lucas, Madison, Monona, Osceola, Palo Alto, Taylor, Van Buren and Wayne. For more information on S-B-A loans, contact the Des Moines office at (515) 284-4522 or the Cedar Rapids District office at (319) 362-6405.
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