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Maine employers grapple with office policies amid constant change
Many companies plan to continue experimenting with new ways of working that involve more flexibility and remote work options.
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Nate Wildes, owner of Flight Deck and executive director of Live + Work in Maine, at Flight Deck in Brunswick on July 16, 2021. Wildes said many Maine businesses haven t yet determined what their long-term work policies will be after the coronavirus pandemic. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Nearly 16 months after much of Maine’s workforce went remote, many businesses are preparing plans to reopen their offices. But after a year in which the only constant has been change, and with so many facets to creating a new normal – safety, employee satisfaction and a positive work culture chief among them – many employers have been hesitant to set any plans in stone.
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Paul Birkel, executive vice president at Wright-Pierce, an environmental engineering firm, said the company returned its first-round Paycheck Protection Program loan after not needing it, and didn t apply for a second one. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
Thousands of Maine small businesses have been approved for hundreds of millions of dollars in fresh Paycheck Protection Program loans under a revamped version of the program that some credit with preserving millions of U.S. jobs and preventing economic catastrophe last year.
But the scale of lending is far smaller this time around, partly because of stricter application requirements, other funding options and the recovery of some industries from last year’s economic shock, reducing their need for more government help.
Fewer Maine businesses seek help from replenished PPP
February 4, 2021 GMT
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Fewer of Maine’s small businesses are seeking help under a replenished Paycheck Protection Program aimed to helping employers weather the pandemic, officials say.
“We thought there would be a little more of a surge (of loan applications),” Renee Smyth of Camden National Bank told the Portland Press Herald. “We are not experiencing that right now.”
About 4,700 loans worth $371 million have been approved for Maine employers in the first two weeks.
Last year, lenders issued more than 28,000 PPP loans worth almost $2.3 billion to Maine employers.
Companies can apply for a second loan if they have 300 or fewer employees and show a revenue loss of at least 25% during any quarter of 2020 compared with the same period the year before.
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Small employers across the state will get another chance for economic relief next week, when the U.S. Small Business Administration starts accepting applications for a new round of forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Some very small, community financial institutions were allowed to submit loan applications starting this week, but lenders with at least $1 billion in assets – which includes most banks in Maine – can start putting in loan applications Tuesday.
Hundreds of employers already have applied to Maine lenders that are waiting to submit loan documents when they are given access to the SBA’s portal for accepting them.