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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 2020)
2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2020 BUSINESS & AG LIFE Navigating the PPP forgiveness process hose businesses that received Paycheck Protec- tion Program funds (PPP) are no doubt aware that all or a portion of the loan is forgivable if funds are utilized according to program requirements. T GREG SMITH EOU SBDC The following information comes from a webinar I partici- pated in hosted by a Small Busi- ness Administration lending spe- cialist, and I want to emphasize borrowers should always check with their lender or CPA for spe- cifi c answers pertaining to their individual situation. To begin with, borrowers will submit an application for for- giveness to their lender. The Pay- check Protection Flexibility Act extended the amount of time for submission from eight weeks after the date you received the proceeds to 24 weeks. There are two dif- ferent applications — form 3508 and form 3508 EZ. The EZ form is considerably shorter, but not all businesses qualify to use this. You are eligible for the EZ form if you: • are a self-employed borrower with no employees and did not include any salaries in the calcula- tion of your monthly payroll when determining your eligible loan amount • didn’t reduce wages by more than 25% and didn’t reduce the number of employees or average paid hours of employees • weren’t able to rehire/hire similarly qualifi ed employees • didn’t reduce wages by more than 25% and were unable to operate at the same level of activity due to government restrictions. (i.e. from OSHA or another similar agency) The lender will review the application and confi rm that appropriate documentation has been submitted to validate the information; the borrower’s cer- tifi cations are true and correct; and your mathematical calcula- tions are accurate. The lender has 60 days for the process to be com- pleted and then will issue a deci- sion to SBA. Examples of supporting doc- uments to be included with the forgiveness application for pay- roll costs include bank statements, tax forms, receipts and cancelled checks. For allowable non-pay- CHICKENS Continued from Page 1B UC-Riverside’s Alireza Abdoli, a data science grad- uate student. Abdoli loves chickens, so he said he was excited when Murillo asked him to join the project — along with biologists, entomolo- gists and a poultry health expert. Abdoli designed an algorithm to track chicken behavior. The fi rst algorithm he created measured shapes. When you shake hands with another person, he explained, it looks about the same every time you do it. If you were wearing a sensor on your hand, the motion would show up in a dataset as a consistent shape. Similarly, with chickens, pecking looks like a recog- nizable zigzag. But some chicken move- ments are complex. It’s hard, for example, to tell the difference between dust bathing and preening on a computer screen — Photo courtesy of Amy Murillo A chicken wears a backpack containing small sensors that monitor their movements. important distinctions when measuring parasite activity. Abdoli modifi ed his algo- rithm to account for speed and force. Then, Abdoli and Murillo inserted the sen- sors into tiny backpacks, which they fastened onto chickens’ backs. “You can imagine how hard it was to put these roll costs you must prove the ser- vice or obligation was in place prior to Feb. 15, 2020, (with bills and invoices) and provide proof of payment. For such things as mort- gage interest payments, rent or leases you will likely need to pro- duce an amortization schedule, lease agreements, copies of can- celed checks, etc. If using the 3508 form, you will need to include the loan for- giveness calculation form, the PPP schedule A and documenta- tion showing the average number of FTE (full time employees) on your payroll during the referenced time periods. Should you be required to pay back any portion of PPP funds, no payment will be due for 10 months. Ask your lender about additional terms and conditions or refer to your loan documents. backpacks on the chickens,” Abdoli said. He laughed. But after a minute of pecking and squirming, the chickens got used to the packs. When the researchers analyzed the data, they were excited. Murillo said the sensors accurately detected which chickens had parasites. In the long term, the researchers say, this could help poultry farmers accu- rately detect parasites and target birds with problems before an outbreak. But Murillo esti- mates a commercial-scale product won’t be avail- able for at least a few years. COVID-19 has brought much research to a “screeching halt,” Murillo said. A real-time model is still in progress, and the researchers will need com- mercial fl ocks to be part of experiments. “We’ve got a ways to go, but I think the technology does have amazing promise for the poultry industry,” said Murillo. USDA announces extended deadline, more eligible commodities for CFAP EO Media Group staff WASHINGTON, D.C. — USDA announced this week that additional com- modities are covered by the Coronavirus Food Assis- tance Program in response to public comments and data. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is extending the deadline to apply for the program to Sept. 11, and producers whose applications have been approved will receive their fi nal payments. The extended program will give even more farmers and ranchers the opportunity for assistance to help keep operations afl oat during these tough times. The following additional commodities are now eli- gible for CFAP: Specialty Crops — aloe leaves, bananas, batatas, bok choy, carambola (star fruit), cherimoya, chervil (french parsley), citron, curry leaves, daikon, dates, dill, donqua (winter melon), dragon fruit (red pitaya), endive, escarole, fi lberts, frisee, horseradish, kohl- rabi, kumquats, leeks, mamey sapote, maple sap (for maple syrup), mesculin mix, microgreens, nectar- ines, parsley, persimmons, plantains, pomegranates, LOSSES Continued from Page 1B 199 seasonal and full-time workers. Sykes Enterprises runs call centers around the world that offer cus- tomer services for a variety of companies, but closed its call center in Milton-Free- water in 2018. In Union County, Boise Cascade in Elgin lost 130 trade-related jobs, according to the report. Hillary Haden, repre- senting the Oregon Fair pummelos, pumpkins, ruta- bagas, shallots, tangelos, turnips/celeriac, turmeric, upland/winter cress, water cress, yautia/malanga and yuca/cassava Non-Specialty Crops and Livestock — liquid eggs, frozen eggs and all sheep (only lambs and yearlings were previously eligible) Aquaculture — catfi sh, crawfi sh, largemouth bass and carp sold live as food- fi sh, hybrid striped bass, red drum, salmon, sturgeon, tilapia, trout, ornamental/ tropical fi sh and recre- ational sportfi sh Nursery Crops and Flowers — nursery crops and cut fl owers Several commodities — green onions, pista- chios, peppermint, spear- mint, walnuts and water- melons — are now eligible for Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Sta- bility Act funding for sales losses. Originally, these commodities were eligible for payments on marketing adjustments only. Also, payment rates for these commodities have been corrected. Additional details can be found in the Federal Register in the Notice of Funding Availability and Final Rule Correction and at www.farmers.gov/cfap. To ensure availability of funding, producers with approved applications ini- tially received 80% of their payments. The Farm Ser- vice Agency will automat- ically issue the remaining 20% of the calculated pay- ment to eligible producers. Going forward, producers who apply for CFAP will receive 100% of their total payment, not to exceed the payment limit, when their applications are approved. Producers, especially those who have not worked with FSA previously, are recommended to call 877- 508-8364 to begin the application process. An FSA staff member can help producers start their appli- cation during the phone call. Eligibility forms can be downloaded from www. farmers.gov/cfap. For existing FSA customers, these documents are likely already on fi le. For more information, contact your local FSA offi ce. Due to recent public health concerns, Union County FSA is open for phone and email appoint- ments only. Call 541-963-4178, ext. 2, for any assistance you may require. Trade Campaign, said the TAA numbers under- count the true number of people who lost their jobs for trade or offshoring rea- sons, because they depend on someone to proactively fi ll out an application to be enrolled in the program, and only certain types of jobs qualify. However, she said Oregon’s TAA num- bers in the past three years have been “particularly concerning.” “The most troubling trend uncovered in our analysis is that trade-re- lated job loss has been on the rise in recent years,” she said. “Oregon experienced a 113% increase in trade-re- lated job loss in the past three years compared to the previous three years.” She said those losses have been felt in indus- tries from steel to semiconductors. The report from the Trade Justice Education fund criticized the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for pro- viding incentive for com- panies to move jobs over- seas by allowing them to pay a much lower corpo- rate tax rate on profi ts made overseas than they do on profi ts made at home. It also criticized the trade deal with China that the United States signed in January for “neglecting to even men- tion, let alone address, the abysmal labor rights, forced labor, weak environmental standards and related causes of job offshoring to China,” and instead helping compa- nies feel safer moving jobs overseas by increasing pro- tections for their intellectual property. File photo by Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group Watermelons are among the commodities now eligible for Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Stability Act fund- ing for sales losses. While there is justifi able angst surrounding the forgiveness pro- cess, SBA emphasizes simply approaching it with honesty and integrity. With careful record keeping and aligning the use of funds with allowable expenses, you should have little diffi culty being able to produce necessary documentation for forgiveness. Rely on the expertise of your CPA and always reach out to your lender fi rst as they are the ones who will be recommending to SBA whether the loan is for- givable, either in whole or in part. About the Author Greg Smith is the director of the Eastern Oregon Univer- sity Small Business Development Center, La Grande. Small-business & Ag HAPPENINGS Union County FSA open by appointment LA GRANDE — The Union County Farm Service Agency is open for phone and email appointments only. To arrange an appointment or for more information, call 541-963-4178, ext. 2. Registration open for grant proposal blueprint course LA GRANDE — The Union County Chamber of Commerce in a newsletter announced an upcoming eight-week online grant proposal course offered by the Nonprofi t Association of Oregon. “The Ultimate Grant Proposal Blueprint Course: Your Step-by-Step Roadmap and Built-It-Yourself Toolkit for Crafting an A+ Grant Proposal” will run Aug. 24 to Oct. 26. The comprehensive, on-your-own-schedule video-based course is led by Maryn Boess from GrantsMagic U, a veteran grant writer and grant consultant. The course includes eight weekly video training sessions of about two hours each, which you can view any time, on your own schedule and as often as you like; a detailed session-by-session printable workbook and resource guide to follow along with as you watch the videos; live group Q&A sessions with Maryn; and ongoing personal support, via an “Ask Anything” Face- book community page. The cost is $197 for NAO members and $297 for nonmembers. Registration is through the GrantsMagic U website: u.grantsmagic.org. Contact support@ grantsmagic.org for registration support. New fund launches to assist Oregon agricultural workers who need to self-quarantine PORTLAND — A new source of fi nancial assis- tance for agricultural workers who are self-quarantining to slow the spread of COVID-19 — the Oregon Worker Quarantine Fund — will provide up to two weeks of fi nancial relief to agricultural workers age 18 and older, regardless of federal immigration status. The Quaran- tine Fund is administered by the Oregon Worker Relief Coalition, working in collaboration with the State of Oregon and the Governor’s Offi ce. “When people working on farms or in food pro- cessing plants are exposed to COVID-19, they have few options to prevent the virus from spreading besides giving up their paycheck,” Ramon Valdez, director of Strategic Initiatives and Relationships at Innovation Law Lab, said in a press release. “The Quarantine Fund will help us contain this pandemic by taking the fi nan- cial stress off of workers who keep Oregonians fed and agricultural businesses running.” Most agricultural workers report they cannot afford to take two weeks off to quarantine if they were in con- tact with COVID-19. Food packing and agriculture worksites are overrepresented in workplace outbreaks tracked by the Oregon Health Authority. Agricultural workers can apply for relief through local community-based organizations. Such organi- zations in Eastern Oregon are Oregon Human Devel- opment Corporation and EUVALCREE. Additional details about the Oregon Worker Quarantine Funding, including eligibility and application process, are avail- able at bit.ly/q-fund and bit.ly/fondo-cuarentena. Try the SHIP TO STORE feature at millershomecenter.com 3815 Pocahontas Road, Baker City 541-523-6404 3109 May Lane, La Grande 541-963-3113
