Applications are now being accepted for small and micro business loans and an idea for highlighting Southwest Louisiana music icons and other notables were announced at the Monday Downtown Development Authority meeting.

Restore Louisiana Small Business Loan Program is a federally-funded lending program that will provide assistance for non construction expenses to eligible small businesses and nonprofits affected by 2021, disaster events.

Their office is now open at the Seed Center, according to Lori Marinovich, assistant director of planning, city of Lake Charles. “Remember, it’s a zero percent interest loan and 40 percent is forgivable,” she added.

Bam Arsenault, owner of Panorama Music Exchange, has been working on the Zypian Music Foundation Wall of Fame Project.

“I want to reach from our local past and bring things to our present so that they can be there for the future,” Arsenault told the DDA Board and Administration.

He wants to achieve his goal with a walk of fame that will honor local musicians and other greats, and he’s looking for board members to help steer the decision about who is recognized.

His grandparents opened a music store on Iris Street “just after the war,” he said. They were  in business at that location for 50 years.

“I decided after I got back into business at the Panorama Music Exchange to start a foundation in their honor. My grandfather’s goal in life was to use music as a way to heal the world. That’s how he viewed it.”

He showed board members a granite prototype designed by Rick Solari that would be displayed at certain points in Downtown Lake Charles’ sidewalks.

It includes a QR code, which would allow for accessing information about the artist or other notable individuals using augmented reality.

“Everything about whoever has been recognized will be right there at your fingertips. People who come from all over – maybe they’ll know who the Hackberry Ramblers are, and maybe they won’t – but they’ll be able to see what those people did and why we’ve stuck them in the sidewalk.”

Criteria will be established to decide which people, places and things will be recognized.

“January 22, 1965, Little Richard played at the bamboo on Hwy. 14,” Arsenal told the DDA board. “No one knew at the time, but the 22-year-old guitar player in Little Richard’s band was Jimi Hendrix. The Bamboo was a place where things like that happened. Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and Merle Haggard played there.”

Arseneaux has worked out how signage will be installed, hold up to weather and be maintained, even in the case of sidewalk repair. He is using his own resources at this point and plans to raise the money to cover the expense of the Walk of Fame with grants and crowdfunding.

Ideally, he would like to start the sidewalk and QR code sidewalk inserts at the four corners of Ryan and Broad Streets during one of Lake Charles’ music and art festivals.

To qualify for the small and micro business loan, the business must have 1-50 full-time employees; have been open at the time of the disaster event; have a minimum of $25,000 in annual gross revenues before the disaster event; be located in one of the program’s eligible parishes; experienced a financial or physical loss as a result of a 2020-21 disaster event; and have an eligible unmet need. Loan award amounts will range from $10,000 minimum to $150,000 maximum, based on a calculation of unmet needs and eligible expenses.

The state has allocated $96.1 million through the Small Business Loan Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In total, HUD has allocated more than $3 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds to the state for long-term recovery efforts for Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Ida and/or the May 2021 Severe Storms.

Information on all Restore Louisiana recovery programs can be found at restore.la.gov.