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36–113 PDF 2007

SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING: ON THE SMALL

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION’S RESPONSE

TO THE JULY 5 FLOODS IN

BEAVER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS 

AND OVERSIGHT 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF 

REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

AUGUST 23, 2007

Serial Number 110-41

Printed for the use of the Committee on Small Business

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house 

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

NYDIA M. VELA ́ ZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman 

WILLIAM JEFFERSON, Louisiana 

HEATH SHULER, North Carolina 

CHARLIE GONZA ́ LEZ, Texas 

RICK LARSEN, Washington 

RAUL GRIJALVA, Arizona 

MICHAEL MICHAUD, Maine 

MELISSA BEAN, Illinois 

HENRY CUELLAR, Texas 

DAN LIPINSKI, Illinois 

GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin 

JASON ALTMIRE, Pennsylvania 

BRUCE BRALEY, Iowa 

YVETTE CLARKE, New York 

BRAD ELLSWORTH, Indiana 

HANK JOHNSON, Georgia 

JOE SESTAK, Pennsylvania 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Ranking Member 

ROSCOE BARTLETT, Maryland 

SAM GRAVES, Missouri 

TODD AKIN, Missouri 

BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania 

MARILYN MUSGRAVE, Colorado 

STEVE KING, Iowa 

JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska 

LYNN WESTMORELAND, Georgia 

LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas 

DEAN HELLER, Nevada 

DAVID DAVIS, Tennessee 

MARY FALLIN, Oklahoma 

VERN BUCHANAN, Florida 

JIM JORDAN, Ohio 

MICHAEL DAY, Majority Staff Director 

ADAM MINEHARDT, Deputy Staff Director 

TIM SLATTERY, Chief Counsel 

KEVIN FITZPATRICK, Minority Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS & OVERSIGHT

JASON ALTMIRE, PENNSYLVANIA, Chairman

CHARLIE GONZA ́ LEZ, Texas 

RAUL GRIJALVA, Arizona 

LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas, Ranking 

LYNN WESTMORELAND, Georgia

(II) 

C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Page

Altmire, Hon. Jason ................................................................................................. 1

WITNESSES

PANEL I 

Mitchel, Herb, United States Small Business Administration ............................ 4

PANEL II 

Geho, Patrick, Beaver County Chamber of Commerce ......................................... 10

Colombo, Mary Elizabeth, B.F. Jones Memorial Library ..................................... 12

Feher, John A., Boulevard Sports .......................................................................... 14

Spanik, Hon. Joe, Beaver County Commissioners ................................................ 20

Pope, Terica .............................................................................................................. 25

APPENDIX 

Prepared Statements: 

Altmire, Hon. Jason ................................................................................................. 29

Mitchel, Herb, United States Small Business Administration ............................ 32

SBA Factsheet .......................................................................................................... 36

Geho, Patrick, Beaver County Chamber of Commerce ......................................... 38

Colombo, Mary Elizabeth, B.F. Jones Memorial Library ..................................... 41

Feher, John A., Boulevard Sports .......................................................................... 44

Spanik, Hon. Joe, Beaver County Commissioners ................................................ 45

(III) 

(1)

SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING ON THE SMALL 

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION’S RESPONSE 

TO THE JULY 5 FLOODS IN 

BEAVER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA 

Thursday, August 23, 2007

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS & OVERSIGHT

Aliquippa, PA 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in Aliquippa City Hall, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, Hon. Jason Altmire 

[chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 

Members Present: Representative Altmire. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN ALTMIRE 

ChairmanALTMIRE. The meeting will come to order. I want to 

thank everybody for being here today. This is, as the witnesses 

have been told, this is an official hearing for the U.S. House of Representatives. We have a stenographer here representing the U.S. 

House and I appreciate the assistance from the Committee Chair, 

Nydia Vela ́zquez, in allowing us to hold this field hearing today. 

She was unable to be here. She is back in her district in New York. 

But I do want to thank the Committee for allowing us to hold this 

hearing today. 

I am fortunate, as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, in the wake of what happened here in Aliquippa, to be able to hold this hearing here and my goal is to bring 

the witnesses up and let them say firsthand what took place here 

and the aftermath and the needs that are necessary to help recover 

from this flooding. And we have two panels today; the first is Mr. 

Herb Mitchell, and I am very thankful that he came all the way 

up from Washington, D.C. 

He is the Associate Administrator for Disaster Assistance for the 

Small Business Administration. And the Small Business Administration came here almost immediately after the flood. They were 

very helpful in surveying the scene, making damage assessments 

and offering the low-interest loans that are available. Now, we are 

going to talk about that issue and maybe some other alternatives 

are available. I thank Mr. Mitchell for being here. And then we 

have a second panel of community leaders and businesses that 

were affected by the flooding and I am going to introduce them at 

the time of the second panel. 

2

I want to thank everybody for being here today. Today’s hearing 

we will examine the role that SBA has in responding to the recent 

flooding here in Beaver County and I will also talk about Millvale 

and some of the flooding that took place in Ross and Shaler, 

Millvale and Etna in more recent weeks. But on the night of Thursday, July 5th, Beaver County and other parts of western Pennsylvania experienced violent isolated thunderstorms that caused some 

of the heaviest rainfall in recent memory. Official estimates report 

that at its height, the storms dumped as much as three and a half 

inches of rain in only two hours. Here in Aliquippa, a town of only 

11,000 people, which is in the heart of the Fourth Congressional 

District, they took the worst of it. 

By late evening, July 5th, most of the waters had receded and 

on the morning of July 6th, residents got their first look at the 

damage the storms had left behind. I also walked through Aliquippa at that point and looked at some of the residences and the 

businesses, and I saw firsthand what had happened. Over 500 

homes and businesses were damaged. Ninety percent of the storms’ 

damage occurred in Aliquippa alone. Downtown Aliquippa was covered in ankle deep mud; dozens of downtown businesses, the vast 

majority of which were small businesses, were forced to shut down 

for weeks. The damage was so extensive that some owners chose 

to close their doors for good rather than face the costly cleanup expenses required to reopen their businesses. 

These storms are yet another blow for the town already suffering 

from poor economic conditions. Ensuring that businesses of Aliquippa experience a speedy and effective recovery is essential to 

the region’s overall prosperity and it is in this respect that the SBA 

can play a vitally important role. Since its inception in 1953, the 

SBA has included a disaster assistance component. The SBA’s disaster assistance program provides timely financial assistance in the 

form of low-interest loans and working capital businesses and home 

owners devastated by a disaster. 

Today, the SBA’s disaster loans are the primary form of Federal 

assistance for the repair and rebuilding of private sector losses and 

are not limited to small businesses. SBA loans can also help homeowners rebuild their homes and can help every disaster victim replace damaged personal possessions. SBA loans can even help businesses cover the economic losses they experience as a result of the 

disaster. By July 13th, a week after the storm, the SBA formally 

declared that SBA assistance would be available for the victims affected by the flooding and set up a disaster loan outreach center 

at Aliquippa Elementary School. 

We need to make sure that everyone affected by the flooding has 

had the chance to rebuild their lives and their community, and 

these loans will be an important step in that direction. In the days 

following SBA’s announcement, many small business owners and 

homeowners expressed frustration about the fact that only loans, 

not grants, would be available. Due to the financial resources necessary to reopen a business following a disaster, such as the flooding that occurred right here in Aliquippa, many owners hoped that 

grants would be available, in addition to the loans, to help alleviate 

the financial burden to them. 

3

Unfortunately, rather than apply for SBA loans, some Aliquippa 

small businesses found it was more financially viable to close up 

businesses completely. As of August 7th, 120 loan applications 

have been submitted to the SBA by homeowners and small businesses from Aliquippa. The SBA has approved only four of the 120 

applications that were submitted and provided a total of $204,300 

in financial assistance. Of the four approved applications, out of the 

120 total applications, one was a small business and three were 

homeowners. 

It is my hope that we will be able to receive guidance today on 

why more grants are not available or any grants are available for 

small business owners, as well as why the vast majority of applications for loan assistance for denied by the SBA. Despite this early 

progress, however, more can and should be done to ensure the people of Aliquippa receive the assistance they need to rebuild their 

community. The SBA has a great deal of discretion in deciding the 

terms of its disaster loans and should take every opportunity to 

give disaster victims as much flexibility as it can in repaying disaster assistance. 

The agency must also work to maintain its presence of the 

ground to ensure that disaster victims have the support they need 

when they receive loan applications, get answers to their questions 

and have help in the application process. The SBA must provide an 

adequate number of personnel to assist in its outreach mission and 

must also ensure the application deadlines are adequate for all victims from the disaster. As circumstances dictate, the SBA must 

maintain flexibility in its application deadlines. 

And while the focus of today’s hearing is on the flooding that occurred in Aliquippa on July 5th, communities in Allegheny County 

and Westmoreland County, like Export, Millvale, Murrysville, Ross 

and Shaler, to name a few, were also severely damaged as a result 

of heavy rain and flooding on the nights of August 6th and the day 

of August 9th. More than 1,000 single family homes and over 200 

businesses were affected at an estimated loss of $4 million. Unfortunately, as was the case with the flooding in Aliquippa, the damage to those areas was not severe enough to warrant financial relief from FEMA, since the region did not sustain at least $15 million in damage to state-owned assets. 

The only agency that can provide Federal assistance to flood victims in this case is the Small Business Administration. I encourage 

the SBA to consider the testimony provided here today as it prepares to help the residents and small business owners in Allegheny 

County and Westmoreland County, as well as right here in Beaver 

County, and that all efforts are made to provide flood victims with 

the support they need at this critical time. We must also remain 

vigilant to ensure that the mistakes that plagued the SBA following Hurricane Katrina and Rita in 2005 are not revisited upon 

the people of Aliquippa. This community will be watching and will 

hold the agency to task for ensuring that loan applications are 

processed in a timely manner and that approved loans are dispersed to victims who are waiting for assistance. We must never 

again witness the problems and delays that we saw following the 

2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. 

4

We have often said that small business is the backbone of our 

community and nowhere is this more true than for our small communities. This is why it is important that we are here today to consider to SBA’s role in providing disaster assistance in smaller communities. The overwhelming majority of disasters occur on smaller 

scales and SBA’s response to these types of disasters goes to the 

heart of the disaster assistance mission. 

I look forward to hearing this and want to talk to the witnesses 

and I am thankful to Mr. Mitchell for being here today. And I 

would say, in turning it over to Mr. Mitchell, that the crux of the 

issue here is that these are small businesses that took a chance on 

Aliquippa. This is a town that has fallen on hard times recently. 

A lot of these business owners put their life savings into the effort 

to revitalize the downtown area, right here on Franklin Avenue, 

and unfortunately, they were wiped out in this flood. So it is devastating to think about the fact that the impact could have on this 

community if we lose those businesses and that is the focus of this 

hearing today. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. At this point, I would turn it over to Mr. 

Mitchell. 

STATEMENT OF HERB MITCHELL, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR DISASTER ASSISTANCE U.S. SMALL BUSINESS 

ADMINISTRATION 

Mr.MITCHELL. Good morning, Chairman Altmire, and thank you 

for the invitation to come today and certainly, obviously, the walking tour this morning was certainly enlightening in terms of actually staying and talking to individuals that have been personally 

impacted, but I also have to express, too, that the enthusiasm of 

the individuals to want to rebuild their community and the commitment to get the job done and we ought to be looking for ways 

of how we help individuals and business owners basically get back 

on their feet after such a devastating event. 

On July 5th, Beaver County experienced flash flooding caused by 

over four and a half inches of rain in a two-hour period. The rainfall filled streams and creeks and overflowed rivers, causing overland flooding throughout the area. On the following Monday, July 

9th, SBA received the request from Governor Rendell to declare 

Beaver County a disaster area so that low-interest loans could be 

made available to affected businesses and homeowners. 

SBA arranged a damage assessment with the Commonwealth, 

which was conducted on the following day, July 10th. The assessment concluded that there was enough damage to support the declaration request and it met the agency requirements for declaration, and Administrator Preston signed the declaration on July 

12th. SBA opened a temporary local office on Saturday, July 14th, 

with four employees on site. Within five days of receiving the Governor’s request, SBA was on-site providing one-on-one help to disaster victims. 

In the first four days of operation, disaster personnel conducted 

71 home and business interviews. SBA is still on-site providing assistance to victims at the Disaster Loan Outreach Center in the 

Aliquippa Fire House located at 1499 Kennedy Boulevard. And for 

those who are not able to get in, and we try to make the hours as 

5

flexible as possible, they certainly can call us on our customer service line at 1-800-659-2955. 

Regardless of the size of a disaster, each victim’s need for assistance following a disaster is of the foremost importance and concern. 

As a result of this declaration, SBA can provide assistance to residents in the form of disaster loans to those affected by the severe 

storms and flooding. Loans up to $200,000 are available to homeowners to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate. 

Homeowners and renters are also eligible for up to $40,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed personal property. 

For businesses, SBA can offer loans for physical damage, as well 

as Economic Injury, and this is working capital to sustain the operation, for up to $1.5 million. Economic Injury loans, as I have already stated, are for working capital for small businesses and small 

agricultural cooperatives to assist them through the disaster recovery period. It is only available to applicants and their owners who 

cannot provide for their own recovery from non-government 

sources. 

Businesses of all sizes, and that is, I guess, one of the misnomers 

about the disaster loan program and I guess that the message we 

want to get out, is not obviously limited to small business, but it 

is available to homeowners, renters and businesses of all sizes, 

non-profits, as well, that have suffered physical damage. The staff 

assigned to the Disaster Loan Outreach Center assists in the initial 

application process and provides guidance to the applicant. Once 

the application is filed and submitted to our processing center in 

Fort Worth, it is assigned to a loan officer and case managers 

there, again, working with the applicant so that folks understand 

the process, what they are entitled to and what is needed to process the application. 

For applications that are declined, and certainly we will talk 

more about that, and I certainly will answer any questions relative 

to the decline process so we can address those issues, but once they 

are declined, they receive a letter that outlines all of the reasons 

for decline, the process for reconsideration and what information 

they need to submit to be reconsidered in the process. 

For applications that are approved, they receive a closing package and instructions on how to get the loan closed. Generally, they 

can either call in or come in to the assistance center for assistance 

on how to basically close the package, if they need assistance with 

closing. Generally, the way we disburse, depending on the amount 

of the loan, we disburse as the repairs are being made, so once you 

get a contract and a permit to rebuild, the disbursement process 

can start. But initially, we can disburse up to $10,000 just by the 

borrower signing the note and the loan agreement, just basically 

agreeing to the terms and conditions, then they can follow up with 

the additional paperwork in order to get additional disbursements. 

One of the challenges here, and we are focusing on and obviously, you have already raised the issue, the number of applications versus the number that have been approved, from our numbers and the numbers that I have gotten updated as of yesterday, 

we have interviewed about 150 individuals who actually have contacted us. Most of these folks, I guess, about half of them, actually 

come in to the center; the others by phone. We have issued 132 apVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:30 Jan 08, 2008 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36113.TXT LEANN
6

plications. We haven’t gotten all of those back yet. We have gotten 

back 47 applications and all of those have been processed except 

one. There have been five approvals. I think three home loans and 

only two business loans for a total of about $377,000. 

The challenge here is that if there is a balance between obviously 

providing disaster assistance and providing that in the form of a 

loan. What we try to do is be as flexible as possible in terms of taking—what is the criteria. Obviously, we have the ability to go to 

30 years irregardless of the amount of the loan. What we try to do 

is determine what that individual or business can afford to pay, 

first of all, and then we back in to the term of the loan. Generally, 

in the marketplace, terms of the loans are tied to the life of the 

asset. You are going to go get a car loan, a car loan generally could 

be anywhere from three to seven years, depending on the model 

and make. Well, if you can only afford to pay $50 a month and it 

is going to take you 30 years to pay it, we can make you a 30 years 

loan. 

What we have seen so far, and obviously you are certainly aware 

of the low-income and in most cases, the initial applications we 

have seen, folks just can’t afford a loan. You know, there are situations where we look at the cash flow and individuals only have $15 

or $20 left over at the end of the day and that is after they paid 

their debt. That is before they even address just the cost of living. 

So it wouldn’t serve any of us well to put people in that kind of 

a situation and obviously, you know, we just can’t make a loan, 

even with the most flexible criteria. 

And so certainly, we should have a discussion around what is 

needed; how do we basically bring the resources of the local, State 

and Federal, if there are the resources available in a situation like 

that where people’s basic needs can be addressed. And I certainly 

would be willing to answer any questions and have a discussion in 

terms of where do we go from here to make sure people get the 

help that they need. 

[The prepared statement of Herb Mitchell may be found in the 

Appendix on page 32.]

ChairmanALTMIRE. Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. I would ask you to 

start. Now, we toured the downtown area here with the time available before the hearing and I was curious what maybe your impressions were for seven, going on eight weeks after the flood, now 

what you saw. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Well, I am surprised, though, we have got a lot of 

applications still out and a lot of that may be attributed to the fact 

that folks know that they can’t afford loans, so it certainly wouldn’t 

serve them to submit applications in a situation where they know 

that they can’t or they are not willing to certainly take on debt if 

they are in business and don’t see the process of how do I basically 

make my business successful at the same time I am burdened with 

additional debt. It doesn’t add any value. And so I think there 

needs to be some discussion around what resources are there or 

may be available that can be brought to bear to at least start addressing some of the basic needs. 

On the individual side, obviously, the charities are here and they 

certainly show up in every disaster and I think that is what we 

7

need to make sure that those big ticket items like refrigerators and 

stoves and those kind of things, people have the ability to get 

those, that they are not able to basically get on their own. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And I appreciate the updated numbers, too, 

that we now have one more business is qualified and it is five out 

of approximately 158, I think you said. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Yes. I think there were only—so far we have only 

got eight business applications and like I said, two of those have 

been approved. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. It would seem to me that the circumstance 

that you described, low-income businesses can’t afford to qualify for 

the loans, obviously, they are not going to be able to afford helping 

their own business and paying to clean out and reopen. What options are available? It would seem to me those are exactly the kind 

of people, exactly the kind of businesses that you would want to assist. They are the ones that need the help the most, and as a result 

of the way the system works, they aren’t able to qualify and they 

are the ones that need the help the most. What would your advice 

be to those folks? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Well, I can tell you, from my experience in terms 

of other situations and what some other communities have done, I 

mean, obviously some States, in terms of where they have certainly 

prone to disasters, have brought funds to bear with revolving loan 

pools where basically part of it is a grant, part of it is a loan. There 

is forgiveness, obviously, if you stay in a community for a certain 

period of time. It is tied not only just to helping that business, but 

it is also tied to how that business can make a commitment to that 

community. 

I mean, the last thing you want to do is provide a grant and then 

somebody moves out of that community. And I don’t know what 

discussions are taking place in that regard, you know, short of Federal assistance. I know sometimes there are CDDG funds and there 

are challenges there if you don’t get any emergency supplemental 

to get additional funding, how do you basically reallocate what you 

have and obviously, you know, Allegheny County and some of the 

others, there are competing demands throughout the State. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Is it fair to assume that if there is no supplemental funding that becomes available, that the other funding for 

your agency and other disaster agencies has already been allocated 

somewhere, it is already budgeted to go somewhere else? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Well, that is correct. And here, as you all know, 

Katrina and some other major events, supplementals are not made 

available for every disaster. I mean, that is generally on an exception basis. So generally, most of the Federal agencies are operating 

under the existing authority and existing funding that has been 

made available through the annual appropriation process and in 

this case, the criteria was not there for a Federal major declaration 

through FEMA and obviously, by the president, and so the only 

thing that was available is the SBA, which places, even with that, 

places the responsibility for recovery on the individual because it 

is in the form of a loan, so you know, it is a demonstration of the 

ability to repay. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And I would point out to those that are 

watching this hearing that the SBA is the only Federal organizaVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:30 Jan 08, 2008 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36113.TXT LEANN
8

tion that came to assistance and there might be some disenchantment with folks who were denied and declined, but I do think—I 

want to thank you for the fact that you are the only Federal agency 

that came in here and offered assistance. But these businesses that 

can’t afford to take on the additional burden of a loan, why, and 

I know you don’t speak for FEMA, but if you could comment on 

that and also, certainly, the SBA’s role, why are there no grants 

available? Why is there no funding along those avenues available 

to these people? 

Mr.MITCHELL. SBA doesn’t have the authority. It doesn’t have 

the authority to provide grant assistance and even if FEMA was 

involved at this point, FEMA doesn’t have the authority to provide 

assistance to business. FEMA’s assistance goes to the individual 

and obviously, in terms of in the public sector, in terms of the 

emergency response. Generally, the way grants come about is 

through the emergency supplemental process where oftentimes 

community development block grant funds are made available to 

the State and localities to then shape a program that best fits its 

need, so you don’t have a lot of limitations or restrictions and obviously, that didn’t happen in this case. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Right. Do you think—is that a policy change 

that you think Congress should explore, to give you the authority 

to offer grants? What is the upside or the downside if that were to 

be the case? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Well, certainly not in a position to answer that 

today, but certainly, I think there needs to be a discussion around 

this issue of how do we respond to disasters at every scale, you 

know, when it is not large enough for a Federal declaration, but 

certainly on an individual basis, the needs are the same as in a 

catastrophic event, as well. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And you said eight businesses have applied, 

so I mean, theoretically, there are eight businesses here that had 

an issue and felt like they would seek assistance, so the vast majority of the people who have applied are residences, individuals, 90 

plus percent? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Right. There have been 38 applicants that have 

been individual home owners or renters. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Okay, 30. So you said that the grants were 

not available to businesses. Is there any other avenue for those individuals, for homeowners, residences that have suffered damage? 

Is there anything else you can think of that they could seek out assistance from? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Well, my understanding already, and this happens 

in most disasters and we are fortunate in this country to have 

charitable organizations. In my experience, they are here already 

in this community and have had some discussion with them and 

they are providing and they are doing some intake in working with 

individuals already. That certainly— obviously, people can have 

the ability to do the cleanup, but the big ticket items like, you 

know, the refrigerators, the stoves and that kind of thing, the basic 

things people need to live on but don’t have the resources just to 

go out and buy, so the charities are certainly trying to address 

those needs. 

9

ChairmanALTMIRE. And we are going to hear from some of them 

today. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Right. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And I am thankful that they are here, so 

hopefully, you will be able to stick around and hear what they have 

to say, too. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Sure, absolutely. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. You toured with me the library before we 

came in here and that is obviously not a for-profit enterprise, it is 

not a residence. It is unique to this community, having been built 

in the 1920s, and what are the types of assistance that is available 

for an organization like that, that doesn’t fit neatly into the business or residential side? 

Mr.MITCHELL. And obviously we have already received an application. The challenge there is, as I understand, and I have just 

been briefed on it last night and so we will go back and take a look 

at it to really try to determine what is the ownership. We are limited—by authorization, we can only make loans to the private sector or a non-profit, a private non-profit. The initial report that I 

have gotten back so far is that the library is owned by the city, 

which would make it ineligible for SBA assistance. Now, in obviously, discussions this morning, it is my understanding that the 

city provides a minimal amount of funding and that there is an organization that operates it and the question is can we basically establish that there is a legal private non-profit that is in there and 

what would they be entitled to and how is the property deeded and 

structured. And so we will take a look at that to see if there is a 

way that we can provide assistance. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Well, anything that I can do and certainly, 

the local community can do to help you make that determination, 

we are available to do that. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Sure. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. The last question I would have and again, I 

very much appreciate you being here today, is there any advice, 

and I know you are hesitant to offer advice, but I am asking you 

for it, as the chairman, is there any advice you have on potential 

legislation, regulatory changes that we could recommend that 

would make it easier for the SBA to help people in need, especially 

in low-income communities like this? Is there anything that Congress could do that you are prevented from helping us, in a way 

that we could change the law and offer more assistance? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Well, the challenge is when the primary assistance for long-term recovery—I mean, obviously, emergency assistance is pretty much all grant funds and the funds are made available, but the way disaster response is structured today, the primary responsibility in long-term recovery falls on the individual 

and the primary assistance is in the form of a loan and I think we 

have a great deal of flexibility. The unfortunate part is that it is 

still a loan and at some point, you have to show repayment ability, 

you know, and we can take that out. But again, I think there needs 

to be a joint discussion around what is going to be the Federal role 

in response in particularly, long-term recovery, you know, how do 

we basically structure something that is really helpful where you 

10

don’t get in a situation where, in this case, 90 percent of the folks 

who basically have been impacted are not being helped. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. I know I said that was my last question, but 

I thought of one more. You cover, your agency, your department 

covers the whole country, right? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Correct. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. It is not just a region. So from your experience, knowing the scale of what happened here in Aliquippa, how 

often, around the country, how many times does something on this 

scale—what are you dealing with, exactly? 

Mr.MITCHELL. I have actually been amazed. I have been in the 

disaster office for a little over 12 years. I have been with the agency now close to 29 years. Almost every day of the week something 

happens somewhere in this country. I mean, obviously, a lot of disasters don’t make the news and front page, but I can tell you that 

almost every day of the week something happens somewhere, if it 

is not a flood, it is a fire or it is an explosion or whatever the event 

is. There is probably not a day that doesn’t go by in the last 12 

years that I have been in this job that something doesn’t happen. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Well, I really appreciate you being here. If it 

is okay with you, I would like you to listen to what the next panel 

has to say and if you wanted to make any comments after that 

panel, you are welcome to do so. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Sure. Sure, I would be glad to. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Thank you. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Thank you for the opportunity. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. I will call the second panel up now. Do you 

have name tags? We are going to have three witnesses right now 

and then there are going to be two others. Commissioner Spanik 

is going to join us a little bit later, then there will be one more person following these three. We have before us, and we will go in this 

order, because this is the order I have on the list, Mr. Patrick 

Geho, who is the president of the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce and has certainly been very active in helping some of the 

businesses in this area recover and receive assistance. We have 

Mary Elizabeth Colombo, Executive Director of the BF Jones Memorial Library, right next door where we toured right before this 

hearing. I very much appreciate her being here. And Mr. John 

Feher, owner of Boulevard Sports, and he is going to talk about the 

damage that took place with his business. So at this point, I welcome Mr. Geho. 

STATEMENT OF PATRICK GEHO, PRESIDENT, BEAVER COUNTY 

COMMISSIONERS 

Mr.GEHO. Yes. Thank you, Congressman Altmire. I want to 

thank you for arranging this today and congratulations on your 

chairmanship. It is already paying dividends for the district. Unfortunately, it brings us to this unfortunate incident today that we are 

speaking about. But I just want to thank you and the SBA for 

being here today. I know, and certainly want to allow one of our 

chamber members and a few of our chamber members to talk about 

their specific instances, but one of the opportunities we saw, at the 

Chamber, as we moved forward from this situation is to talk about 

how we move forward from this is, I think, is a big issue is emerVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:30 Jan 08, 2008 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36113.TXT LEANN
11

gency preparedness and how do we move forward from this incident. This community has done battle on the gridiron on the steel 

mills industry and certainly, with Mother Nature. No matter what 

is seemingly thrown at this community, it rises to the occasion. 

But this recent battle with Mother Nature, this is one game that 

no one saw in the schedule. One lesson that we all must take away 

from this is that we must be prepared. Ironically, weeks prior to 

the July 5th flood, our chamber, in conjunction with our 911 center, 

and Wes Hill, the director, who is here this morning, began working with the Pittsburgh Regional Business Coalition for Homeland 

Security and Region 13 task force to identify and catalog business 

assets, including trucks, pumps, warehouse space and subject matter experts. Our emergency responders would call upon these assets in times of need. 

I applaud the SBA for its informative web site and information 

regarding emergency preparedness. The Institute of Business and 

Home Safety web site also includes a section called Open for Business that includes the kind of things a small business should consider in preparing for a disaster and it can be found at 

www.ibhs.org. As a chamber and SBA, we need to encourage small 

business owners to develop a disaster preparedness plan. Just as 

important as developing—it is just as important as developing a 

business plan. Having a disaster plan in place can make a difference between being shut down for a few days and losing your 

livelihood. 

Getting back to business after a disaster depends on preparedness planning done today. Small business owners invest a tremendous amount of time, money and resources to make their ventures 

successful and yet, while the importance of emergency planning 

may seem self-evident, it may get put on a back burner in the face 

of more immediate concerns. For small business owners, being prepared can mean the difference between staying open following a 

disaster. 

An estimated 25 percent of businesses do not open following a 

major disaster, according to the Institute of Business and Home 

Safety, and according to some of those statistics we heard here 

today regarding the applications, I sure hope that is not the case 

for our friends in Aliquippa. We believe our businesses should have 

recovery communications plans in place. Key employees need to be 

assigned as spokespeople so they can contact suppliers, creditors 

and other employees, customers, media and utility companies to get 

the word out that their business is still viable. Also, a spokesperson 

can keep the public informed of rebuilding efforts, if necessary. 

Aliquippa doesn’t need a Monday morning quarterback or any 

football player, for that matter. They do well enough on their own. 

However, all business and homeowners can learn a lesson from the 

misfortune of our neighbors not only here in Aliquippa, but in 

Millvale, that are recovering from another flood. We should all be 

better prepared for emergencies. 

I would like to thank the SBA for quickly establishing the SBA 

Disaster Loan Outreach Center in Beaver County to provide assistance to those residents and businesses that were affected by the 

flooding. I understand that 120 applications have been filed by residents and business owners and I sure hope there is more good 

12

news to come from those. Much of our responses at the Chamber 

has been referring business owners to the SBA, the Small Development Business Center at Duquesne University and Pitt, that we 

work closely with. We assisted the community action group, 

ARISE, which I am sure you will be hearing from, in fundraising 

and seeking dumpsters for garbage removal and also, the Chamber 

is looking to be active in hosting upcoming events for Aliquippa 

business owners so they become more engaged in the Chamber and 

work on our resources to network with other Chamber members. 

We believe with working with not only our members, but our 

banks and others within the community of our chamber, hopefully 

they can be strengthened and pick themselves up from this unfortunate turn of events. But I guess those are my initial comments 

and I certainly want to open up to those that lived it day to day 

and want to yield the remainder of my time, Mr. Chairman, to 

those that were directly affected. 

[The prepared statement of Patrick Geho may be found in the 

Appendix on page 38.]

ChairmanALTMIRE. Thank you. Now, let us go to Ms. Colombo. 

STATEMENT OF MARY ELIZABETH COLOMBO, EXECUTIVE 

DIRECTOR, BF JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY 

Ms.COLOMBO. Good morning, Congressman Altmire, Mr. Mitchell 

and other invited guests. Thank you for granting me time to testify 

on our recent experiences with the Small Business Administration. 

I am Mary Elizabeth Colombo, director of the BF Jones Memorial 

Library, a not-for-profit corporation serving the residents of the 

greater Aliquippa as its public library. I am representing the Board 

of Directors and the many citizens who are customers of the public 

library. We are located at 663 Franklin Avenue in Aliquippa. 

As you are aware, just seven weeks ago the Aliquippa community 

experienced a devastating event. Within a few short hours, excessive rain brought devastating flooding to the Franklin Avenue corridor, the valley between the hills upon which this great industrial 

community was built. The lives of many individuals, businesses, organizations and city government were changed as the flood waters 

roared down Franklin Avenue. Anyone who knows the library’s national historic landmark building and its stately position well above 

street level, would have thought that we escaped the flooding. However, we took the hit when more than six inches of water, mud and 

assorted debris rolled in every below-grade door as a result of runoff from the hillside behind the library. 

In less than two hours the library sustained over $200,000 worth 

of damage to the building and its contents. Our 7500 square foot 

lower level is, by Federal flood insurance definition, a basement. 

This basement is home to our Children’s Learning Center and Children’s Library, as well as many other library functions, including 

all the mechanicals for the building. In 2006, following some very 

aggressive grant writing to secure the funds and with careful planning, we renovated the space to create the Children’s Learning 

Center. The cost was over $240,000. 

The library did have minimal flood insurance coverage, but as I 

already mentioned, because of it being categorized as a basement, 

13

many of the losses will not be covered, including anything that is 

defined as contents. This catastrophic event has been and will continue to be a learning experience for all of us at the library. 

I would now like to direct my comments to our experiences with 

the SBA Disaster Loan procedure. I want to commend Congressman Altmire and his staff for their prompt action in securing the 

services of the SBA at a field office in Aliquippa. Having knowledgeable staff available locally that we could consult with was extremely helpful to us. While we had hoped that there would be a 

FEMA declaration for Beaver County as a result of the flooding 

with opportunities for grants, the library board realized that we 

needed to be proactive in securing a loan to make the necessary repairs to the building and its mechanical equipment. We also needed funds to replace the more than 3,000 books and other learning 

materials that were lost. To return the library to its pre-flood status, we determined, would require over $200,000. 

Within days of the opening of the field office, a representative of 

the library board made his first of several visits to consult the SBA 

staff. Each visit was informative. We came away with both written 

instructions and verbal advice as to what we needed to do to apply 

for a loan. If the field office had not been available, I am certain 

that we would still be floundering around trying to figure out who 

to call and what to do. 

On July 25th, we again went to the field office with our application in hand. The staff reviewed our application for completeness 

and requested some additional information, which we were able to 

supply that day. Our application was overnighted to the loan processing unit in Texas. Two days later, an estimator for the SBA was 

on site to prepare the necessary reports to document our loss and 

our need. During the following week we received a series of phone 

calls from our assigned loan officer as he reviewed our application. 

We continued to supply requested documentation to determine our 

eligibility for a loan. The process moved very quickly and efficiently, in large part due to the support and technical advice from 

the field office representatives. 

On August 9th, just four weeks following the flood, when we got 

the call from the SBA, we thought we got the news we wanted to 

hear, your loan is approved for $183,400. However, a few hours 

later we received another phone call that brought us the news that 

upon further review, the library was not eligible because it was 

viewed as a city agency rather than a not-for-profit corporation. We 

do have the right to appeal the decision. On August 20th we submitted a letter from the mayor of the City of Aliquippa to the SBA 

loan office that we are hopeful will clarify our status as a not-forprofit corporation. We are waiting a decision on that appeal. 

Our overall impression of the work of the SBA is a positive one. 

Before closing, I would like to offer some suggestions for making 

a good process even better. 

Proved the loan reviewers with up-to-date information regarding 

the status of FEMA declarations. While it was useful to have a 

loan officer suggest we delay the process of our application review 

until we applied for a FEMA grant, it would have only delayed the 

process because we knew Congressman Altmire’s staff, that there 

were no grants possible. 

14

As a librarian and a purveyor of information, it would be useful 

for the SBA to have more of an informational presence in public 

libraries. Had it not been for the announcement in the media that 

the SBA loans would be available, I am not sure that the library 

board would have thought of the SBA as a source of help in this 

disaster. It would be useful for the general public to know more 

about the SBA and its services in a disaster. It would be good for 

SBA services to come to the public’s mind at a time of disaster, just 

as the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and FEMA. 

I would like to conclude my remarks with sincere appreciation to 

Congressman Altmire, his staff, the SBA field office staff and public information officer and the SBA staff in Texas who have worked 

with us to secure a loan to restore the library to its pre-flood condition. Thank you all. 

[The prepared statement of Mary Elizabeth Colombo may be 

found in the Appendix on page 41.]

ChairmanALTMIRE. Thank you. Mr. Feher. 

STATEMENT OF JOHN FEHER, OWNER, BOULEVARD SPORTS 

Mr.FEHER. Yes. Thank you, Congressman, for allowing me to be 

here. It is a privilege to be here to discuss this. 

Back whenever this flood started, this wasn’t like the first time 

I ever got water in my basement. I have had water in my basement 

on three other occasions due to the fact that the creek that runs 

beside not only my property, but other people’s property on Kennedy Boulevard, has been totally neglected since all hurricanes 

have come through, whether it was Katrina, Rita, Ivan or just go 

backwards in time. This last time, I had 11 feet of water in the 

basement. Water came through my front door, it came through all 

of my doors and I don’t think a lot of people understand the severity of the damage that was done. I have already filled three 

dumpsters. I have no idea what the financial losses are. I shall be 

able—I will be able to comment. 

I am disappointed with the SBA. I filled out an application. I 

never got a declining letter. I never got anything back in writing 

from SBA and today, I believe we are at August 23rd. I filled the 

paperwork out, I believe it was about the 8th of July. So I found, 

as one of these business people that I guess I am out in limbo here 

where the SBA doesn’t care about me, because if they did, they 

would have written to me. I had contacted someone by telephone. 

The individual I talked to on the phone said I would be receiving 

a letter in about 10 days. Well, over a month has gone by and I 

have not received anything. 

The people up on Kennedy Boulevard, where I am at, the water 

backed up from the creek. Whether it came through where the tunnel was down below, if it was blocked or whatever seemed to be the 

problem, no one said anything. I have heard people talk about how 

clean the tunnel is. If it is clean, where is the video? Let me see 

something that says it is clean as a whistle. I have heard other 

people say there was a gate blocking the entrance where mattresses piled up, everything else piled up and it just back dropped 

completely up. 

15

I mean, where I am at, on my business, up on Boundary Street, 

the water from the city just comes rolling down over the hillside. 

All the debris ends up in the creek. The creek bed, itself, has probably risen eight feet since I bought the building in 1985. I used to 

do my work in my basement. Now I have enough that I could have 

mud baths in there. And as far as any aid goes here, I mean, I 

know Wes Hill was sitting here. Back in a meeting we held up at 

the Aliquippa Middle School, they were going to form committees 

to see what was going to be done. Well, you know what? There 

hasn’t been a damn thing done. 

Up to this date, there have been people walking up and down the 

street, supposedly surveying. You know, we don’t need anybody on 

a recreational survey. The money should be used to start excavating the debris in the creek and not everybody out there looking 

to see what it looks like. It is just the whole scenario is just, I 

think, beyond comprehension, that all this time has gone by and 

there hasn’t been anything done and it doesn’t leave much hope for 

the people up above on Kennedy Boulevard. Everybody had said 

they didn’t know there was water up there. I have photos with me 

that show water coming through my front door. 

The water coming up out of the creek exceeded over four feet. I 

have photos of all the water marks. Besides what money I had lost 

in my business, I have a gentleman that owns Emerald Productions. He prints all his paperwork, everything on the floor was 

thrown into a dumpster. There is a guy next door to me, he has 

Center for Storage. He received all kinds of flood damage and his 

buildings down below, they have been undercut, the asphalt and 

everything from the creek not being taken care of. You know, I just 

need to hear someone give me real answers and I don’t want to 

hear spins. I am too old anymore to hear spins. And I would just 

like to see someone give me something positive from all this, you 

know, whether it is from you, the SBA or anything. And that is 

really all I have to say. 

[The prepared statement of John Feher may be found in the Appendix on page 44.]

ChairmanALTMIRE. Thank you. Thank you. I will give Mr. Mitchell, since you brought up the situation with your specific case, you 

applied on July 8th, you still have not heard a response. Do you 

want to respond to that, Mr. Mitchell, since you are here? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Has the inspector been out to—

Mr.FEHER. I haven’t received anything. I haven’t even received 

a letter saying you have been declined. So when you have nothing, 

where do you go? You can’t go forward with anything. Like, I 

heard, you know, Mary Elizabeth mention the fact that she was 

able to appeal it. How can you appeal something if you don’t even 

have a letter to say this is my docket number, this is my loan number, this is something? 

Mr.MITCHELL. I have already e-mailed them to get me an answer. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Do you think this is a mistake that took 

place or is that a typical type—

Mr.MITCHELL. We are going to find out, but this shouldn’t be 

happening. I mean, somebody should have been in contact, at least 

16

at this point. The inspection of the property should have taken 

place, but we will find out. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Okay. Well, thank you. Hopefully that is 

something that can come out of this. Just going in the order, Mr. 

Geho, you represent the whole county for the Chamber. Have you 

seen any similar situations like this take place anywhere else in 

the county and do you have any comments on SBA and activities 

throughout the county? 

Mr.GEHO. I think, not to rehash a lot that was said, I think, you 

know, I share some of their—you know, when Mary brought up 

about it is always about getting information out and letting people 

know about these opportunities, I think we all can do a better job 

and I know the SBA and the administrator said they are dealing 

with crises every day. I think, until someone gets into that situation, it is always such a Catch-22, that no one thinks about it until 

it lands on your doorstep and you got to react to it and it is just 

one of those tough situations and I think that has a lot to do with 

it. We haven’t heard much activity from our business owners, I 

think, and that is a result of the few people that have filed, unfortunately, for the SBA, like, you know, encourage and see many 

more people do that. I know John did, actually. 

I was at the store and what he is saying, I mean, it is just unbelievable and I encourage you to go over there. I mean, the amount 

of damage and you just cannot believe what 11 feet of water reaching his basement looks like, because I saw where the line went and 

I mean, it is just unbelievable. So he is rightly frustrated and if 

it is something that is reoccurring and it sounds more of an environmental issue with the creek over there, you know, the micro 

bursts that occurred, you know, that we talked about on Franklin 

Avenue. There must be a real issue with the creek bed over there 

that needs to be looked at. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Can you talk about specific Aliquippa and 

the Kennedy and Franklin Avenue corridor, talk about the importance of small business to this neighborhood and how devastating 

it would be if we lost these businesses as a result of this? 

Mr.GEHO. I think, as you said in your opening remarks, that so 

many people put their livelihood, you know, for so many years 

these stores remained vacant, boarded up and now we are seeing 

some rebirth down here, from coffee shops and daycare centers and 

so much good has happened and the tremendous streetscape 

project that has just transpired down here and you know, when I 

first heard the news of all this happening here, that ran through 

my mind, not only the businesses, but I thought oh my God, all 

that beautiful streetscape and all that money and thankfully, many 

of the sidewalks and Federal monies that had happened, that the 

sidewalks and all that had survived and sustained so much damage. But we know this is a resilient town and I hope that resiliency 

holds. 

You know, it is going to be a tough road for many of these people 

because I think, exactly like you said, many people put it all on the 

line the first go-around and it is a grave concern to think if they 

are going to have that backing and I applaud Governor Rendell and 

all our legislators and yourself, you know, having those opportunity 

grants to take care of the interest portion of those SBA loans beVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:30 Jan 08, 2008 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36113.TXT LEANN
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cause even if someone could get a loan, once again, that interest 

portion would kill them on there, so I mean, that was a very creative and great way our State stepped in to aid these individuals 

that I think needs to be applauded, as well. So I think that was 

a very great hand-up to help individuals, as well. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And you talked about preparedness planning 

and how important it is. Do you have any ideas on how what types 

of planning you are talking about to prepare for this? Is the Chamber in any way available to help folks with this type of planning? 

Mr.GEHO. Sure. And I think, as I pointed out, Wes Hill, he is 

working with Region 13 and the SBA has a lot of great information 

on their sites that are really the, you know, pretty much the tools 

and resources, the how-tos for not only homeowners, but individuals, because I think a lot of people down here never saw the situation occurring down here in Aliquippa, so there is a lot of tools and 

the how-tos and what to think about, you know, not keep all your 

records on-site and back up your computer files off-site because if 

you lose them, I mean, you are going to lose them and there are 

some startling statistics and I think when you learn that 25 percent of businesses don’t recover from a situation like that, a lot of 

it is financial, some of it is just because they lose it all. 

They lose all those records that they are never able to recover 

from, so I applaud Wes and he was ahead of the curve because he 

was working on, you know, with the Region and they are really 

taking an inventory of like, all our resources from what does all the 

other communities have, what do our businesses have, that if 

something like this happens, that they could step up and who has 

dumpsters, who has street sweepers, who has some trucks that 

could come in when we have a situation like this that can bring 

immediate needs and immediate help and I think we are getting 

smarter. It always is very frustrating that it takes a situation like 

this to make us smarter and brighter, but I think it is another situation that is causing that, but you know, hopefully we are smarter 

for it. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And I do want to publicly recognize Wes Hill, 

who you mentioned a couple of times, who did just incredible work 

that day and the succeeding days. If he could stand up and let everybody take a good look at you. 

Mr.HILL. I am Wes Hill. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Yes. I can’t tell you the countless ways that 

he helped our office work our way through this and helped the 

community, so I am glad that Wes Hill is here today. 

Ms. Colombo, what happens if the funding doesn’t arrive? What 

is the difference between you getting the funding that you are requesting and you not getting it? What is going to be the difference 

a year from now at the library? 

Ms.COLOMBO. I think we are probably going to see that a lot of 

the things that we lost were not replaced. There are some things, 

as I mentioned when you were on the tour today, we have a sump 

pump that we need to replace, probably $25,000 or more. We have 

to do this whether we get funding or not and if we don’t get an 

SBA loan, we are going to have to look at a loan someplace else, 

which will be more of a debt because the interest rates will be so 

much higher and probably we would not be able to qualify for any 

18

of the State help that came in that Pat mentioned, to help us pick 

up the loan. 

While we have to be reactive to what happened, I think all of us 

need to be proactive, too, and say what is it that we can do to prevent this from happening another time and in our situation, it is 

going to be looking at the infrastructure within the library, such 

as the sump pump, that needs to be replaced because we need to 

get that out of there, as well as looking at what we can do to divert 

and control water that is coming from hillsides that are behind the 

library so that we keep that water out of the building. As far as 

with replacing materials, computers, those are going to be things 

that depend upon how responsive people in the private sector are 

going to be to our fundraising to try to do that, so it is certainly 

something that we need help to be able to do. 

And if I can just comment a little bit about the need to be with 

disaster plans, well, we have a plan that we wrote at the library 

quite a long time ago because it was something that was encouraged in our profession. We realized that was good. It probably 

helped us prevent our loss from being half a million dollars as opposed to where we are at 200 and some thousand because we were 

able to know what we had to do within that first 24 hour period 

to make the building as safe as we could from all of the, what I 

call the evils that lurk in mold and mildew and whatever, aside 

from the mechanicals that have to be done, so I encourage whomever can have training on disaster preparedness, even if it is just 

up in your head rather than on a piece of paper, it is very good. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And I want to thank you for the advice that 

you gave both for Congress and the SBA based on your experience. 

It is unfortunate that you had to go through the process of having 

that experience. But it sounds like, with the exception of the final 

result, which is still up in the air, you had a relatively smooth experience with the SBA? 

Ms.COLOMBO. Yes, we did. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Except for the hiccup with the notification. 

Ms.COLOMBO. Yes, and we are going to get past that. We are 

very confident that we can work through that. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And I was going to give Mr. Mitchell the opportunity, if he wanted to comment on she got the $184,000 approval letter and then gets notified no, it was a mistake and then 

what happens now? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Well, if—and I haven’t seen the letter that she 

submitted for reconsideration, but I suspect where it is right now, 

it is with an attorney to look at the legal aspects, where is the ownership and what is the status of the private non-profit, what the 

private non-profit is responsible for and what you control, you 

know, are the assets controlled by the city or the structure and how 

far do we go with the private non-profit in terms on the eligibility 

and that is how we basically take a look at it. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And without commenting on the specifics of 

the library, itself, but private non-profits are eligible for SBA assistance, correct? 

Mr.MITCHELL. Private non-profits are eligible. In this case, the 

city is somehow in there and we just need to figure that out, 

19

whether or not it is a private non-profit or the city actually owns 

and controls the assets. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Right. Thank you. And thank you, Ms. 

Colombo. 

Ms.COLOMBO. You are welcome. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Mr. Feher, you talked about the dollars that 

we should use to prevent this from happening again and I just 

wanted to assure you that we are doing two things, at least with 

what I am involved in, and one is trying to get to the bottom of 

what did happen on July 5th and why it happened. Was it a situation where it could have bee prevented, that there was a blockage 

that could have been removed and wasn’t? Was it just a 100-year 

occurrence, which you are seeing, unfortunately, more and more 

around the region due to the antiquated infrastructure that exists? 

And perhaps nobody is at fault, but we are going to get to the 

bottom of it and I just don’t want you to think that there is any—

anyone that is ignoring this issue and moving forward, so we are 

trying to figure that part out. But more importantly, to prevent 

this from ever happening again, we are, at the Federal level, trying 

to provide the funding to this region, and I am trying to direct it 

here to Beaver County, to do the infrastructure improvements that 

are necessary to update our waterway system and our sewage system. And this is a situation that has not been dealt with over time 

due to the expense, more than anything else. 

We just passed a water resources bill out of the House that has $90 million for this region, specifically dedicated to this region, 

through the Army Corps of Engineers for them to come in here and 

resolve some of these issues because we can’t have a situation in 

Aliquippa, anywhere in Beaver County, or Millvale, Ross and 

Shaler, where every time it rains, the next day we are having a 

question on where is the Federal aid going to come because of the 

flood. We want to prevent the floods from happening in the first 

place and I think that is the point that you are making. 

So I want to assure you that we are working with the Army 

Corps of Engineers and I am working with them on a personal 

basis to get their attention and get them in here as quickly as possible and do the infrastructure improvements on a permanent basis 

that is going to prevent this type of situation from happening. And 

while we are doing that, we are trying to figure out what happened 

and who is responsible and what is the accountability that is necessary because of what happened, specifically, on July 5th. 

So you are a big part of why that is happening, because of the 

story you have to tell. Unfortunately, you have to tell it. I wish it 

hadn’t happened. But I do want to thank you for coming today and 

give you the opportunity to respond, if you want. 

Mr.FEHER. You know what, I am glad she mentioned sump 

pumps. I have only had to replace three. It seems the creek has 

risen higher than the bed of my basement and I know—it seems 

kind of strange. I am standing in my own business and watching 

water come through the front door and through my floors in the 

basement. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would happen. One of the sad things that I had encountered, there were some 

volunteer groups coming to help me clean out the basement area 

and I had about 14 inches of water in the basement about 10 days 

20

ago and I went down to see the local fire department. It seems the 

local fire department doesn’t pump anybody’s basements. And I sit 

there and I think to myself, I am taxpayer here; they don’t pump 

basements, but at the same time, when you walk in, they got a 

wide screen TV. 

I don’t even have a wide screen TV. And I find it hard that they 

can enjoy all these nice benefits, but they couldn’t afford to buy a 

pump, a submergible pump, just drop it in my basement to get the 

water out so that these wonderful people that have come from all 

over the area to help me clean up could have come to work. And 

it just seems that the people that have come to help, none of them 

were from around this area. People have come from Somerset to 

help me, people from Greensburg, people from Zelienople, people I 

will probably never see again, but it is a shame that you couldn’t 

get any of the help from your own locals. That is where the big disappointment falls into. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Well, thank you for telling your story and I 

am going to ask the panel to stay here while Commissioner Spanik 

gives his remarks because he may something that I would like you 

to comment on, so at this time, we will introduce the chairman of 

the Beaver County Commissioners, the Honorable Joe Spanik. 

Thank you. 

STATEMENT OF JOE SPANIK, CHAIRMAN, BEAVER COUNTY 

COMMISSIONERS 

Mr.SPANIK. Thank you. I apologize that I am late. It has just 

been a busy morning. I had a public meeting today, so I have been 

rushing around, but I think this is important. This is something 

that, as John had indicated, something that is going to be ongoing 

for quite some time if we don’t take care of some of these issues 

that are out there, but good morning. On behalf of my fellow Beaver County Commissioners, Dan Donatella and Charlie Camp, I 

would like to thank Congressman Altmire for holding these hearings in Aliquippa today and for bringing much needed attention to 

the needs of those impacted throughout Beaver County by the July 

5th storm. 

First, I would like to commend the Pittsburgh office of the Small 

Business Administration for the quick and effective response. 

Working in close cooperation with the SBA, our local teams were 

able to assess damages to homes and businesses and secure the 

SBA disaster declaration that, to date, has provided over $376,000. 

I can tell you, when I was there on Thursday, when we first got 

the call to sign off on a declaration on a county and moving it forward to the State level, our assessment folks, Mike Coleman and 

his folks, were out there trying to assess those damages and trying 

to meet those guidelines to do that and the SBA helped us out 

quite a bit throughout that series and I just want to commend 

them for coming in. We truly appreciate their work and want you, 

Congressman Altmire, to know that his Federal agency did a great 

job. 

One of the biggest surprises of the storm was where it caused the 

problems, primarily on Franklin Avenue. I never thought, anybody 

thought Franklin Avenue would be flooded with three to four feet 

of water. Over the past 10 years this region has seen several terVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:30 Jan 08, 2008 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36113.TXT LEANN
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rible flooding events, but most of these occurred along rivers, 

streams or other bodies of water, an area that we almost expected 

flooding to occur. For instance, in 2004, as you well remember, the 

flood at the Green Garden Plaza, not once but twice in Aliquippa 

flooded two times, in a short period of time, in part because of 

stream that overflowed its banks during a heavy rain storm. 

When these rains started in July, there was some concern that 

Green Garden would again flood, but nobody was really paying attention to Franklin Avenue. And I believe this shows that more 

areas are prone to this type of flash flooding then we previously 

thought and that all of our communities need to be increasingly 

aware of places where problems could occur. 

Because of this, I am hoping that the Federal government begins 

to look at creating more programs that will allow local governments to identify issues such as stream beds that need to be 

cleaned out before they back up and fix them. It is not only Aliquippa or Beaver County that faces this problem. As you well 

know, Millvale in Allegheny County, and I know the county has 

gone through this issue several times with Millvale and I know the 

Army Corps of Engineers started to—clean that out. Hopefully, 

that might happen here in Beaver County at the same time to 

some of these stream beds. 

While I understand that FEMA and PEMA both have mitigation 

funds that we have used successfully in Beaver County to try to resolve some of these problems in advance, I am asking Congress to 

take a look at expanding these programs, increasing their funding 

and making them easier to access by local governments. As they 

say in football, the best offense is a good defense and we all need 

to start looking for problem areas before they occur. 

The other issue that I would like to address is the need for more 

flexibility in determining eligibility for State and Federal disaster 

declaration. It appears to me that many of the Federal programs 

are designed to respond to major flooding disasters where rivers 

overflow and damage large land areas, not to respond to more localized flooding like we experienced along Franklin Avenue. 

And I believe one of the issues SBA had told us, because that 

flash flood occurred in Beaver County, an isolated area, and then 

several weeks later, in Allegheny County, he says if it would have 

happened all of southwestern Pennsylvania, well, we don’t wish it 

on anybody, but these are the ways of floods that are occurring on 

these flash floods, because it is isolated areas that doesn’t create 

enough of the dollars to meet those guidelines to help the residents 

and the business owners. And so I would like the Federal government to take a better look at how these floods occur and the equation of where it meets the guidelines to get the Federal funding 

help available; we are just not meeting those. 

When we struggle to find enough damage to qualify for Federal 

assistance, even after checking again and again, we were just able 

to meet the minimum standards for SBA loans, but no grants or 

no assistance for public property that was damaged. Nevertheless, 

the people, business and public agencies throughout Beaver County 

did suffer great losses. Whether it is 10 homes or a thousand, the 

effects of the damage who live there is devastating and often longVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:30 Jan 08, 2008 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36113.TXT LEANN
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term. Some businesses may never reopen or reopen with a larger 

debt than before. 

Most homeowners will receive no government help and as you 

are well aware, the City of Aliquippa’s police department and municipal buildings were affected but again, do not qualify for Federal 

government assistance. Thankfully, the Commonwealth and the 

governor was able to provide the police department with replacement police cars and some additional aid, but in general, this community is forced to deal with the loss of its government infrastructure on its own. 

Congressman Altmire, I am asking you to examine the minimum 

standards that any community across the country must meet to 

qualify for additional Federal assistance and see if these programs 

can be adjusted to account for small disasters that have an equally 

big impact on families, businesses and local government. As county 

commissioners, we are grateful for the many organizations and people who did help. Police and fire departments from across the county showed up immediately to help local departments and once 

again, I know Wes Hill, our EMS director and his staff was on the 

job immediately. 

Region 13, southwestern Pennsylvania’s 13 counties, I think, 

John, you indicated, where they come from all over, this is something that we talk about, regionalization, we talk about cooperation. As you can see, on Thursday and Friday, the type of assistance we got, this is immensely needed when we have these type 

of smaller disasters and I just want to thank Region 13 and all 

those emergency—and county commissioners who represent that, to 

pitch in when communities like ours needed help. 

Our own county department assisted local responders with expertise and assistance. The Commonwealth also stepped forward with 

those special grants and a program to pay interest for the businesses who qualified for SBA loans. And of course, we cannot forget 

the many private groups that helped; the Red Cross, the Salvation 

Army, churches, community organizations, others. As you well 

know, they are still ongoing. I believe there is a project out there 

called ARISE who is still out there in the community trying to 

raise funds to help these businesses and homeowners to get over 

these damages that have occurred. 

We, as a community, did pull together and I am really proud of 

that. In conclusion, I would once again like to thank you, Congressman Altmire, for holding these hearings in Beaver County, and I 

know that you are well aware of the challenges we face every day 

and have continued to provide advice and advocacy in Washington, 

D.C. I do hope that what you have heard today from our community will help you go back into Washington and work with your colleagues in Congress and the appropriate Federal agencies to continue to develop new programs and new funding sources to help all 

Americans in these situations. Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Joe Spanik may be found in the Appendix on page 45.]

ChairmanALTMIRE. Thank you, Commissioner Spanik, and I really appreciate you not only coming today, but all the work that you 

have done on this issue from July 5th forward. I don’t think there 

23

was anyone that was on the scene more often than you were. I 

know every time I was here and every time I had some of my staff 

here, you were there, too, and you really deserve a lot of credit. 

Mr.SPANIK. I appreciate that. And just to say, you know, you 

elect me as county commissioner. I believe that is our role and responsibility, taking care of the needs of our community. And if we 

are not there to me, that just shows that we don’t care and I can 

honestly tell you, we do care about our community, whether it is 

Aliquippa Center, Big Beaver, Freedom, Economy, Ambridge, no 

matter where it is at in this county, we do want to be there to help 

assist businesses and homeowners in their plight of what is going 

on. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And you talked about the minimum standards and asking that I go back to Washington, which I will, and 

review the minimum standards. The purpose of this hearing is specific to the SBA, as you know, and I wonder if you could comment 

on your experience. You touched on it, but maybe go into some 

more detail with the SBA, in particular, as you went around the 

community after the disaster. 

Mr.SPANIK. Well, just like anything else, when this disaster hit, 

it was called upon the local government of Aliquippa to sign off on 

a declaration and we were called in to sign off on a declaration, but 

then the county assessed the damage and as you know, floods hit, 

five inches of rain in two hours, you just can’t get around. The first 

responder was to make sure the needs of the people, getting to 

safety, was the first thing on everybody’s mind and I can honestly 

tell you, that did happen, because there could have been some tragic losses. 

Some experiences that I heard when I was out and about within 

those damaged areas, that there could have been some loss of life 

and I got to agree that the first responders who were there on a 

local side, county side, made sure the safety of the public was at 

hand first. Secondly, it was the part beginning the cleanup and as 

you all know, we only have a small group of folks to go out and 

assess these damages with the Red Cross and our assessors team, 

when, in fact, that these declarations happen, then that puts on 

place the SBA. And when I believe Jim Bachman came in, he had 

his team ready to go and he assisted us immensely to create and 

help us get to that minimum limit to make sure that we are able 

to meet those standards. 

And once again, this is not the first time that SBA has been in 

there. Just last year, I believe it was last year, I know—would say 

this at any time we have any type of disasters, the SBA, at a local 

region and also on the national level, has always been there. We 

had a terrible train wreck in New Brighton which created some 

hazardous material and they were on the spot immediately that 

evening. And once again, I cannot say enough about the staff that 

does it. And once again, it is not their hands that are making us 

tied up with these limits that we have to meet, it is just regulations that are imposed by the Federal government to meet these 

criteria. 

As far as the SBA is concerned, I can go back to when I first 

started out with the United Way. I was on the job for 10 days and 

we had a Category 4 tornado that hit all of western Pennsylvania. 

24

It actually was less than a mile from the home where I lived in 

North Sewickley and they were there and as you can see, a tornado, the damage it creates, was a lot more extensive and we are 

basing these criteria on would it be a Hurricane Ivan or a Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Dean or a Category 4, Category 5 tornado, where they cause immense damages. 

Well, we have these spot floods. When it hits certain areas, there 

is no way they are going to create the type of damage, the amount 

of money that is needed to meet these criteria. These are a different type of operation, but at the same time, the homeowners, the 

businesses, the government entities, non-profits, are still impacted, 

whether it is a huge disaster or a small one. We got to meet a higher level than expected and I don’t think anybody wants a Category 

5 or the type of devastation that happens, but I think assistance 

coming from SBA, FEMA that understands that we need to change 

the regulations when these type of disasters hit because it is happening time and time again, that these homeowners, who, like I 

said, some are staying, some aren’t; businesses staying, some are 

not, that is devastating to them to keep on going, dipping into their 

pockets. 

As you all know, this is not a flood prone area and if you had 

flood insurance, it still never would have been covered. So people 

are trying to make do and as you know, our economy isn’t back to 

where it once, 10, 15, 20, 25 years ago, when the great town of Aliquippa and Midland and Beaver Falls and Ambridge and the great 

steel mills and the type of economy that was thriving, it is not like 

that anymore and we have a large community of senior citizens 

that are on fixed income and this has impacted them. And so once 

again, I think the SBA steps in, no doubt, on a first responder 

basis. They are there to help us out, but their hands are tied. We 

need a change of regulation in trying to assist our community or 

any community in America to try to help these folks out and get 

by through the problem. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Well, thank you. I want to thank the panel, 

thank Commissioner Spanik, Mr. Geho, Ms. Colombo and Mr. 

Feher. I really appreciate you telling your story. I know it is not 

easy to do, in many cases, but it is critical to our mission of trying 

to improve the situation for what happened and make sure that it 

doesn’t happen again. So thank you and if we could make room, we 

will have one more—a couple of people speak here. I wanted to 

bring up one renter who applied for an SBA loan and was rejected, 

and if she could very briefly tell her story, Ms. Terica Pope, and 

I am going to ask—Commissioner Spanik mentioned ARISE, the 

community organization that has been just fantastic in working 

with the community and trying to help some of the people who 

have been harmed by this flood, so I am going to ask Felicia Mycyk 

to come up and introduce Ms. Pope. And again, I would remind you 

this is an official hearing for the U.S. House, so what you say is 

being recorded and will be entered into the record for the U.S. 

House and if you could keep the introduction to two minutes and 

then Ms. Pope’s remarks to five minutes, that would be appreciated. 

25

STATEMENT OF FELICIA MYCYK 

Ms.MYCYK. Well, I wanted to make mention, first, thank you for 

allowing me to speak. We came together, working with Wes Hill, 

actually, with the voluntary organizations, all the organizations; 

Salvation Army, Beaver County Behavioral Health, Lutheran Services. There is a number of organizations that we are working with 

and to make sure that all of those organizations and their donations get allotted properly, we put together a long-term recovery 

group which is called ARISE. We are based at Common Grounds 

and we have a caseworker on board with us who is actually going 

into the homes and seeing what actually is needed and with these 

loans being denied and without the help, as Bill was saying from, 

Boulevard Sports, it is not immediate. People aren’t seeing the people out on the street and just because they are surveying it is not 

immediate, so what we are trying to do is show them that we are 

putting a long-term recovery process together for them. I wanted 

to make sure that the people heard from a renter, because that is 

what the majority of the residents here are that are getting denied. 

STATEMENT OF TERICA POPE 

Ms.POPE. Hello. My name is Terica Pope. My family and I lost 

our home as a result of the flood on July 5th. I went seeking help 

from many organizations trying to get help for me and my family. 

I went to the elementary school two or three times to apply for the 

SBA loan. The first time I went, the representative there discouraged me and my husband and telling us that we didn’t make 

enough money and that our credit was not good enough. She told 

us all of that without even knowing what our financial situation 

was. She only had our address and she got a paper from in the box 

for people who would be denied for the SBA loan. So me and my 

husband turned around and walked away, looking for answers to 

our many questions. 

A few days later, my husband and I decided to go back to apply 

for the loan. We did get to fill out the application this time, but 

the second representative that we talked to said that it was likely 

that we wouldn’t get approved, but we could fill out the application, 

anyway. About two weeks later, we received a denial letter for the 

SBA loan. So here we are, homeless with four children, wondering 

what we are supposed to do now. The second representative from 

the SBA loan did, however, inform us that if we were denied the 

loan, that they would give us names of organizations that would be 

able to help people like us. 

We have not received any information concerning this matter. 

My husband and I applied for the loan because we lost everything, 

including our pet dog. Some things that we lost are replaceable; 

however, we lost a lot of things, such as my wedding dress, pictures 

of our deceased loved ones, that are not replaceable. This money 

was going to help us get a new start in the right direction. So my 

husband and I still have many questions, but the biggest one of 

them all is what happens now and what do people in our condition 

do. 

My prior landlord contacted me two weeks after the flood. At 

that time, he had informed me that he was going to do the repairs 

in the house so we could move back in. He contacted me and told 

26

me, later, that we could move back in, but that we knew that the 

house had to be inspected, so I asked him at that time if the house 

was inspected and he told me that it was up to me. We had a lot 

of electrical stuff, our whole entire basement was under water. Our 

first floor, our living area, our dining area, everything was under 

water, so we had to have an inspector come in and the house had 

to be tagged for us to move back in and that wasn’t done. So not 

only did I have to find someone to inspect the house, but I had to 

pay for it, too. 

About a week later, he again contacted me and told me that he 

would give me my deposit and he recommended that I find another 

place to live because this was costing him too much money. I did 

find another house only to find out that he gave me a bad reference, saying that me nor my husband had paid him rent for July, 

which was the month of the flood, nor August. But me and my family was not able to live in the house because it is not in livable condition. I called him to see what the problem was and he told me 

just to get what we could salvage out of the house and just to basically just leave the house. I asked him about my deposit and he 

hung up the phone. Since then, me and my family have gone from 

living in hotels to living with my mother-in-law. So I stand here 

in front of you, asking you what are people in my condition supposed to do now?

ChairmanALTMIRE. Thank you for telling your story and specific 

to the SBA and your process, you mentioned that you were told you 

were going to receive a list of other organizations that could help 

you. 

Ms.POPE. Yes. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Who told you that? 

Ms.POPE. Whoever, the second time that we went out there to 

the elementary school, the second representative, I can’t remember 

her name. It was weeks ago. But she did say that we would be provided with—

ChairmanALTMIRE. That was a representative from the SBA? 

Ms.POPE. Yes. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Or was it—

Ms.POPE. No, it was a representative from the SBA loans. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Okay. And before you applied, before you 

sent in your application and they discouraged you from doing so, 

why did they say that you shouldn’t apply? 

Ms.POPE. She didn’t have any of our financial information. Basically, all she had was our address and that was it. She had, like, 

just our names. That was it. She didn’t know—I mean, I work, I 

pay tax dollars, you know. My husband, again, he works, too. She 

did not know our financial situation at all, but she went on, you 

know, and drew her own conclusion without knowing anything. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And I don’t want to get into your personal financial situation, but do you feel like you and your husband are 

in a position to take on additional debt and repay a loan over time? 

Ms.POPE. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Okay. Well, thank you for telling your story. 

I would ask Mr. Mitchell if he maybe wanted to step up and respond to what you have heard. 

27

Mr.MITCHELL. Well, obviously we want to make sure you have a 

better experience and I surely can’t speak to the specifics, but I can 

tell you how the process should work. When you come into the center, you should be explained what is available to you, what is the 

eligibility criteria and how to apply. Nobody can keep you from applying, okay? You can apply. And no matter what you are told, you 

have a right to fill out the application and submit the application 

and get an official decision. 

What normally should happen is, in the interview process there 

should be some questions about what is your family size, what is 

your income and obviously, we don’t have credit information. What 

they are trying to do is determine whether or not you can afford 

a loan, which is we have what we call minimum income guidelines. 

If you, for example, you have a family of three and your only annual income is $5,000 a year, it is reasonable to assume that you 

are not going to be able to take on any debt. And generally, what 

happens in a situation where there is a Federal declaration, we can 

take that information and without putting somebody through an 

application process, we can get them to FEMA immediately, okay? 

That is the goal. 

Hopefully, and maybe we need to do a better job in making sure 

we don’t discourage people through that interview process, but I 

am telling you, your rights, as a citizen, you have the right to file 

an application no matter what you are told and we can make sure 

we get the application, we can make sure we get the information 

we have on available other resources that are available to you, as 

well, in the community in terms of charitable organizations. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And Ms. Pope, you did end up filing an application, is that correct? 

Ms.POPE. Yes, we went back and we did file. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Okay. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Okay. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. And that you were denied? 

Ms.POPE. Yes. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Okay. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Okay. Well, I would ask Mr. Mitchell, if you 

could maybe take a second look at that particular application and 

give it a second review and do the appropriate thing. 

Mr.MITCHELL. Absolutely. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. But I am happy that you were here to at 

least hear some of the concerns. I know that the SBA does the best 

they can in these situations, but there are some examples where 

it doesn’t go as smoothly as I am sure you would like and certainly 

not the community would like. 

Mr.MITCHELL. And usually I get most of those. I don’t see it 

when it goes right. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Good. Well, thank you, Mr. Mitchell, and 

thank you both for coming up here. Did you have something else? 

Ms.MYCYK. Yes, one of the things that the group is doing, we are 

going out and we are cleaning creek beds, businesses—this past 

week we had about 60 people go out and actually help and we have 

a video that we want to pass on to you. 

ChairmanALTMIRE. Oh, great. I will take a look at it. 

Ms.MYCYK. Thank you. 

28

ChairmanALTMIRE. Thank you. Thank you to the SBA for coming 

here. Thank you to our second panel. Thank you to the two of you. 

And I very much appreciate Aliquippa for allowing us the use of 

the space here in the town hall to hold this hearing. I am going 

to go back to Washington and incorporate some of these things, as 

we move forward. And again, as you know, my office is here in Aliquippa and I put it here for a reason, because I want to be part 

of this community and I want you to use that office when you have 

any questions about this issue or any other issue of concern to you. 

Please be in touch with us. We are here to help. So with that, the 

meeting is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:35 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

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