Free Business Recovery Help Sets Up in Milton and Jay Today, Navarre Wednesday, as the Bridge-Loan Clock Runs
The Florida SBDC Network's Mobile Assistance Centers are in Santa Rosa County all week - Milton and Jay on Monday and Tuesday, Navarre on Wednesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. - with free, confidential help on damage assessments and disaster loans. The state's zero-interest bridge loan deadline is November 25.
The household side of Hurricane Isaias recovery has had its lines and registration points for weeks. This week, the business side gets its turn in person. The Florida SBDC Network has deployed its Mobile Assistance Centers into Santa Rosa County, starting today: consultants are set up Monday and Tuesday, November 2 and 3, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Santa Rosa County Economic Development Office, 6491 Caroline Street, Office 4, in Milton, and at Jay City Hall, 3695 FL-4 in Jay. On Wednesday and Thursday, November 4 and 5, the centers move south to the Santa Rosa County Visitor Information Center, 8543 Navarre Parkway in Navarre, on the same 10-to-6 hours.
The help on offer is the unglamorous kind that decides whether a damaged business reopens: confidential, no-cost consulting on the recovery resources that exist, help preparing disaster loan applications, and guidance through the FloridaCommerce Business Damage Assessment survey - the form the state uses to gauge business losses, justify additional relief and direct resources, on which owners should select Hurricane Isaias as the incident. The SBDC Network deploys the mobile centers as a principal responder in Florida's Emergency Support Function for Business & Industry, bringing the consultation to the county instead of asking owners to find it.
The date that gives the week its urgency is November 25. FloridaCommerce's Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program - $10 million in short-term, zero-interest working capital loans meant to bridge a business to longer-term funding or insurance proceeds - closes to applications on November 25, 2026. Owners who cannot reach a mobile center this week are not out of options: the Florida SBDC at the University of West Florida provides regular no-cost consulting across Northwest Florida, at sbdc.uwf.edu. But for a Santa Rosa business still staring at a damaged roof, a lost month of revenue, or both, the shortest path to the paperwork starts at a folding table in Milton or Jay today.
