Savannah Small Businesses Sound Off on Economy

As News Three's Community Reporter Alice Massimi explains - since the President doesn't have a lot of time to meet with individual businesses in Savannah - he's asked for some homework to be done in advance.
The President's office actually called the city Friday and asked it to prepare a report outlining the state of small business in Savannah. So city officials called a meeting, a roundtable of sorts, to give businesses a chance to air their concerns and hopefully not have them fall on deaf ears, but the President's.
Business is good at Kennickell Group... not great but better than this time last year...
As the oldest family owned business in Savannah, they've just about seen it all.
“No I've never seen anything like this and I've been in the same job for 30 years. The climate for small business is tougher than it has ever been,” says Al Kennickell the owner of the Kennickell Group.
Kennickell says the hardest part still, since fallout from the big bank bailout, is getting credit.
It's an issue repeated by almost every small business at this impromptu forum.... even by the banks....
“We would like to have more capital so we could provide more financing for small business and other individuals and institutions with in our community,” points out Robert James the President of Carver State Bank.
James says not only are the bigger banks to blame, but they're the only ones who received any help.
“The first TARP funding went to large national organizations and those organizations have not made loans to small businesses throughout the nation and certainly have not done so in Savannah,” points out James.
Something all of these people hope changes... especially with this once in a lifetime chance...
“My hope is; he is coming here, that he wants to hear what small businesses have to say and that he hears us and does something about it,” says an optimistic Kennickell.
Savannah's Mayor was also at the meeting, Mayor Johnson says the concerns and suggestions on how to help Savannah's economy will be passed on to President... some of them include the desire for high speed rail, the deepening of the Savannah Harbor and supporting an expansion of the green sector.