Glenwood Springs-based Alpine Bank has given loans to 69 federal employees on the Western Slope, in an effort to help furloughed workers weather the government shutdown.
Bank president Glen Jamarron reported Friday that the financial institution has $13 million earmarked for interest-free loans in the ongoing program for government employees who are off the federal payroll.
The program, launched Oct. 4, offers loans to federal workers who've been furloughed during the government shutdown. If federal employees bring a pay stub to an Alpine Bank branch, the bank will loan them the net amount from a pay period. Employees can apply for multiple loans, which take less than a day to process, and are interest free for one year.
Recipients will have to pay back the loan after the shutdown ends.
Government workers are now in their 12th day without pay, as Congress continually fails to pass a budget.
The bank aimed to help locals who work for federal agencies, while they're temporarily out of a job or working without pay. It's open to any affected federal workers, not just those with Alpine Bank accounts.
"A lot of people can go a without one paycheck," said Jamarron. "But it's nice to know they don't have to go [without] two."
Federal employees with Alpine Bank credit cards also may defer payments during the shutdown.
Jamarron said loan recipients have included U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Transportation Security Administration employees.
There are an estimated 54,000 federal workers in Colorado.
"Who knows when we'll get paid and whether we'll get back-pay or not," said Peggy Jo Trish, the Maroon Bells Scenic Area manager for the Forest Service. "It's so thoughtful of Alpine Bank to do this."
Trish went to the Aspen branch of the bank on Friday — which would have been her pay day — to inquire about the loan program. A bank representative told her she needed a pay stub, so she went home to print one off of the Internet, because she uses a direct deposit system.
Ironically, Trish explained, she couldn't print one out because the government website was down due to the shutdown. She said she'll find a printed pay stub, and hopes to enroll in the loan program on Tuesday, when banks reopen after the Columbus Day holiday.
The bank offered similar loans in 1995 and 1996, during the last government shutdown. Jamarron pointed to the program as a natural outgrowth of a locally based bank that's connected to the people it serves, and as a benefit of being a small bank that can quickly act in customers' interest.
"It's the right thing to do," Jamarron said. "The people that manage and run and work in the bank, we live where the customers live, and know them, our kids go to school together, we ski with them. ... When you're connected to the community you can see something like this that the community needs."
andrew@aspendailynews.com
