For local businesses that get vandalized, the Echo Lacombe Association will soon have a fund available to help get them running again in a prompt fashion.

The city’s Community and Economic Development Manager Guy Lapointe says financial aid will come in the form of an interest-free loan that would be repaid once a business owner’s insurance claim gets processed.

“(For) smaller businesses, a $1,000 hit to a window is quite costly, especially when you need to open the next day. You know insurance is not going to respond right away, so the idea is to provide that assistance so they can get back working without taking any sort of financial hardship in the short term,” he says.

“The hope was, we wouldn’t be handing out. We’d give you some funds to help you out with immediate need and hopefully that money comes back and can help others out in the same situation.”

Lapointe says stay tuned for a formal announcement introducing the program.