A bailout: Some say it's really needed, others yes, but ...

Executives and owners of several Hampton Roads businesses endorsed plans for a bailout of the nation's financial markets Friday, but some expressed wariness about the $700 billion plan that was being debated in Washington.

Stephen Ballard, owner and chief executive officer of S.B. Ballard Construction Co. in Virginia Beach, said he called Republican U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake on Friday to urge her to work for speedy approval of the plan.

"I told her she needed to make this thing work and get it done... so that on Monday the American economy comes back," he said. "We need to get this resolved... so the American public gets some confidence back and everyone stops being in such a panic."

Objections from House Republicans brought the talks to a standstill Thursday. Late Friday, Democrats said they had accepted a Republican proposal to create a hybrid plan that would keep the securities in private hands.

Ballard said his business has been hurt by the economic slowdown and credit crunch. Of the 27 units in the Bayvista condominium complex that Ballard built in Virginia Beach, 10 remain available.

"We haven't sold one since January," he said.

A residence hall he had hoped to build at Norfolk State University also has been delayed.

"The American economy right now couldn't take another hit," Ballard said, "and I'm concerned about the housing industry and the building industry."

A major government effort is essential for stabilizing the nation's financial markets and spurring confidence among bank depositors, said Brad Schwartz, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Monarch Bank in Chesapeake. But, he said, the Treasury Department program was designed to help Wall Street's investment banks rather than Main Street. Community bankers, he said, are monitoring several details, including the Treasury's plans to insure the assets of money-market mutual funds.

Schwartz, who joined about 50 other Virginia bankers at meetings in Washington this week with members of Congress and federal regulators, said lending will slow significantly unless the financial markets receive some sort of support.

One part of the Treasury plan, which calls for buying troubled car loans and sour credit-card debt, probably would be eliminated, Schwartz said.

A solution to the credit crisis lies with the federal government because "the problem is big, and there isn't anybody else who can step forward with the safety net that's needed," said Jack Gibson, president and CEO of Norfolk-based Bank of Hampton Roads and its parent, Hampton Roads Bankshares Inc.

Some of the region's small-business owners voiced concern about the way the bailout package was put together.

"I'm not questioning the fact that we need to do something dramatic," said Rowena Fullinwider, president of Rowena's Inc., a food manufacturer based in Norfolk. "However, to do this without a clear definition of oversight makes me as a citizen, more than a businessperson, really, really nervous. I would like that oversight defined and put into whatever they're going to do about it."

Fullinwider said she was disconcerted by the speed with which many politicians signed on to the program.

"I don't think everyone should go, 'Yes, yes, yes, just throw it out there,' " she said. "It looked, to me, like that's what was happening. I was flabbergasted."

In Virginia Beach, Edward L. Hamm Jr. said he thought the government had to take action.

"The approach that they've selected would have a dramatic impact that would show the investors in those kinds of institutions that the government is behind them," said Hamm, president and CEO of the engineering and consulting firm E.L. Hamm & Associates Inc.

Hamm, however, isn't convinced a bailout is necessary.

"My intuition tells me that if we do nothing, the probability over time is that we would be OK," he said. "But that is a risk that I'm not willing to take."

Bill Putnam, co-owner of Progressive Window Co. in Virginia Beach, said the bailout plan would help his window-installation company by easing fears about the national economy.

"I don't like the government getting involved in something like this, but I think we're at the point where he have to," Putnam said. "When people are fearful of their future, their retirement, their personal cash flow, they are not spending money."

The Treasury's bailout package came under a blistering critique earlier this week from John Allison, the chairman and CEO of BB&T Corp., the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based parent of Branch Banking & Trust Co. and brokerage firm Scott & Stringfellow Inc. The Treasury's plan "is primarily a bailout of poorly run financial institutions," Allison wrote in a letter to some members of Congress.

Allison faulted the program's architects for not focusing on housing-related issues and called for direct government purchases of housing assets, including lots and houses under construction.

Protecting the nation's banking system is an established government function, said Allison, who is scheduled to retire from BB&T at the year's end after almost 20 years as its top executive.

"It is completely unclear why the government needs to or should bail out insurance companies, investment banks, hedge funds and foreign companies," he said.

Tom Shean, (757) 446-2379, tom.shean@pilotonline.com