Rural Areas Get Grants

August 17, 2001

USDA will provide $3.65 million in loan and grant requests to meet business, housing, and electric and waste water infrastructure needs throughout rural Georgia. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman made the announcement during a visit to Georgia.

Fort Valley State University is selected to receive $150,000 to provide economic development assistance in areas of Georgia where poverty persists along with high unemployment. Areas include: Crisp-Dooly EC/EZ, Macon County Champion Community, along with the counties of: Peach, Bleckley, Crawford, Taylor, Schley, Pulaski, Dodge, Sumter, Taylor and Wilcox.

The City of Crawfordville (Taliaferro County) has been approved to receive $1.6 million in loan and grant funds for renovations and improvements to the city's aging sewer system. In addition to the USDA funds, a $500,000 community development block grant will be provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Improvements will benefit 233 residential customers and a new charter school (200-250 students) scheduled to open in the fall of 2001.

A $1.2 million loan guarantee to the Federal Financing Bank (FFB) for Middle Georgia Electric Membership Corporation in Vienna, GA, has been approved to upgrade electric service to rural areas of Georgia. The loan guarantee will allow Middle Georgia Electric Membership Corporation to build 40 miles of new distribution line, make system improvements allowing service to be extended to 578 new consumers.

Three rural business and community development proposals will receive $56,547 in grant and $400,000 in loan funds designed to assist in the fostering of economic development. Approximately 160 jobs are expected to be created as a result of funds provided through two USDA Rural Development programs: the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant (REDLG) program and the Rural Business Opportunity Grant (RBOG) Program.

Five Star Nursery Growers Cooperative has been chosen to receive a $6,547 RBOG to provide technical assistance for marketing nursery production; Bulloch County has been chosen to receive a $50,000 RBOG to develop a construction plan for an agricultural complex; Colquitt Electric Membership Corporation has been chosen to receive a $400,000 REDLG (loan) to renovate a vacant building in the city of Moultrie by the Joint Development Authority of Colquitt, Thomas, Grady, Mitchell, and Brooks Counties, for lease to Farmland National Beef.

For housing, $255,222 in grants will assist rural Georgians with needed home repairs and improvements. Grant recipients will combine USDA grant funds with other funding sources to provide assistance to homeowners in 32 counties in Georgia. Middle Georgia Community Action Agency, Inc. will get a $127,611 grant to provide 25 very-low or low income households with financial assistance to rehabilitate or repair their homes. The Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, Inc, gets a $127,611 grant to provide 35 very-low income households with financial assistance to rehabilitate or repair their homes.

Earlier this week, Veneman, on a visit to Texas, announced the "pending approval" of $20 million in loan and grant funds ($10 million loan and $10 million grant) for the construction of a new source of water for the city of Abilene and neighboring communities.

Officials from the City of Abilene, while not an eligible area for funding, requested on behalf of the 12 rural communities USDA funds to assist in the construction of a 51-mile water transmission line from Lake O.H. Ivie to the city's water treatment facility. The improvements are expected to provide over 14,000 rural water customers in 12 neighboring rural communities with a new source of safe, clean water.

Veneman said that a final approval on the loan/grant application is expected upon completion of an environmental review, which can come as early as the end of this month. "Once the environmental review is complete, Abilene can expect the ‘green light' to move forward with their water improvements," she said.