USDA Allocates $3.6M for Rural Iowa Businesses and Emergency Services

By Cami Koons

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development has awarded more than $3.6 million in “pass through” loans and grants to local utilities to benefit community businesses and emergency services.  

Iowa’s Rural Development Deputy State Director Henry Kummerer announced the grants Thursday, which will impact Butler, Carroll, Decatur, and Webster counties. 

The funding comes from USDA’s Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program, which helps local utilities establish revolving loan funds to support projects that will create or retain jobs in their communities. According to USDA, the loans to the local utilities are interest-free.

USDA awarded $1 million each to Raccoon Valley Electric Cooperative and Corn Belt Power Cooperative to establish pass through loans to Iowa Corn Processors for the purpose of updating equipment and a packaging line at a milling facility in Glidden. 

According to the news release from USDA, the pass through loans to Iowa Corn Processors will create five new jobs and spur economic development in Carroll County.

USDA awarded a $1 million loan to Central Iowa Power Cooperative to pass through to Industrial Hardfacing Inc., a Lamoni-based manufacturer that makes custom parts for rendering, meatpacking, oil seed and pet food production. The pass through loan is expected to create six jobs, fund a building expansion and equipment purchases. 

Two pass through grants, each for $300,000 will help establish a dental practice in Fort Dodge. One grant will go to the Dumont Telephone Company in Butler County and another to Lehigh Valley Cooperative Telephone Association Inc.

Both utilities will use their $300,000 to establish a revolving loan fund to Erika and Thaylan Bowman as White Oak Dental, to purchase a dental practice in Fort Dodge. 

A news release about the grants said this project will “promote employment, expand dental care options, and support economic development” in the rural area.

Lastly, USDA is funding a $83,333 grant to Rockwell Cooperative Telephone Association for the creation of a revolving loan fund that will partially finance a new fire department and emergency services facility in Bristow. 

The release said the repayment of the loan will be used for “future business and community development loans” to spur economic activity in Bristow and surrounding Butler County communities. 

Kummerer said the local utilities receiving the pass through grants and loans help “unleash innovation and entrepreneurship” in their communities. 

“Under the leadership of the Trump Administration, USDA is continuing to partner with co-ops to support job creation and to promote economic development in rural Iowa,” Kummerer said in the release. 

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