By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members authorized the application for a half-million dollar federal grant to establish a revolving loan fund for small local businesses.
The council on March 26 unanimously approved a resolution authorizing Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez to submit a grant application to the Fiscal Year 2024 Rural Business Development Grant Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Michael Garcia, assistant to the city manager and city grant writer, explained the program in a handout included in the council’s information package.
“The city of Del Rio requested $500,000 in funding, no cost match required, to create a revolving loan fund to provide 0 percent interest loans to small businesses in Del Rio and Val Verde County. The loans will range from $5,000 to $100,000 and will require businesses to retain or create at least one full-time job for each $5,000 loaned from the revolving loan fund,” Garcia wrote.
Garcia noted the USDA’s Fiscal Year 2024 Rural Business Development Grant Program “is a competitive grant program designed to support targeted technical assistance, training and other activities leading to the development or expansion of small and emerging private businesses in rural areas that have fewer than 50 employees and less than $1 million in gross revenues.”
“Programmatic activities are separated into enterprise or opportunity-type grant activities. The purpose of this grant program is to promote economic development and job creation projects through the awarding of grant funds to eligible entities. Applications will compete in two separate categories, business opportunity grants and business enterprise grants, for use in funding various business and community projects that serve rural areas,” Garcia wrote.
He also wrote qualifying projects under the revolving loan fund could include the following:
“Acquisition and development of land, easements and rights-of-way; construction, conversion, enlargement, repairs or modernization of buildings, including façade repairs, plants, machinery, equipment, access streets and roads, parking areas, utilities and pollution control and abatement facilities; loans for startup operating costs and working capital; technical assistance for private business enterprises; and that the grantee has a goal of creating or retaining at least one full-time job for each $5,000 loaned from the fund,” he wrote.
After reading the heading of the agenda item, Mayor Al Arreola asked for a motion on the resolution. Mayor Pro-tem Steve Webb made a motion to approve the resolution, with Councilman J.P. Sanchez giving the second.
Arreola asked if there were any questions.
When there were none, Arreola called for a vote on the motion to approve the resolution, which passed on a unanimous vote.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
