USDA funds variety of rural projects

BOZEMAN – Economic and community-development projects in rural Montana will receive $174,665 in
grants and $925,000 in loans, says Tim Ryan, state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural
Development.
"These projects help invest in and create jobs in these rural communities," he said.

The Billings Gazette

The projects include:

Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Fort Peck Reservation, Brockton: $64,545 Community Facilities Grant.
The money will be used to build a senior-citizen center in Brockton. The center will provide nutrition
counseling, Meals on Wheels, social activities and health-screening services for about 60 senior citizens.

Grass Range School District 27: $50,000 Community Facilities Grant. The grant goes to build a
multipurpose activities addition to the existing school. The addition will include a community room, weight
room, pool, kitchen facilities and locker rooms. This addition will serve both the school and community
through athletic and educational programs and cultural events.

Liberty Place Inc., Bozeman: $50,000 Community Facilities Grant. The grant will finance a new 12-bed,
long-term care center for treatment and rehabilitation of victims of traumatic brain injuries.

Beartooth RC&D, Joliet: $7,000 Rural Business Enterprise Grant. The money will be used to complete a
feasibility study for a new, multispecies meat-marketing cooperative business known as Montana Natural
Meats. Rural-development money will help determine where and how the group can achieve the greatest
return for its investments by detailing the feasibility of a marketing co-op and a combination retail store
front, storage, marketing and distribution center.

Southeastern Montana Development Corp., Colstrip: $3,120 Rural Business Enterprise Grant. The funds
will be buy kitchen equipment to update and convert a closed school into a commercial kitchen.

Since the mid-1990s, Colstrip has lost more than 500 jobs in the local mining and power-plant operations.
Effects of the downsizine was reflected in the declining Colstrip school population, which forced one school to
close. The project will save and create new jobs and keep a successful, growing food-manufacturing business
in the area.

Community Health Partners Inc., Livingston: $925,000 Community Facilities Direct Loan. The loan will be
used to buy the building that Community Health Partners leases. The program offers access to medical
care and literacy programs, including GED preparation, to low-income people.

The money also will be used to expand clinical services and consolidate the literacy operations to one site.
Plans call for adding a pharmacy to the clinic operations and access to mental-health care.

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/07/12/build/local/96-grants.inc