OKLAHOMA CITY – The federal government has invested more than $920,000 in rural business development and rural energy grants in this state.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this month awarded 10 grants totaling almost $905,000 to assist eight entities in business development and job creation in rural Oklahoma.
Recipients of the grants included:
• The City of Comanche: $46,000 to buy and convert an abandoned service station into a small business incubator. A coffee and doughnut shop will utilize the space, the USDA reported.
• The Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation: $99,425 to buy equipment that will be leased to Kochendorfer Craft Brewing Co., enabling it to pivot production to hand sanitizer during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• Southwest Intermediary Finance Team, Inc.: $99,000 to purchase optometry equipment for lease to the Shortgrass Community Health Center in Hollis.
• The City of Comanche: $100,000 to buy and renovate an abandoned motel property, to create a public market that will host up to 40 vendors.
• Southwest Intermediary Finance team, Inc.: $123,028 to establish a revolving loan fund to assist businesses in Caddo County.
• Rural Enterprises, Inc.: $69,900 to buy 30 laptop computers to lease to the Women’s Business Center, which will provide hands on software training to small businesses in rural communities.
“Through this program businesses will have access to training and technical assistance, business incubators, or new equipment,” said Dr. Lee Denney of Cushing, a former veterinarian who is now the state director of USDA’s Rural Development Oklahoma. “This investment is not only saving jobs, it is creating jobs in our rural communities.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also is spending $18,434 to help an ag producer and a business make energy upgrades in rural Oklahoma via the agency’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).
The two projects the USDA is fund- ing are:
• Denmar Enterprises: a $12,136 grant to buy and install a solar array at their wheat farm in the Newkirk area.
• Discount Steel of Krebs: a $6,298 grant to finance a lighting system upgrade.
“With this funding, these businesses can lower their energy costs and use that savings to grow their businesses and create jobs,” Denney said.
To receive a USDA REAP grant, a business must be located in a rural area that has a population of 50,000 or fewer residents, while agricultural producers may be in rural or nonrural areas. The funds must be used for renewable energy systems, such as wind, thermal, solar, biomass, etc., and may be used for the purchase, installation and construction of energy efficiency improvements.
For example, a West Virginia poultry farmer used a REAP grant to install solar panels that generate electricity for his poultry production house. And a USDA REAP grant paid nearly one-quarter of the cost of solar panels a Missouri farmer installed to power a ventilation system in his 5,000-head hog barn.