USDA funding targets County $25 million given in grants, loans

CARIBOU – The last leg of a trip through Aroostook County this week by staff from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development agency brought checks worth more than $12 million to businesses and organizations in Caribou and Fort Fairfield.

Officials from USDA Rural Development spent two days in The County earlier this week handing out a total of $25 million worth of grants and loans to beneficiaries in central Aroostook and the St. John Valley.

In Caribou on Wednesday, staff from USDA Rural Development – including Michael Aube, state director for the agency – joined officials from the Northern Maine Development Commission and representatives from the state’s congressional delegation to hand over a $199,000 Rural Business Enterprise Grant to NMDC.

Some of that money will help in delivering technical assistance and other support to area manufacturers, Bob Clark, NMDC’s executive director, said Thursday.

“This could be money to help provide training to employees or maybe there is a trade show that a manufacturer wants to attend to sell their products,” Clark said. “We will provide them with a small grant to assist them, probably a maximum of $5,000, which they will have to match.”

The grant also will provide skill building and sector awareness services for the region’s tourism industry.

Northern Maine Development Commission’s Northern Maine Finance Corp. also benefited from a $387,000 Rural Business Enterprise Grant. The money was used to buy a building in Caribou that is geared toward helping facilitate the development of small and emerging private businesses.

Clark said the building allows NMFC to provide affordable space for emerging businesses to establish themselves and eventually grow. Half of the building is being occupied and officials hope to have the remainder filled in the next several months.

Before the day ended, the Tri-Community Recycling and Sanitary Landfill in Fort Fairfield was handed a $12 million Water and Waste Disposal Loan.

Mark Draper, solid waste director for the landfill, said Thursday that the money will help finance a number of projects at the site that will be completed in the next few years.

The loan will help finance work that will allow the overall landfill to expand vertically.

“We are going to make the landfill higher to use space more efficiently,” he said, adding that the increased capacity is projected to expand the useful life of the landfill by 15 years.

The loan also will help with environmental remediation projects and pay for the construction of 3,100 feet of pipeline to transport leachate from the landfill site to the wastewater treatment plant in Caribou for treatment and disposal.

“Our intent is to have these projects completed in 2010,” Draper said. “We hope to begin work within the next two weeks.”