County to offer Rural Development Grants

The Board of County Commissioners has given the Lincoln County Economic Development Council the go ahead to administer a 2015 round of Rural Development Fund grants. Commissioners approved updated program guidelines at their regular meeting August 3, setting the process in motion.

The Rural Development Fund comes from a portion of sales and use tax that the state allows rural counties to spend on public facilities serving economic development purposes. Lincoln County chooses to disburse much of their tax through a grant program. All eight of Lincoln County’s incorporated municipalities are eligible applicants this year, as are Lincoln County’s Public Development Authorities, Lincoln County and the EDC. Eligible applicants are encouraged to invest in partnership with others in the local community; one of the grant program’s guiding principles. State law requires that facilities financed with the rural sales and use tax be listed in a county or municipal capital facilities plan or listed in the county’s economic development strategy.

The Economic Development Council will again administer the process. Program guidelines and applications will be available to download from its website (www.LincolnEDC.org) on September 1. The deadline for completed proposals will be October 15. Proposed projects must be “shovel ready” and able to be completed within a one-year time frame.

If you have questions about the guidelines of the process, you can contact the EDC by calling 509-725-1170 or email Margie Hall, Executive Director, at Margie@LincolnEDC.org.