Jul. 27—The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing $185 million to equip, rebuild and modernize essential services in rural areas of 32 states, with nearly $2 million going to Oklahoma through the Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant Program. And Cherokee County stands to benefit.

"The Biden-Harris Administration has made investing in infrastructure improvements a priority," USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Justin Maxson said. "These loans and grants will help rural communities invest in facilities and services that are vital to all communities, such as schools, libraries, hospitals and health clinics. They also will help rural communities continue to beat the COVID-19 pandemic as America builds back better and stronger."

Whether it's applying for a grant or loan, any entity — such as a town, nonprofit organization, or a tribe — with a population of less than 20,000 is eligible. For grants, the USDA has to make sure the entity has been profitable in the past.

"We don't want to put grant dollars into a dying entity," said Ronnie Jones, community programs director.

The grants have to go toward education, social or cultural improvement, public safety or health care. The lower the household median income — based on the American Community Survey from 2005 through 2010 — and the lower the population, the higher the grant percentage is.

"When they come to us with their proposal and their financial package, we underwrite their package to determine if they can pay for this project on their own, and/or obtain commercial credit for this project," Jones said. "So they can apply, but there's not a 100 percent guarantee they're going to get a grant. If it's a $20,000 application, we may go back and say, 'You need to put in $10,000 of your own money and we're able to grant you $10,000.'"

The maximum grant is up to $50,000. If a group applies for a $100,000 project, for example, and were eligible for the maximum amount, it would have to come up with the remaining $50,000 using its own resources or from other funding, such as donations or other grant sources.

Currently, there are also disaster funds available as a result of tornadoes and floods from 2018 and 2019. The funding comes with the same parameters as the grant program, except the grant can be up to $500,000.

Entities with expensive projects in mind might instead apply for a loan, which can go up to 40 years.

"If they're going buy a piece of equipment, we might only do a loan for 10 years or 15 years," Jones said. "The interest rate is very competitive. The lowest interest rate is 2.25 percent, and the interest rate is determined by the median household income."

For public bodies, some common uses of the grants or loans may be for a backhoe, police car, firetruck, ambulance, or occasional street improvement. The USDA has given grants to nonprofit organizations for projects like community centers, food pantries or vehicles for food delivery.

"For schools, we see a lot of buses or transportation vehicles," Jones said. "Since COVID and all the kids being homeschooled, we're seeing a big push for computers for the students. If you think about a city and what services the city provides, you're looking at anything for the police department, the fire department, for ambulances, libraries, city halls, hospitals, nursing homes. You can see some of these get into the bigger dollar figures and there's no way they could do their project with just the grant program, so they'd have to go over to the loan program."

Get help

For more information about the USDA Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant Program, visit rd.usda.gov or call the northeast Oklahoma office at 918-682-8831.