USDA is funding 102 rural community facility projects with $58 million immediately with Federal stimulus funding. Up to now, USDA has made $179.6 million in funding available for community facility projects, and in addition to that amount, USDA Rural Development has provided $58 million plus an additional $41.1 million came from other sources.
The USDA Rural Development Community Facilities Program helps to finance essential community facilities such as child care centers, hospitals, medical clinics, assisted-living facilities, fire and rescue stations, police stations, community centers public buildings and transportation. One recipient of the funding is the City of Mountain View located in Arkansas which used the funding of $50,000 to purchase first responder equipment.
In Whitehall, Montana, the Rural Development Community Facilities Program is providing a $450,000 loan and a $14,000 grant to Liberty Place, Inc., a non-profit corporation that conducts brain injury rehabilitation. The funding will be used to purchase a facility and expand the brain injury care program. Liberty creates structured programs to enable people severely disabled by a brain injury to live in a home-based setting.
The Rural Development program is providing a $9.4 million loan to Guadalupe County Hospital to replace an outdate facility in New Mexico with a new 10 bed acute care hospital and medical clinic. The new facility will serve Guadalupe County, a federally designated health professional shortage area as well as several small villages and surrounding communities. The Guadalupe County Hospital is the only emergency care facility on Interstate 40 between Albuquerque and Amarillo Texas.
