Of the roughly $5.18 million USDA Rural Development California allocated to Amador County last fiscal year, the bulk - $3.25 million - went to the Amador Water Agency as a combined loan and grant for the Plymouth Pipeline Project.
The city of Plymouth has launched eminent domain proceedings, in order to continue progress on the pipeline.
A local small business was refinanced with a Business & Industry Guaranteed Loan. It is in the nature of loans and those who arrange them to maintain confidentiality. The Amador Economic Development Company, which was involved in this loan for $1,150,000, was not at liberty to reveal the recipient.
Rental assistance to help low-income families with their rent payments added up to $652,680. This money was paid to make up the difference between actual rents and what families can afford. According to the USDA's spokesperson in Davis, Sarah Pursley, "We provide rental assistance to those living in USDA-financed properties ensuring they do not spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent." Subsidized rental units in Amador County are the Jackson Apartments and Meadows II Apartments in Jackson, Sutter Hill Place in Sutter Creek and Joses Place in Ione.
Another substantial sum of money, $96,500, was granted to the Central Sierra Resource Conservation and Development Council. The CSRC&D is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the maintenance or restoration of the integrity of cultural, economic and ecosystem health in Sierra communities. Part of a much larger national Resource Conservation and Development Council, the local council has members from Amador, Alpine, Calaveras, Mono and Tuolumne counties.
CSRC&D was involved in nearly $1 million worth of projects in 2007, primarily dealing with the Upper Mokelumne Watershed, Dry Creek Watershed, Ramshorn/Shakeridge Fuel Reduction, Markleeville Creek Guard Station and the Alpine Watershed. Plans for the future include establishment of farmers markets in each county, creation of bio-mass processing plants and founding of a regional cultural arts center.
Four senior homeowners in Amador County were given grant money totalling $30,000 to aid in repairing health and safety hazards in their homes. USDA Rural Development Section 504 grant funds are available, "to remove health or safety hazards, or remodel dwellings to make them accessible to household members with disabilities."
The county allocation was a modest part of the $405 million the United States Department of Agriculture invested in rural California last year, according to the agency's annual report released earlier this month.
Nearly $112 million in grants and loans were provided to California rural communities for facilities and infrastructure, including water distribution and wastewater treatment systems, telecommunications, hospitals, health clinics, schools, and to meet the needs of rural law enforcement and fire suppression agencies. Rural areas eligible for community programs funding are generally defined as those with a population fewer than 20,000.
More than $108 million was invested to support entrepreneurs in rural areas, organizations which assist small and emerging businesses, and renewable energy production in California. These investments, primarily made in the form of loan guarantees to private businesses, saved or created more than 3,400 jobs in rural communities throughout the state.
An additional $104 million was provided to create first-time homeownership opportunities for hundreds of rural families, including those who took advantage of USDA's Mutual Self-Help Housing Program.
USDA Rural Development's Mutual Self-Help Housing Program enables groups, generally eight to 10 families, to work together over the span of 15-18 months to build their own homes under the guidance of a construction expert. USDA Rural Development helps with construction financing with local housing developers and extends low-interest loans to new homeowners.
The agency's Multi-Family Housing Program, which makes grants and loans for new construction, repair of apartments for low-income tenants, and for construction and renovation of farmworker housing, contributed more than $80 million to the investment total.
With $35 billion in agricultural production last year, California's contribution to the nation's total farm economy of $275 billion dwarfs all others. Texas comes in a distant second at $19 billion and Iowa, which is nearly 90% farmland, an even more distant third at $16 billion.
The United States Department of Agriculture allocates funding back to the various states in what is called the USDA Rural Development Program. California's share of rural development funds for 2007 totalled $405 million, of which Amador County benefitted from a total USDA investment of $5,179,180, or 1.3% of the statewide total.
Further information about any of the activities, loan/grant programs or other services provided by the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program is available at their Web site: www.rurdev.usda.gov.
| Jerry Budrick |