The Journal

The Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado will receive $300,000 of revolving loan funds from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to meet the region’s growing loan demand for startup and agriculture businesses throughout the region.

“EDA-RLF funding will help build our entrepreneurial infrastructure where the need for funding is for startup and early stage businesses that do not have the history or track record to be bankable but are diversifying our rural communities in product offerings and creating or retaining jobs,” said Jenny Stollar, Region 9 business loan officer.

Region 9 had initial funding from EDA in the early ’90s that seeded the microloan fund activity that continues to this day. The funds will be matched by $300K of Region 9 funds resulting in $600K of new business impact into the region.

“This additional EDA funding provides us another tool to meet our growing loan demand from rural businesses,” said Laura Lewis Marchino, executive director of Region 9. “We received 166 loan inquiries last fiscal year and closed 33 loans. Those numbers are not going down.”

For more information, contact Region 9 at 970-247-9621 or www.scan.org.