Small Cities Development Grants approved for local communities

By Deb Gau
For several small communities in Southwest Minnesota, good things came in threes.

This spring, the cities of Cottonwood, Wood Lake and Echo, and Balaton and Russell, along with Rock Lake Township, will receive funds from two Small Cities Development Grants awarded by the state. The grants were awarded one each to the trios of communities.

“I think the state is increasingly interested in seeing joint applications. It’s a very competitive program,” said Paul Olson of Development Services, Inc. DSI wrote both grant applications.

The grant going to Cottonwood, Wood Lake and Echo totals $527,664, while Balaton, Russell and Rock Lake Township will receive $596,736. With the grants, some 20 commercial buildings and 35 houses will get low-interest and deferred loans to make building improvements, Olson said.

“We’re really pleased it did come through,” said Balaton mayor Del Rutz. “Now we’re just waiting for DSI to do the follow-up work.”

Cottonwood Community Development Coordinator Charles Seipel said he met with DSI on Tuesday to sign the grant agreement.

Starting May 15, more information will be mailed out to people who had expressed interest in the grant.

Seipel said the grant will cover repairs for 16 businesses — eight in Cottonwood, four in Echo and two in Wood Lake — and around six houses in each town.

“We’re figuring $20,000 for each house,” Seipel said, but there is some flexibility, because “probably not every house is going to be $20,000.”

In a phone interview with the Independent on Wednesday, Rutz said he couldn’t remember the exact breakdown of the Balaton/Russell/Rock Lake grant funds, but it would be distributed among all three communities.

“There are two focuses that the (grant) program tends to have — building conditions, and also a focus on utilities improvements, like water systems,” Olson said.

But the building improvements applying for loans can also be maintenance or appearance-related, like new siding or repairs. “It’s nice the program not only meets the physical needs of a building … but it can really make a big difference on the look of the community.”

The grants were smaller than what both community trios had initially hoped for, Seipel and Rutz said. That’s why the grant process started with pre-applicants, or people interested in applying for a low-interest loan.

“Our goal is to allow the people on the pre-application to have those funds first,” Seipel said.

“There’s definitely an interest” in the Small Cities Development loans in Cottonwood, Seipel said, especially for improvements in energy efficiency and updates for Main Street businesses.

Similarly, Rutz said, “Balaton has some older residential houses and commercial buildings that are older, too. It’s just a matter of rehabilitating them.”

The two grants were among six awarded this year in a cluster of nine southwest Minnesota counties, Olson said.