USDA Rural Development Funds New Hampshire, Vermont Grantees with More than $1,000,000

Eagle Times Staff
MONTPELIER, Vt. – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) State Director of Rural Development in Vermont and New Hampshire, Sarah Waring, announced on Aug. 28 that the Agency is investing $1,064,000 to municipalities and non-profit organizations in both states through the Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant Program.

The grant funding is part of the Agency’s $808 million national infrastructure and jobs initiative focused on helping rural cooperatives and utilities build and improve electric infrastructure, water systems and community facilities in rural areas.

“With this essential funding through Community Facilities grants, rural towns throughout the Twin States will see quality of life improve in real time,” Waring said. “From a state of-the-art Styrofoam recycling machine in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, to municipal buildings generating renewable energy in Coos County, New Hampshire, these investments provide a path forward for people looking to make the right economic and environmental choices.”

For example, in Lyndonville, Vermont, the Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District will purchase a commercial-grade polystyrene recycling machine with help from a $36,000 Community Facilities grant. In the first year of use, it will recycle roughly four tons of waste material, which will be sold to a commercial buyer to use in foam insulation panels.

In Colebrook, New Hampshire, solar panels on public works buildings will offset 100% of the costs to operate them. This will provide approximately $81,000 in annual savings over the next 25 years and generate carbon-free energy on site.

The funding advances President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to grow the American economy from the middle-out and bottom up – from rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, to driving over $500 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating well-paying jobs and building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make communities more resilient.