Deputy Under Secretary Doug O’Brien from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development office was in Altoona, PA today to announce the award of a $400,000 Intermediary Relending Program loan to the Altoona-Blair County Development Corp. The award to ABCD Corp. was part of an announcement from USDA that they have awarded $6.3 million in loans to 17 communities under this round of IRP funding.
This investment represents the fifth allocation that ABCD Corp. has received under the USDA-IRP program since 2001. Over the past 11 years, ABCD’s IRP program has assisted over 40 rural Blair County businesses and in just the past 5 years alone, has leveraged in excess of $11.5 million and committed the creation and retention of over 135 jobs.
The IRP program’s purpose is to alleviate poverty and increase economic activity and employment in rural communities. A number of companies that have benefited from this program were in attendance at the event including:
- Dr. Julie Milinak from Milinak Family Vision Center
- Tony Russo from the Phoenix Restaurant
- C.A. Detwiler from Forshey’s Ag & Industrial
- Joe Harford from Reclamere
- Patty and Brian Shaw from Shirley’s Cookies
“We are extremely thankful to the USDA’s Rural Development team for their tireless efforts to insure that communities such as ours are afforded opportunities for growth and competitiveness in a global economy,” said Dan Hoover, First VP of ABCD Corp.’s Board of Directors. “This new allocation will greatly assist our efforts to assist rural companies here in Blair County.”
For more information on this program and our entire suite of funding options, please contact Paul Cooney at 814-944-6113 or paulc@blairalliance.org
Information is also available on our website at https://blairalliance.org/business-services/incentives-and-financing/
