Rural Development Loan to Create Jobs in Central Wis.

A Stevens Point community action agency has been awarded a $380,000 rural development loan to help create jobs in central Wisconsin. The federal program has already had a major impact on the state’s economy.

CAP Services of Stevens Point has a mission of helping low-income people become self-sufficient. The federal loan should create at least 19 local jobs by providing money for start-up businesses, according to CAP CEO Mary Patoka. She said, “Sometimes the answer for people is to start a business. You know there are some people who will say don’t take a job, make a job, and for those with that entrepreneurial spirit, we want to be there to support them.”

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, Patoka said many would be entrepreneurs cannot get loans, “Access to capital and credit is still very, very difficult for especially start-up businesses or low income individuals. Conventional bankers are still shy and unwilling to take some of the risk.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development program pumped $558 million into the Wisconsin economy last year. Money went toward job creation, energy development and health care. It also funded water, sewer, electric, telephone and broadband infrastructure.

Wisconsin Rural Development Director Stan Gruszynski believes it was money well spent. “Well, I really don’t think that the government should ever waste money. These are tax dollars. They are entrusted to the government to be spent wisely, but to suggest that we can survive in this kind of a worldwide economy without the support of government investment and the support in rural communities like we have in Wisconsin is just foolishness,” Grusynski said.

Wisconsin is the number one state in the nation in the amount of rural development funds received and projects funded.