FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 24, 2005
For more information contact:

Rachel Girt, WBC: 307.777.2851

WBC Board recommends $4.8 million in Business Ready applications

CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Business Council’s Board of Directors recommended $4.8 million in Business Ready Community Grant and Loan Program applications at their public meeting in Casper on March 24.

The Business Ready Community Grant and Loan Program is a multi-year program designed to promote economic development at the city, town and county level in order to improve economic health and a stronger state economy.

The Board’s recommendations will be forwarded to the State Loan and Investment Board for decision at their meeting to be held in Room 1299 of the Herschler Building in Cheyenne, at 8 am on April 7.

The Wyoming Business Council’s Board of Directors approved the following Business Committed applications from Ranchester, Shoshoni, Evanston and Pine Haven:

• The town of Ranchester received a $154,777 Business Committed grant to expand a 10” municipal waterline along Highway 14 west toward a commercial area just outside the town's boundary. With the expansion of this waterline, Wyoming Log Home Manufacturing Co. will be able to relocate and expand its manufacturing plant to a larger and more visible site. An existing business, Rantec Corporation, will also be able to attach to the new waterline.
• The town of Shoshoni requests a $1.5 million Business Committed grant to construct a railcar repair shop. Under contractual arrangement, the building will be constructed by, owned by, and leased by the regional Community Development Organization (CDO), IDEA, Inc. BTI, an existing business with operations in Shoshoni, Laramie, Kemmerer, and Moorcroft, will donate their property to IDEA, Inc., and lease the building at $5,000 per month from, IDEA, Inc.
• The city of Evanston requests a $3 million Business Committed grant to construct a phased 60,000 square foot building on 11.5 acres in the municipally owned Union Center Business Park. The city will lease the building to Everett Graphics, which is relocating from California. The city will recapture the funds from the lease payments and those dollars will be used exclusively for economic development purposes. Everett Graphics plans to create 18 jobs the first year with an annual payroll of $486,000. Everett Graphics currently employs 75 full time employees in Oakland, California and would like to grow the Evanston facility to the same level.
• The town of Pine Haven received an additional $123,500 for a Business Committed grant to help construct additional water and sewer lines to a proposed grocery store/fueling station. In October 2004, the SLIB awarded Pine Haven, at the recommendation of the Business Council Board, $495,900. The purchase of the original site fell through, but a new two-acre location was found across and further south of the original site. The new location requires additional infrastructure.
  Under the Business Ready Community Grant Program, Business Committed projects are infrastructure projects where an applicant has a business committed to expand or locate in the community. Projects up to $250,000 require a minimum five percent match of total project costs, and projects over $250,000 to $1.5 million require a minimum ten percent match of project costs. An applicant may request Business Ready grant funds for multi-year phased projects.

The mission of the Wyoming Business Council is to facilitate the economic growth of Wyoming. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.wyomingbusiness.org.

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