Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 2, 1993 TAG: 9309020183
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Pulaski Town Council is revising its guidelines for the revolving loan pool that Urban Development Action Grants have funded, and studied the proposals at a Finance Committee meeting Wednesday.
The action grants were first awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1978 for communities in economic distress. Basically, their purpose was to create new jobs.
Pulaski became a UDAG beneficiary in 1984, when $2 million went to Pulaski Furniture Corp. to buy the assets of Coleman Furniture. Pulaski Furniture recently announced an expansion that will add more than 100 jobs.
Another $1 million in UDAG funds was combined with other loans and grants in 1986 to create Magnox Inc., now one of the town's major industries. Magnox is in the process of expanding.
Pulaski Furniture and Magnox repay the UDAG loans directly to the town, which puts the money into a fund to make other loans for industrial expansion, as part of loan packages using banks and other lending institutions. Those loans are also repaid and the process continues.
The UDAG funds made up the town's share of the 1990 loan used to get Jefferson Mills through a marketing downturn. The industry is under new ownership and doing well.
During the 1991 calendar year, the town loaned more than $380,000 in UDAG funds to create new jobs.
The funds have also played a key role in the revitalization of Pulaski's downtown business section in the past year.
A $33,750 loan last October to E. Sargent Hoopes III was part of the package that made possible the first of many antiques and collectibles stores filling formerly empty buildings on Main Street.
Other UDAG loans have included $28,500 to Maria Luise Ryssel-Flynn and Muriel Flynn for the business area's fifth antiques and collectibles store, and $30,000 July 6 for working capital for Ellery's Blues & More, an entertainment and dining facility under development.
Assistant Town Manager Rob Lyons has prepared an eight-page draft based on the town's UDAG experience as a starting point for the Finance Committee's work. He also adapted sections of guidelines used by other communities for their revolving loan funds and economic development assistance programs.
The committee concentrated on a list of rules for eligible and ineligible projects Tuesday, but decided to soften "rules" to "guidelines" because there could be exceptions to some of them.
The committee also spent 35 minutes in closed session to discuss two personnel matters and one economic development matter. It will meet again on the UDAG guidelines at 7 a.m. Friday.
by CNB