02.09.11

Durbin Announces $840,000 in USDA Funding to Create Jobs in Mattoon

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded $100,000 in grant and $740,000 in loan funding to the Coles-Moultrie Electric Cooperative, located in Mattoon, Illinois, through the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program.

The Coles-Moultrie Electric Cooperative intends to use today’s funding for the modernization and renovation of the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center hospital, also located in Mattoon, retaining an estimated 1,614 jobs and creating an estimated 17 new jobs in the region. USDA’s Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program aims to provide funding to projects that will create and retain employment in rural areas. This funding is part of more $8.5 million awarded nationwide by the USDA today.