| OCR Text |
Show Grand Has Good Chance For EDA Qualification Commissioner Mars Pope commented early Wednesday morning that he feels Grand County has an excellent opportunity op-portunity of qualifying for the Economic Development Administration program a program which nas been active in surrounding counties. coun-ties. This conclusion was drawn after a meeting with the representatives of San Juan, Carbon, and Emery counties which was held on Tuesday and attended by Commissioner Pope and Mayor Ma-yor Winford Bunce. Possibilities for a Southeastern South-eastern Utah Economic Development De-velopment District were discussed dis-cussed and formulated into tentative plans at the meeting meet-ing which was under the direction di-rection of Jesse S. Tultle, Castle Dale, director. The changes in qualifications for entering into the program would be the factors pertinent pertin-ent to the inclusion of Grand County in the organization. Mr. Pope went on to say that in past years Grand County has never, been close to qualifying qual-ifying for the program. He indicated that a county-wide "need'' based on the unemployment unem-ployment ratio, welfare ratio, ra-tio, ethnic group number, etc., 'have long been basic factors for qualification. The Administration has "relaxed "relax-ed their rules on getting in on this program," he added, by including counties that are surrounded by other counties that fit the qualifications. In other words, he said, because Carbon, San Juan and Emery Em-ery Counties are members of the Administration and surround the Grand County area, our county could now become eligible for (lie EDA program. . Five local men, representing represent-ing five different areas ot economic development will work as a committee to investigate in-vestigate the Grand County area and to solicit opinions and suggestions from prominent prom-inent community leaders. This will include ideas about the utilization of the program pro-gram and tire desires of the community to attract more industry here. Members of the five-man committee include in-clude Mars Pope, County Commissioner; Winford Bunce, Bun-ce, Mayor; Richard Unger, industry; Ken McDougald. business; and Bud Lincoln, labor. Acting as an executive committee over the group will be Commissioner Pope and Mayor Bunce. The committee com-mittee hopes to have the survey completed and results re-sults lined up within a month's mon-th's time. They will then be correlated into a complete report and presented to the EDA officials, after which a decision on the county's eligibility can be made. As a member of the Southeastern South-eastern Utah Economic Development De-velopment District, Grand County would be able to seek out industry to bring to the area. The industry would be attracted to the area because of the lower loan interest rates which would be made available to them through this program. The program is designed, Mr. Pope said, as an incentive to spread industry in-dustry into the smaller rural communities. |
