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Show leaver Sourity oligilG ki drought aesietGieo if they are needed to safeguard safe-guard public health and safety. safe-ty. A larger proportion of grant funds, up to 50 percent, per-cent, may be provided if justified jus-tified through the formula for determining the community's com-munity's ability to repay a loan. Application of the revised formula has been made retroactive ret-roactive to May 6, 1977, except ex-cept where loan and grant funds have been delivered to the borrower. Financing of projects previously approved but not yet funded will be adjusted to the new formula, formu-la, Mr. Tebbs said. In addition to the Sept. 30, 1977 deadline for obli- I gation of funds, the drought emergency program imposes impos-es an April 30, 1978 deadline dead-line for completion of projects. pro-jects. Communities of up to 10,000 population may be included in the service areas of water system receiving FmHA loans and grants. Loans are made for terms of up to 40 years, at an interest inter-est rate of 5 percent. Mr. Tebbs said information informa-tion on project assistance can be obtained from FmHA's Beaver County office of-fice at Riley Office Building, Beaver, Utah. Beaver County has been m ade eligible for Fm HA em -ergency loans and grants under President Carter's drought assistance program to help communities having diminished water supplies, resulting from drought conditions, con-ditions, in designated drought areas. Applications for projects pro-jects approved must be made in time for funds to be obligated ob-ligated by Sept. 30, 1977. Michael L. Tebbs said the revised regulations will enable en-able FmHA to apply a formula form-ula on grants similar to that used by other federal agencies agen-cies that help to finance drought emergency water system projects. In calculating a community's communi-ty's ability to repay an emergency em-ergency loan for water system sys-tem improvement, FmHA previously has taken into account existing indebtedness indebted-ness only for water facilities. facili-ties. The new formula lets FmHA take into account the applicant's existing indebt-ness indebt-ness for all purposes. This is expected to increase the grant portion of FmHA funding fund-ing of many projects. The new regulation also provides that some projects, previously not eligible for grant assistance, may re-cieve re-cieve FmHA grants of up to 20 percent of total eligible project development costs, |