Elgin, La Grande Awarded Nearly $2.3 Million in Business Oregon Grants

Elgin's crumbling water infrastructure landed the city $2,212,491 in federal Community Development Block Grant funding on March 23, after Business Oregon announced a statewide package of $11,461,523 distributed across 13 rural Oregon projects.

The City of Elgin received the largest share of the two Union County awards. Its public water system, described as aging and facing "multiple challenges affecting water circulation, pressure, and supply reliability," will be addressed through construction of multiple improvements built to the city's final design specifications and environmental review conditions. No timeline or contractor details were included in the announcement.

La Grande received $75,000 from the same package, directed toward a different kind of infrastructure: workforce and economic development. The city will use those funds to contract with the Northeast Oregon Economic Development District, known as NEOEDD, to deliver entrepreneurship and microenterprise management training across Wallowa, Baker, and Union Counties. NEOEDD is projected to serve an estimated 30 microentrepreneurs, with a program requirement that at least 51 percent of all clients served be low- or moderate-income.

Together, the two cities collected $2,287,491, the combined total Business Oregon and local outlets described as nearly $2.3 million.

Business Oregon described its CDBG program as one that "supports the development of livable communities by expanding economic opportunities and providing suitable housing and living environments for persons of low and moderate income." The 13 projects funded statewide reflect that dual focus, pairing physical infrastructure repairs in some communities with economic capacity-building in others.

The NEOEDD trainings funded through La Grande's grant extend beyond Union County, reaching small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs in neighboring Wallowa and Baker Counties as well, giving the relatively modest $75,000 award a regional footprint well beyond its dollar figure.