On September 23, the US Department of Energy published an article about recent economic development in Livingston County. Read an excerpt of the article below:
A car dealership in Dwight, Ill., shut down this year, but recently reopened its doors and 29 people kept their jobs.
Over in Collum, a grocery store that sat silent for three years recently awoke, creating six jobs. And a new coffee shop is now open in downtown Pontiac, bustling with customers sipping lattes and eating muffins.
So what breathed new life into these Livingston County businesses?
Surprisingly, it was the opening of the Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Farm, a 300 MW wind farm made possible with the help of $170 million through the U.S. Department of Energy's 1603 grants-in-lieu-of-tax-credits program to the developer.
Read the rest of the article here.
"We believe in economic gardening," says Larry Vaupel, director of the GLCEDC. "We try to grow our economy from within by nurturing businesses and providing financial assistance for start-ups and expansions."