CHOTEAU BUSINESS CELEBRATES LOAN PAYOFF

             CHOTEAU, MT, April 17, 2007 – USDA Rural Development officials and the owners of Alpine Touch, Inc. celebrated the business’s payoff of a government loan with a Paid Note Ceremony. Alpine Touch received a $150,000 loan from USDA Rural Development in late 1998 to update their product packaging and expand their corporate marketing efforts. The owners of Alpine Touch, Mark and Vicki Southard paid off their loan in January – ten years early! Alpine Touch makes seasonings and spices that are sold in stores across the country and on the web.

 “Today is Tax Day, and this event is a wonderful example of where the public’s hard earned tax dollars go to work,” said Suzie David, Area Director for Rural Development. “Here in Choteau Montana, the Southards have made Alpine Touch a great success. With their hard work, and a little help from USDA Rural Development, Alpine Touch has its’ products marketed and sold all over the United States.”

 The program that Alpine Touch used all those years ago is no longer available but the Business & Industry Guaranteed loan program serves the same purpose while allowing local lenders to participate in the economic development of the communities they serve. With that program, small businesses are able to access better rates and terms than would normally be available because the government guarantees the loan a local lender makes to the small business. The goal of the program is to increase economic activity and employment in rural communities.

 USDA Rural Development helps rural Americans to develop, to grow, and to improve their quality of life by targeting financial and technical resources in areas of greatest need through activities of greatest potential. Rural Development's mission is to deliver programs in a way that will support increasing economic opportunity and improve the quality of life of rural residents. Rural Development has invested over $76.8 billion since the beginning of the Bush Administration to provide equity and technical assistance to finance and foster growth in homeownership, business development, and critical community and technology infrastructure. As a result, over 1.5 million jobs have been created or saved through these investments. Further information on rural programs is available at a local USDA Rural Development office or by visiting Montana Rural Development’s web site at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/mt/

 

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