By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Grayson Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed Grayson mayor Troy Combs as guest speaker for their August meeting. Combs spoke before the chamber not in his capacity as mayor, but rather as part of his work with the FIVCO Area Development District. FIVCO serves the counties of Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup and Lawrence. FIVCO helps local areas with resources it would be difficult to secure on their own, and Combs spoke about one particular way FIVCO could potentially help local businesses.
“FIVCO has a board of directors,” Combs began as a way of explaining his role with the area development district. “The board of directors is made up of county judge executives, mayors, and community members,” he told the chamber. “Its public officials and community representatives that get together and try to conduct business on behalf of FIVCO.”
“We offer a lot of services,” Combs said. “Like aging services and things like that. But a lot of people forget about the grant writing services and RLF.”
Combs gave an example of the grant writing services FIVCO offers, listing their work with Pathways. FIVCO, he said, worked with Pathways to secure a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).
“Every public entity gets to apply for one CBDG every year,” Combs said.
“Apart from being a Board of Directors member, I am also on the Executive Committee,” Combs continued. “But we are here today to talk about the RLF Program.” Combs then introduced Janey Orcutt, who he said is the lead at FIVCO for the Revolving Loan Fund (LRF) program.
The RLF, Combs explained, is FIVCO’s attempt to fill gaps, rather than replace traditional loans.
“We are not a traditional loan program like you would get at a bank,” Combs explained to the chamber. “What we are here to do is help fill gaps in lending. There are times when people have a great idea, but they can’t get a loan. But if it was something that was really close, the banks could send them our way, and we might be able to help.”
Janey Orcutt, whose official title with FIVCO is Community & Econ Dev Planner / RLF Planner, agreed with Combs’ assessment and added information.
“That’s true,” Orcutt said. “We can also loan up to $20,000 per job created or up to $10,000 per job retained. So, if you are a current business and want to expand or you need new equipment, then you could come to us, and we could help you with that.”
“We also loan to people whose credit scores are not that great,” Orcutt told the chamber. “We can make ‘riskier’ loans than those traditional banks make. So, if the bank doesn’t cover fifty percent of your loan, then we can come in and do the rest of it.”
“The funds are for new businesses, or businesses who would like to expand, or they need help retaining employees,” Combs explained to the chamber. “There may be some businesses who realize they need a loan to keep their workforce.”
Orcutt told the chamber that the program was started when the COVID pandemic hit.
“A lot of businesses couldn’t bring their employees into work,” she said.
This was the beginning, she said of CARES and Legacy. The CARES program is federalized, she explained, where the Legacy is not and is more flexible.
The revolving loan fund is something current business owners and potential business owners are encouraged to consider, Combs said. The funds are set up to be self-perpetuating to help community businesses, and as funds are repaid they return back into the fund to be loaned out again.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
