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Springbrook
residents bring fight to city council
County property taxes are due Nov.
15
Nasal spray an
alternative to too few flu shots
| Head Start one step closer |
USDA gives agency low-interest loan to construct new building in
Newberg |
By Gunnar Olson, Newberg Graphic
Reporter
E-mail Gunnar at golson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Head Start of Yamhill County is $312,000 closer to
building a new facility in Newberg.
The nonprofit received word late October that the United States Department of
Agriculture granted Head Start the loan for $312,000, to be paid back at 5 percent
interest over 40 years.
“Which makes it affordable for us,” said Michael Eichman, executive
director of Head Start of Yamhill County.
On Oct. 27 USDA representatives – including Tim Ryan, acting deputy
under secretary of operations and management for USDA Rural Development, who traveled from
Washington, D.C., for this occasion – presented Head Start with a big check.
“(It was) confirmation that they really are going to do it,”
Eichman said.
Head Start is a nonprofit that teaches parents how to teach their children in a way that
prepares them for public schools. Head Start serves families that fall below the federal
poverty line.
Eichman said there are about 400 kids in Yamhill County who qualify, of which
200 are receiving services and 100 others are on a waiting list.
The 4,000 square foot facility in Newberg will help Head Start help those
waiting. With the USDA loan, Eichman said Head Start is $153,000 shy of meeting its goal.
The nonprofit has received help pulling together the roughly $1.4 million
project. A-dec Inc. owners Ken and Joan Austin donated the construction site, worth about
$225,000, off of Crestview Drive west of the A-dec campus.
“They’ve been very generous with us,” Eichman said of the
Austins.
The city of Newberg will use the $600,000 it secured in July – a
community development block grant from the Oregon Economic and Community Development
Department – for construction costs of the Head Start building, said Claudia Cantu,
housing manager for Newberg Head Start. Eichman said Head Start also received $100,000
from Spirit Mountain.
Eichman said he hopes to raise the remainder of the costs for the building by
Christmas. Then it could seek construction bids, choose a contractor, break ground by
spring and be moved into the building by fall 2005.
“It would be a great Christmas present,” Eichman said. |
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From Nov. 3,
2004, Newberg Graphic
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