Surry-Yadkin EMC partners with Town of Elkin for truck purchase
Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation has partnered with the Town of Elkin to assist in the purchase of a multipurpose truck for the public works department. This partnership involved Surry-Yadkin EMC providing a zero-interest loan to help fund the truck purchase.
The public works truck has a hook-lift design, allowing it to function in multiple ways, noted Brent Cornelison, Elkin town manager. “The leaf vacuum will be used in the fall, the dump bed will be used as another dump truck and the asphalt hot box will be used to heat asphalt for patching during the colder months,” he said.
The funds for the truck were loaned by SYEMC as part of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant (REDLG) program. The program provides grants and interest-free loans to local electric cooperatives, who in turn lend the money to local governments and nonprofit agencies for projects that support rural communities.
The REDLG program is designed so that the USDA provides a grant, which is matched by $60,000 out of a revolving grant fund from SYEMC. The USDA portion of the funding will be $280,000. The $340,000 is provided as a zero-percent interest loan to the town, which will pay the funding back in payments so the money will go back into the revolving fund to be used again in the future to help with other qualifying projects such as fire trucks, law enforcement or economic development projects to better the communities in our five-county service area.
“The REDLG no-interest loan allowed us to borrow the money and budget for yearly payments that are very manageable without a need to raise taxes or fees,” Cornelison said. “Working with the co-op was very smooth, especially since the truck was on backorder for over a year. We really appreciate the opportunity and the relationship we have with SYEMC and look forward to working together in the future.”
This is the third project SYEMC has been able to assist with through the REDLG program. The first was a fire truck for the City of Mount Airy in 2018 and the second was a fire truck for Lewisville Fire Department in 2021.
“Concern for Community, including economic development and community initiatives, is one of the 7 Cooperative Principles we use as a guide for our operations at Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation,” said Travis Bode, manager of economic development for SYEMC. “This principle is designed to key in our responsibility to support not only our member-owner community, of which the Town of Elkin is a part, but also our community as a whole since cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities.
“We were honored to be able to help the Town of Elkin achieve its goals and meet the needs of its citizens through the REDLG program,” said Bode.
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Surry-Yadkin EMC is a not-for-profit Touchstone Energy cooperative founded in 1940 by a group of local farmers with a vision to provide electricity to rural farmers and families. Its first lines were energized on Feb. 22, 1941, and more than 80 years later, SYEMC serves more than 28,000 member-owner accounts in five counties, including Surry, Yadkin, Stokes, Wilkes and Forsyth.
