Local construction contractors attended a June 22^nd ‘work day’ event in the Crescent Shores Subdivision in Lincoln, Delaware to tell the audience of volunteers, homeowners and federal and state officials of how the USDA Rural Development Self-Help Housing Program has kept their businesses alive.

The Self-Help Housing Program was established as a path to homeownership for very-low to low-income families, utilizing a sweat equity model.  It is the only federally –funded homeownership program specifically for rural America. Read more »

Monday was breezy in rural Maryland, but a crowd of about 70 was in high spirits as federal, state and local officials gathered at Sunnyside Farms to inaugurate a new solar panel system that will reduce power costs at this major egg producing facility. Read more »

Abraham Lincoln was known for being self-reliant, so it is fitting that, with support from USDA, prospective homeowners in Lincoln, Delaware are building their own homes.  USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager, Housing Administrator Tammye Trevino, RD Delaware State Director Jack Tarburton and staff from USDA’s national and local offices joined together yesterday to swing hammers, pound nails and assist in the effort. It’s all part of National Homeownership Month. Read more »

Photos and blog courtesy of Kathy Beisner, Public Information Coordinator, Delaware

It was my pleasure to join Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, Delaware Senator Tom Carper and a host of Federal, State and area dignitaries including Michael Scuse, Deputy Under Secretary  of the USDA Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services; Rural Development State Director Jack Tarburton, Kathy Bunting Howarth, Director Division of Water Resources for the State of Delaware and Vance Phillips, President  of Sussex County Council at a groundbreaking ceremony for a project that will improve the water quality of the Inland Bays by expanding a wastewater treatment plant.  After the expansion is completed, over 2500 onsite septic systems will be eliminated.

The $15 million project not only will improve water quality, it will provide jobs for the employees of a local construction company. Much of the funding is from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Obama just over a year ago.  Additional funding comes from USDA Rural Development regular water and environmental program funds and from the State of Delaware.  Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the funding for the project yesterday, Earth Day.

Senator Tom Carper and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan agree on the Boy Scout’s motto … Leave a place better than you found it. (Center of Photo, State Director Jack Tarburton.)

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan throws the largest shovel of dirt at the ground breaking ceremony for the Inland Bays Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion. Pictured left to right: Vance Phillips, President Sussex County Council; Michael Scuse, Deputy Under Secretary Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services; Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan; Jack Tarburton, USDA Rural Development Maryland/Delaware State Director; Senator Tom Carper; and Kathy Bunting Howarth, Director Division of Water Resources DNREC.