Holding up banners identifying Sparta as a participant in the N.C. Small Town Economic Program are Town Manager Bryan Edwards and Art Jackson of the Rural Center.

Sparta is named a STEP demonstration community

Local and state leaders met at Crouse Park last Saturday to celebrate Sparta being chosen as one of 20 small North Carolina towns designated as STEP (Small Towns Economic Prosperity) demonstration communities.

STEP, part of the Small Towns Initiative program of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, Inc., is designed to help North Carolina's small towns - those with fewer than 10,000 residents - achieve greater prosperity and improved quality of life. It gives special emphasis to towns experiencing hardships posed by business closings and layoffs, devastation from natural disasters or persistent poverty.

The $10.5 million Small Towns Initiative is helping hard-pressed small towns create new economic opportunities. Its strategies include improving the capacity of local communities to plan and implement initiatives, stimulating job-creating investments and developing public policy recommendations. The Rural Center launched the initiative Nov. 4, 2005, at its annual Rural Partners Forum.

The program offers a $20,000 planning grant that is available now, according to Sparta Town Manager Bryan Edwards. "We will be applying right away to get this grant," he said. Edwards went on to explain that the $20,000 is for planning and training purposes for town staff and leaders of civic organizations such as the Sparta Revitalization Committee and the Blue Ridge Business Development Center.

An additional $200,000 is available over the next three years. "It is not a grants program," Edwards said of the additional monies. "They (the Rural Center) aren't interested in specific projects. What they will do is if we show where a particular project is part of a comprehensive plan to improve the opportunity for a new business startup or to expand a business - that's where the opportunity to draw from the other $200,000 comes.

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