DEVELOPMENT GRANTED. The Rural Economic Development Center provided four grants in Franklin County to spur business, including plans to renovate this building next to the Franklin County Courthouse in Louisburg. (Times photo by Carey Johnson)

Some existing and proposed businesses, including one that belongs to a county commissioner, received more than $600,000 in grant money this month.

The North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center awarded a total of $14.6 million in grants to boost stagnant local economies and address critical water and sewer needs.

“When you consider the issues North Carolina is dealing with – an ongoing drought, a stagnant economy, a workforce struggling to adapt to global competition – it becomes clear that we need a response that is both swift and strategic,” said Rural Center President Billy Ray Hall in a press release.

“We are grateful to our legislative leaders and the entire N.C. General Assembly for meeting the challenge head-on.”

Franklin County received a total of $622,000 in grants.

Those projects funded include:

• $250,000 to extend sewer service to Hill Ridge Farms for a restaurant and business expansion project. The agri-tourism business also plans to create 25 more full-time jobs.

Hill Ridge, if it does not create the jobs, will be obligated to pay back a portion or all of the grant money

The county is also pursuing a $250,000 Community Development Block Grant to assist with the project.

• $297,000 to install equipment to pump waste from Novozymes to the county’s wastewater treatment plant.

The improvement will allow Novozymes to expand, creating a total of 50 full-time jobs.

The county has also provided Novozymes with a $638,000 economic development incident package to help the biotechnology company do a $26 million expansion.

Novozymes agreed to contribute the balance of the $297,000 grant, Goswick said, to do the sewer project with no net cost to the county.

• $50,000 for Phillip Young and his wife, Commissioner Penny McGhee-Young, to renovate two downtown buildings into a restaurant. The business will create five full-time jobs.

Phillip Young said he understands any criticism that might come from an elected official receiving state funds for a business venture, but he said the couple has invested three times its own money.

“This grant helps us,” Young said, “but there is nothing political about the fact that a lot of money is coming out of our pocket.”

Young said the grant helps the pair begin the construction phase of the restaurant project. They hope to be done in January or December.

“This grant gives us the opportunity to get the restaurant up and running much faster, which would benefit the town and stimulate growth.”

The restaurant is one part of the Young’s development project. They are also doing a 1950s-styled coffee shop at the corner.

It will offer lunches, morning breads such as bagels, ice cream and an atmosphere for small meetings and birthday parties.

“It’ll be a wonderful place for people to come and enjoy,” Phillip Young said.

• $25,000 to fund architectural studies to help resident Ron Cox renovate the old Scoggins building across from the Franklin County Courthouse Square.

The building has potential as a mixed-use business and residential site.

Sen. Doug Berger said the Rural Center grants allow growing counties like Franklin the chance to grow at a better pace than they could without such help.

He said a visit by Senate Pro Tem Marc Basnight and Hall, himself, helped bring more attention to the county’s needs.

“The state has programs to help expand and that’s what we’re doing here,” Berger said. “I’m pretty excited about it.

“I do think these are good economic development programs.

“... They will create more jobs and more revenue for local governments, which could help fund things like new schools.”

County Economic Development Director Ronnie Goswick said the county will continue to pursue resources to help businesses grow and expand.

“If you’ve got to get money and can’t borrow, a grant is the best way to go,” Goswick said. “We absolutely would be stymied if the county had to put all this money into infrastructure and economic improvements without the state’s help.

“This is just a drop in the bucket to what we hope we can receive out of these funds as we try to improve economic development.”