GUELPH – Wellington County has approved $25,000 grants from the county’s Business Retention and Expansion Fund for Wellington North and Centre Wellington.
The grants, recommended by the county’s economic development committee, were approved at the June 27 county council meeting.
Wellington North will use the $25,000 for two projects focused on investment, attraction and downtown revitalization. A total of $10,000 will be directed to the Mount Forest Industrial Park to cover 20 per cent of a project to service all seven available lots to the lot line in 2019. To market the industrial land opportunity, signage will be installed to promote and identify the properties for sale.
The reminder of the grant, $15,000 will be distributed through Wellington North’s Community Improvement Plan to cover 33% of the planned expenditures. The funds will allow for a total of $45,000 in grants available for 2019. To date in 2019, seven applications have been processed totaling $19,055 in approved funding.
“These 2019 projects support the growth of the industrial sector, attraction of new business to the community, as well as enhancing and supporting the downtowns,” notes a report from county economic development director Jana Burns. “Both are in line with the county’s encouragement of a strong business mix and the attractiveness of our rural communities.”
Centre Wellington will receive $25,000 to cover 100% of an “Investment Readiness” project.
The municipality’s recently completed Economic Development Strategic Action Plan identified the development of investment-ready information as a top priority for action, the report notes.
Activities to become more investment ready may include investment readiness assessments, a property and municipal servicing inventory, a community profile, value proposition and web presence attractive to investors.
