Ozark Border Electric Cooperative will receive a $53 million loan to connect more than 2,100 customers and improve over 400 miles of line.
The finance package will include a grant of $825,200 to incorporate smart grid technologies, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development.
USDA recently announced it will invest approximately $288 million to build and improve critical rural infrastructure in Missouri.
The investment will help the over 40,000 consumers already served by Ozark Border, which has 6,000 miles of energized line in parts of 11 Missouri counties.
“Infrastructure is more than just laying pipes in the ground and wires on poles,” said USDA-RD Missouri Director Kyle Wilkens. “By investing in modern infrastructure, Rural Development is investing in the lives of rural Missourians. This infrastructure helps ensure our small towns have the best access possible to clean drinking water, good-paying jobs, and high speed internet, which all help to boost rural economies and build back a better America.”
The investments will also help expand access to clean water and reliable electricity in people’s homes and businesses across rural Missouri.
This announcement follows the recent passage of President Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. USDA is making the awards under the Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program, which provides financing for drinking water, stormwater drainage and waste disposal systems in rural communities, and the Electric Loan Program, which provides funding to construct, improve, and expand electric distribution, transmission and generation.