Eight counties | 36 cities | one region

ST. JAMES—The city of St. James has been awarded $206,060 from the Delta Regional Authority (DRA) to extend Wilson Drive to accommodate the expansion of Cohen Architectural Woodworking. The St. James project was one of five Missouri projects sharing in $1,119,417 of $10 million in federal, local and state resources from the DRA and its partners.

The funds will support small business owners and entrepreneurs, workers, their families and local communities by improving economic development; workforce training and job creation in southeast Missouri’s Delta region, DRA Federal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill and Gov. Jay Nixon announced Nov. 4.

“The DRA is excited to announce another year of investing into the people, small businesses, and infrastructure that make the Missouri Bootheel a great place to create jobs, grow businesses, and raise a family,” Masingill said. “These investments strategically leverage funding for projects that will help to address the infrastructure, training, and public service needs of our communities while driving economic development and growing small businesses and entrepreneurs.”

The St. James project will involve the expansion of Wilson Drive through the industrial park and will assist with the expansion of Cohen Architectural Woodworking. The facility’s expansion will create eight jobs.

The St. James project is larger than the $206,060 grant. An additional $93,357 will be leveraged through public investment and $820,000 from private capital investment.

Other Missouri projects receiving funding were OzSBI in West Plains; Industrial Park Road overpass in Popular Bluff; County Road 346 improvements in Cape Girardeau; and Advanced Manufacturing Training Center in West Plains.

Delta Regional Authority is a federal-state partnership created by Congress in 2000 to help create jobs, build communities, and improve lives through strategic investments in economic development in 252 counties and parishes across eight states. Four Meramec counties– Crawford, Dent, Phelps and Washington– are a part of DRA. Through the past 13 investment cycles of the DRA’s States Economic Development Assistance Program, DRA investments have leveraged $2.7 billion in other public and private investments into projects that are helping to create and retain 42,000 jobs, train 13,000 for a 21st century workforce, and provide more than 82,000 families access to clean water and sewer services. Learn more at dra.gov.

Formed in 1969, MRPC is a voluntary council of governments serving Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Osage, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties and their respective cities. A professional staff of 24, directed by the MRPC board, offers technical assistance and services, such as grant preparation and administration, housing assistance,transportation planning, environmental planning, ordinance codification, business loans and other services to member communities.

To keep up with the latest MRPC news and events, visit the MRPC website at www.meramecregion.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/meramecregion.