The Newport Economic Development Commission has awarded three ReNewport Grants and will vote on two more grants in the morning. The grants were awarded to Farmer’s Elevator, Gilliaum Feed and Seed and the White River Battered Women’s Shelter. The two to be considered at the next meeting are B & B Investments and Farmer’s Oil. If you are interested in ReNewport Grants, feel free to contact us. They are awarded on a first to apply first approved basis.

Hopefully the holiday season was a good time for you to spend with family and friends. A visitor to my office used a quote the other day that I will paraphrase — So often we get too caught up in looking for the perfect that we miss the good. Very rarely will anything be perfect and if we are disappointed when something is not perfect then we really will miss some of the best experiences in life. As we wind down the designated time of Thanksgiving this year, feel free to list on this blog the things about Newport and Jackson County for which you are thankful. No we aren’t perfect, but there are a lot of really good things in our community!

This year the Newport Economic Development Commission added a new tool to local development efforts, the ReNewport Grant. ReNewport grants assist smaller retail and commercial businesses make needed improvements to the exterior of their business property. The program offers a 50/50 matching grant with the NEDC paying up to $2,500 of the cost. The grant can be used for painting, parking, signage, awnings. landscaping, new windows or new doors. This year the $25,000 budgeted funded 13 different businessses as they worked on project.

Let us know what you think about the ReNewport Grants.

We are still working out any issues with our new web site. Tell us what you think and what you’d change. If we can make the changes in your suggestions then we’ll be glad to do so. We want this to be a web site that you can use on a regular basis.