LITTLE ROCK — USDA loan to help
build nursing home
Clay County Electric Cooperative Corp. has been selected to receive a $500,000 rural economic development loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency said in a news release Tuesday.
The cooperative will in turn lend the money to the Randolph County Nursing Home to help finance the construction of a 140-bed facility in Pocahontas. The effort is expected to create 15 to 20 jobs and save 141 existing ones.
The $17.5 million project also will be financed with $15.5 million in low interest USDA loans, along with $1.5 million from the nursing home and the no interest loan the cooperative received, according to nursing-home administrator Paula Swift.
In the news release, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack named 28 recipients in rural communities across the country that will receive loans or grants to spur economic development and create or save jobs.
Corn fungus hits
in 9 more counties
Southern rust fungus has popped up in cornfields in nine more Arkansas counties, the University of Arkansas System’s Agriculture Division said.
The fungus, first reported in Jefferson County last week, has now been found in Arkansas, Lee, Lonoke, Monroe, Prairie, St. Francis, Jackson, White and Woodruff counties, said Travis Faske, extension plant pathologist. Arkansas growers planted an estimated 660,000 acres of corn this year.
Plants infected with the fungus cannot mature, resulting in lost yields if left untreated. The fungus that causes southern rust, puccinia polysora, creates round or oval pustules that are orange or light cinnamon-colored. Growers unsure of the symptoms should take samples to county extension offices for testing. If the fungus is found in a field, growers will need to apply a fungicide.
2.13-point gain puts state index at 220.13
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 2.13 to 220.13 on Tuesday.
“Despite a soft opening, U.S. stocks [indexes] closed slightly higher after the late surge erased the morning’s losses,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.
Deltic Timber was the strongest performer, gaining a little more than 3.3 percent, he said. Arkansas Best shares fell 2.2 percent.
Volume was 27.9 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 28.1 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 25 on 06/27/2012