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Council holds public hearing on LV840 loan portfolio; committee proposes childcare and housing adjustments
Summary
At a public hearing, the LV840 citizen review committee reported that the LV840 loan portfolio is in good shape and discussed expanding eligible uses to include childcare and rural workforce housing; staff said about $3.7 million is available for lending.
The Scottsbluff City Council opened a public hearing Tuesday to receive a report from the LV840 citizen review committee about the LV840 loan portfolio and potential program changes.
Sharad Desirsa, economic development director, told the council that the committee met May 8 and that the loan portfolio is generally performing well. "We had Jordan Dietrich give a report on the rural workforce housing that we contributed to," Desirsa said. He also said a new committee member, Spencer Ryan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, joined the committee.
The committee and staff discussed potential changes to the LV840 program to make additional business types eligible. "One of those being child care," Desirsa said, adding that he had met with Nebraska Public Power District, which is conducting a childcare study to inform the city’s work. Kevin (staff) told the council, "The portfolio is in pretty good shape." He also said, "We have about 3,700,000.0 in the account right now that we're looking to spend." Desirsa said staff provided an updated spreadsheet during the meeting showing anticipated payoff years for loans; that spreadsheet was not included in the council packet.
Council members asked whether certain loans were in jeopardy; Desirsa said most loans were performing and that one project had not gone as planned but that overall the program showed many successful loans. He said staff had paused payments on two accounts, Pioneer and Reverence, because of job-credit issues that could affect repayment calculations.
The discussion also covered outreach and eligibility. Desirsa said a downtown retail fund limited to the Business Improvement District and capped at $10,000 had produced no applications and that staff was looking at restructuring that program. He said the LV840 plan is scheduled for retooling at the end of the fiscal year and that staff expect a new plan to be effective Oct. 1.
No formal council action was taken at the hearing; the council closed the public hearing after receiving the report.
Why it matters: LV840 funds are a local economic-development loan tool that the city can use to support businesses and projects; expanding eligible uses could change where the roughly $3.7 million in available funds is invested.
