Martin County Benefits from Radius Indiana’s Intermediary Relending Program

BEDFORD, Ind. (June 12, 2019) — Martin County is the first local government in southern Indiana to take advantage of the new low-interest loan program from Radius Indiana. The county has secured $97,949 to improve local infrastructure.

The Intermediary Relending Program (IRP) from Radius, a program that originated through the United States Department of Agriculture, provides low-cost loans to local governments to make community and economic development capital improvements at costs that are favorable to taxpayers.

Tim Kinder, Executive Director for the Martin County Alliance and a Radius Executive Officer, brought the IRP loan program to the attention of local government leaders.

“We are appreciative that Radius offers this new program to help our local governments,” said Kinder. “It’s another great asset that this region has to offer and I look forward to hearing about how other counties benefit from the IRP.”

The Radius IRP makes loans at 3.5 percent interest rates and has lent the money to Martin County for a 10-year period. Biannual repayments have been scheduled to coincide with the county’s property tax collections to ease the county government’s cash flow.

“Martin County’s investments in the county jail and courthouse roof repairs are necessary improvements that we had to make in response to the deteriorating condition of the buildings,” said Dan Gregory, Martin County Commissioner. “Our county has limited financial capacity to make investments from reserve funds and this loan program is making it possible to get the problem fixed.”

The tax base in Martin County is constrained by state and federal ownership of a high percentage of property in the county, restricting the ability it has to make capital investments.

“The United States Department of Agriculture offers this IRP program to help rural communities across the nation. We found that Indiana has not taken the opportunity to use the IRP in the past while other states have been using it effectively for quite some time,” said Jeff Quyle, Radius President and CEO. “I am hopeful that rural communities in our region will take advantage of the favorable rates to make investments that strengthen their local communities and economies.”

Local governments such as counties, cities, towns, and redevelopment commissions interested in the program should contact the Radius office at (812) 277-9778 for more information.

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ABOUT RADIUS INDIANA: Radius Indiana is a regional economic development partnership representing eight counties in Southern Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, and Washington. Formed in 2009, Radius Indiana also serves as a point of contact in Indiana for Naval Support Activity Crane and leads regional collaboration by leveraging the diverse assets of Southwest Central Indiana to drive attraction, retention and expansion of business, thereby increasing employment and investment opportunities and quality of life within the region.