The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Community Development Corporation of Butler County have combined grant money to form a new micro loan program for the Wolf Creek Commerce Corridor.

Diane Sheets, the CDC's executive director, and Gary Groves, state director for USDA Rural Development, announced the loan program during a ceremony in the CDC offices Tuesday, along with U.S. Rep. Phil English, R-3rd.

Groves presented a check for USDA's contribution of $99,000 that has been combined with $50,000 in matching funds from the CDC to establish a $149,000 revolving loan program to help develop parts of Butler, Lawrence, Mercer and Venango counties.

The maximum loan, Sheets explained, is $15,000 borrowed for 60 months at index rate plus 2 percent.

The Wolf Creek Entrepreneurial Assistance Loan Program, Groves said, will help entrepreneurs and small businesses in need of money for research and development, marketing, construction, pollution control and start-up costs.

Slippery Rock and Grove City serve as target areas for economic growth created by this loan program, but it includes an area from the intersection of interstates 79 and 80, east on I-80 to Barkeyville, south on Route 8 to Sherwin, west across country through West Liberty to just across I-79 and north following I-79 to I-80.

Partners, as Sheets calls them, will lead prospective borrowers through the loan process, including: Grove City Chamber of Commerce, Slippery Rock Revitalization Group, Olde Towne Grove City, 79-80 Interstate Development Corporation and the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce.

For more information about the loan program, call Patrick Coulson, CDC's manager of economic development, at 724-283-1961 or 800-283-0021, or e-mail, commdev@nauticom.net.