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Success Stories

A mother and three daughters pose around a dining room table. There are lace curtains and blue wall in the background and some dishes on the table in the foreground.

“This is Home” – A Family Finds Their Forever Home in Calais, Maine

One of the first rooms Heather Gagne and her daughters began redecorating in their new home is the dining room, shown in the top photo. They have been busy repainting and making other updates. Raising a family in coastal Machias, Maine may sound lovely, but for Heather Gagne recent years proved stressful. There were few housing options in their Downeast community, and Heather was glad to find a rental home to…
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Search Results: 84 Stories
Matt Drew illustrates how controlled germination, which essentially tricks the grains into waking up, allows Montana Craft Malt to yield up to 10,000 metric tons of product annually from Montana-grown barley.

Craft Malt Company Germinating Growth in Butte

Montana Craft Malt Company (MCM), which sprouted as an idea from a 2016 white paper published by the State Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce, is now America's first commercial-scale specialty malting plant.  With the help of a USDA Rural… [Read More]
BusinessSmall Business
Image of a Bridger aerospace bi-water scooper

Super Scoopers in the Skies

Montana's wildfire season came a little early this year, as a result of drier-than-normal and windy conditions. But, Bridger Aerospace (BA), a company based in Belgrade, Mont., was ready to answer the call with their two new CL-415EAF "Super Scooper" fire suppression… [Read More]
BusinessSmall Business
Solar Array

Practicing Sustainability on the Eastern Edge of Glacier National Park

In 2017, after years of planning, Sanford and Claire Stone realized their dream and broke ground on Park Cabin Company in Babb, Mont., an unincorporated farming and ranching community in Glacier County. Their modern cabins are located on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and… [Read More]
BusinessREAPSolar Energy

New Solar Array Helps Brewery Keep The Lights On

In rural Ord, Nebraska, Scratchtown Brewing Company, LLC is saving nearly 70 percent in energy costs thanks, in part, to a Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) renewable energy grant awarded in 2019 to purchase a new 24-kilowatt rooftop solar array. These renewable energy… [Read More]
BusinessEnergyInfrastructureRenewable EnergyRural DevelopmentSmall BusinessSolar Energy

Recreational UTV’s Provide Opportunity for Social Distancing Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Rory Maynard has owned and operated Edge UTV Rental (Legendary Investments, LLC) also known as Edge Sports located in Lead, SD for many years.  Edge Sports is a ski and snowboarding shop and the site location has immediate access to the Black Hills National Forest. … [Read More]
BusinessSmall Business
Randy Gruenwald standing in front of a display of meats.

Dakota Butcher - 2020 SBA Entrepreneur of the Year

Seeing a business close their doors in a small town is always difficult. When the Clark meat shop closed in 2008, Randy Gruenwald decided he wasn’t going to stand by and watch it happen. His professional experience was an excellent fit to revive the business. He worked 15 years… [Read More]
BusinessSmall Business
Dakota Energy and Huron Regional Medical Center photo

Equipment Beneficial for Both Diagnosis and Therapy of Patients

The Huron Regional Medical Center has invested in new fluoroscopy equipment. Fluoroscopy is an imaging technique that uses x-rays to obtain real-time moving images of the interior of an object. The equipment allows a physician to see the internal structure and function of a… [Read More]
BusinessEconomic DevelopmentHealth Care
The Best Western Astoria Bayfront Hotel remained open amid the coronavirus pandemic, providing lodging for essential employees and continued employment for its staff.

Rural Hotel Provides Lodging for Essential Workers, Continued Employment for Staff Amid Pandemic

As the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Oregon, the hospitality industry became one of many sectors suddenly struggling to survive. The Best Western Astoria Bayfront Hotel on the Oregon coast lost 95 percent of its business in April and May, with $200,000 in cancellations, as… [Read More]
Business

Last Piece of the Puzzle Lands Expansion

The last piece of this business expansion puzzle must be USDA Rural Development. Excel Boats, LLC determined in Fall 2017 they wanted to expand their business.  At the time, the company was building aluminum boats at their only manufacturing plant in Mountain View, Ark.… [Read More]
BusinessSmall Business

Rural Development project uses 3D printing in fight against COVID-19 spread

As Kentucky does its best to battle the spread of COVID-19, state and medical providers are looking for ways to answer the increasing need for medical personal protective equipment. One of those responding in a big way is a somewhat unlikely source: Somerset Community College,… [Read More]
BusinessEconomic DevelopmentHealth CareSmall Business

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