Wyoming Business Council Recommends Approval of Over $16 Million in Grants

The Wyoming Business Council Board of Directors reviewed five Business Ready Community (BRC) grant requests totaling $11,022,422 and a $5 million Governor’s Data Center Recruitment grant at its board meeting December 4, 2014 in Lusk. 

The board recommended the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) approve the following five applications totaling $11,022,422.

Albany County requested a $1,459,807 Business Committed grant to drill and construct a well for the Phase II expansion of Pete Lein and Sons, Inc. quarry for its lime plant operations.

•Laramie requested a $2,983,879 Business Committed grant to construct an 8,236 square-foot technology center for Underwriters Laboratories’ expansion into Laramie.

BRC Community Readiness

•Gillette requested a $3 million Community Readiness loan and $2 million Community Readiness grant to assist the city with the expansion of its city-owned electrical utility infrastructure.

•Guernsey requested a $437,650 Community Readiness grant for the installation of a second electrical transformer to provide redundant power and decrease the load on the existing transformer. Guernsey owns and operates its own electric utility

•Thayne requested a $1,141,086 Community Readiness grant to improve 5.34 acres of commercial space in the center of town, making it ready for business development and data center recruitment.

The board also recommended approval of a $5 million grant requested by Laramie County from the Governor’s Data Center Recruitment Fund for the expansion of water and sewer improvements from the North Range Business Park to a site selected for the recruitment of a large data center.

The board’s recommendations will be presented to the SLIB at its Jan. 15, 2015 meeting  in Cheyenne.