AUSTIN - The Texas Department of Rural Affairs (TDRA) presented the City of Blanco with an oversized, ceremonial check to recognize the community for their hard work in securing a grant from the agency’s Texas Community Development Block Grant (TxCDBG) program. Agency staff presented the check on July 27, 2010 at Blanco City Hall.

“We are very pleased to award this grant to Blanco,” said Charles S. (Charlie) Stone, executive director of TDRA. “Community development projects such as this help Texans in rural communities improve their quality of life significantly.”

The City of Blanco will use its $250,000 grant to replace deteriorated, vitrified clay pipe on Elm Street.

The agency awarded $1,750,000 to seven Capital area communities, including Bertram, Blanco, Cottonwood Shores, Florence, Granite Shoals, Lexington, and Shulenburg. TDRA awarded more than $42 million to rural communities in Texas for the 2010 funding cycle.

“Texas CDBG is a competitive grant program, so the community of Blanco is to be commended for their hard work and diligence in pursuing this grant,” said Mark Wyatt, director of TDRA’s community development division.

The grants come from the Texas Community Development Block Grant program, the largest CDBG program in the nation. Rural cities with populations less than 50,000 and counties that have a non-metropolitan population under 200,000 and are not eligible for direct funding from HUD may apply for the agency’s TxCDBG program. This program serves approximately 1,017 eligible rural communities, 245 rural counties, and provides service to over 375,000 low - to moderate - income beneficiaries each year.

Texas Department of Rural Affairs makes the broad resources of state government more accessible to rural communities. The agency is a provider of rural-focused state and federal resources for community development, economic development, housing and rural health. TDRA is the federally designated State Office of Rural Health and the governor’s lead agency for oversight of disaster recovery funding, and administers the non-housing portion of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) disaster recovery funds. For more information, visit TDRA online at www.tdra.state.tx.us.