Charleston City Council last week approved changes to its portion of the revolving loan fund program, allowing the city to continue assisting new and growing businesses.

State regulations required the council to form an actual revolving loan fund committee consisting of Mayor Dan Cougill, city attorney Brian Bower, community development director Jeff Finley and two experienced financial commercial bankers.

City Council is forming the group in order to continue the program which has served local businesses since the 1980s.

The program loans businesses money to expand or build based on the number of positions it will open for employment-with a limit of $15,000 per employment opening, Cougill said.

“The business comes to us, we go to the state and get the money, loan it out and it is paid back plus a low interest rate,” Cougill said. “The money we get back is added to the revolving loan fund for future loans.”

What’s Cookin’, Illinois Medical Laboratories and Consolidated Communications have all participated in the program since 1985 and paid back their loans in full.

Cougill said in most cases businesses also have to take out loans from banks to pay for all expenses. Those lenders are given priority in repayment of the loans and the city becomes a secondary lender.

SFC Holding Company took out a loan in the 80s and then went bankrupt. Instead of being repaid for the $400,000 loan, the city received a $73,885.64 settlement because of its secondary position.

Scholastic Recognition is among the successful recipients. Cougill said the business has participated in the revolving loan fund program twice, once for expansion and secondly to rebuild.

Scholastic Recognition supplies graduation goods to universities, Cougill said. The business started locally and expanded to serve more than 115 universities.

“The expansions created a lot of full-time equivalent jobs,” Cougill said. “A lot of Eastern students work out there now.”

All but one of the past loan recipients repaid their loans, helping to build up the fund.

“Right now we have close to $260,000 in our revolving loan fund that can be used,” Cougill said.

Businesses wanting to move and open in Charleston are welcome to apply for the loan based on how many people it can employ.

“We will keep working to build the fund,” Cougill said. “If one day we have a big company come in that can offer 100 positions, we can maximize money from the state.”

City editor Carly Mullady can be reached at [email protected]