Fairbury businesses can use grant money to repair and upgrade historic buildings

FAIRBURY, Neb. -- The City of Fairbury received approval to expand the Downtown Revitalization Act to help out local businesses. 

The city applied for downtown revitalization a few years ago and received a $400,000 grant for businesses, according to City Development Services Director Laura Bedlan.

Money from the grant can be used to help local businesses in historic buildings, or in the historic district, to make upgrades and repairs. 

Bedlan said that if you were to use a $75,000 grant to make upgrades to a historic building downtown or in the historic district, businesses would only have to pay for 16% of that total cost. 

“So, I haven’t seen this opportunity to cover so much of the cost of structural repairs to buildings in the downtown district in forever so I think this is an excellent opportunity for downtown businesses," Bedlan said. "And we value our historic district so we really wanted to do something at that time to assist. We received the grant so we are trying to push that back out to the businesses; like I said, I don’t want to give any money back to the state.”

Bedlan also said there are some hoops to jump through at the state level and interested parties should contact her at the city offices as soon as possible.