In addition, the board is pleased to announce that Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt has appointed two new members to the AmerenCDC board. The new members replace board members whose three-year terms have expired.
The two new board members are:
• Susan Solovic, CEO and Chairman of SBTV, America's only online television network dedicated to growing the small business segment of the U.S. economy. Solovic replaces Deb Dubin, adjunct faculty member at the University College at Washington University.
• Doyle L. Privett, a certified public accountant and former member of the Board of Regents of Southeast Missouri State University. Privett replaces Lisa Greening, co-owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis.
In addition to the new appointments, Betty Sims, small business consultant and former Missouri State Senator from the 24th District, was reappointed for a second three-year term.
The AmerenCDC funds projects that promote economic development and job growth in AmerenUE's electric service territory in Missouri. Through the grant cycle that begins today, $1.35 million is available for eligible projects.
Individuals and groups can get applications from now through Oct. 1, 2005, by visiting the "AmerenCDC" link on Ameren's Web site, www.ameren.com, by e-mail at eddept@ameren.com, or by phone at 800.981.9409.
Created with the 2002 completion of a joint settlement of a rate case between AmerenUE and the Missouri Public Service Commission staff, the AmerenCDC is Missouri's first utility-based economic development corporation to operate exclusively across the 20,000 square miles of AmerenUE's retail electric service area in Missouri.
The AmerenCDC is managed, supervised and controlled by its board of directors, who were selected by a collaborative process between former Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, the Missouri Public Service Commission and AmerenUE.
Ameren made an up-front contribution of $5 million to the CDC in September 2002. The company funds an additional $1 million in each of the following four years of the plan, bringing the total amount to $9 million to fulfill the commitments of the 2002 rate-case settlement. In the first grant cycle, completed in fall 2004, the AmerenCDC awarded $2.7 million of the total available funding. The awarded projects stimulated private new investment in excess of $36 million, about 335 new and 1,037 retained jobs.
Community development corporations have been used as an economic development tool dating back to the mid-1970s. Today, they are used to stimulate economic development, housing, redevelopment and commercial revitalization in communities.
The Missouri Department of Economic Development has been instrumental in establishing several community-based CDCs to leverage state and federal funding resources for the benefit of communities. By covering AmerenUE's 65-county Missouri electric service area, the AmerenCDC will have broad geographic distribution and increased project activity.
AmerenUE is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation. Ameren companies serve 2.3 million electric customers and 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area of Missouri and Illinois.