On September 3, the 200th day after President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack traveled to Louisa, Virginia to meet with local officials and community residents. The town has received a $3.3 million loan through the Recovery Act to help the community expand the processing capabilities of their wastewater treatment plant and improve local water quality. The project will create or save 50 jobs.

Like many rural communities across America, Louisa, population 1,500, is in need of investments and assistance to upgrade critical infrastructure. Mayor Jim Artz highlighted how important the USDA loan was for his the town. "Our infrastructure really needs some work, this is an old town," said Artz. "Conventional loans would have placed a tremendous load on our annual budget, because of this is a USDA loan, we are looking at a savings of $60,000 per year. This is big savings for a small town."