• Introduction
• The Electric Cooperative Boost
• How Today's Jeans are Finished
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The Electric Cooperative Boost

A large part of the special service that Lackey beams about is the finishing plant in Taylorsville, which may be the most modern such facility in the country and possibly the world. Its creation was assisted by the cooperative Crescent Electric Membership Corporation, now known as EnergyUnited since its merger with Davidson Electric Membership Corporation in 1998. In 1996, Crescent Electric applied for and received a $325,000 no-interest loan from the Rural Business and Cooperative Development Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That loan for Apparel Technologies was combined with a $75,000 no-interest loan from the electric cooperative itself. Lackey says that loan was an important key in planning the facility.

“We were planning a $2 million facility and were looking for funding,” he noted. “That loan helped us build a bigger, more modern facility that provided more jobs than we would have been able to without the loan. The loan was very important to the company and to the town because the additional jobs we created helped the town receive a grant to upgrade the sewer system. The upgraded sewer system allowed the town to accept more business, which added more jobs for residents of the town and county. So, the loan really created a positive cycle.”