Jacobs Cleaning Village of Essexville is the state’s second dry-cleaning business to have a project approved under the Department of Environmental Quality’s new Small Business Pollution Prevention Loan Program.

The program is part of the Clean Michigan Initiative, a $675 million environmental bond proposed by Gov. John Engler and overwhelmingly approved by voters in 1998. The program provides low-interest loans to small businesses with fewer than 100 employees to encourage the implementation of projects that eliminate or reduce waste through source reduction or recycling.

DEQ Director Russell Harding’s approval of the project clears the way for finalizing a $57,000 loan to Jacobs Cleaning Village. The business will buy two dry-cleaning machines that will reduce the amount of annual perchloroethylene usage by nearly 90 percent. In addition, the new machines will replace older water-cooled condenser technology with refrigerated condensers that will reduce the facility’s water usage. The addition of a cooling tower provides further water conservation improvements at the facility.

"Dry cleaners are excellent candidates for the Small Business Pollution Prevention Program," Harding said. "The DEQ has been promoting it to facilities with older, less efficient equipment. "Significantly reducing the use of the dry-cleaning solvent perchloroethylene helps protect human health and the environment."

Under the program, the DEQ works in partnership with the company and its local bank to provide a loan that does not exceed the 5-percent interest rate established in the state statute creating this program. In this instance, Citizens Bank of Essexville is participating in the loan with the DEQ. Upon completing the loan documents, the bank will issue the $57,000 low-interest loan.

The loan program provided us the added incentive to upgrade to more efficient dry-cleaning machines," said Geraldine Overholt, owner of Jacobs Cleaning Village. "We’ll save over $7,000 in interest cost, which we can put to good use elsewhere in the business."

Eligible projects must reduce waste at the point of generation, or reuse or recycle materials. The program is based on a match partnership where the loan is split between participating lending institutions and the DEQ CMI fund.

Loans of up to $100,000 are available to all private business sectors including manufacturing, farming, retail and service. The DEQ’s Environmental Assistance Division administers the program.

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