Linn County Commissioners recently approved application for a $60,000 North American Development Bank grant through the Community Adjustment and Investment Program.

If approved, the money will be used to help fund the Linn County Business Development Center, said Keith Miller, program coordinator.

Miller said the money is intended to help create or preserve private-sector jobs in counties that were adversely affected by enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s. Linn County previously received a $60,000 grant that was expended from 2001-03.

According to the Oregon Employment Department, in 1999 when the first grant application was made, some 530 workers had been laid off in Linn County from companies adversely affected by NAFTA. There were also some 706 workers in Benton County affected. Of those, an estimated 50 percent live in Linn County.

The money would be used to help pay for the administration of several job creation projects already supported by the Business Development Center.