Communities Unlimited

09/02/2026

CU Lending client Taraile Stinnett is on the verge of opening Smoked N Smothered 'SBL' in Tulsa, OK. His grand opening is set for Labor Day.

Before then, we caught up with him for a sneak peek at his new location and, of course, the barbecue.

See how he got the doors open: https://communitiesu.org/blog/2026/07/21/small-business-loan-tulsa-oklahoma/

09/02/2026

Right now, someone in your state capitol is drawing a map that decides where investment flows for the next 10 years. Rural leaders across the South: your town has about four weeks to make sure it's on it.

Here's the short version. A new round of federal Opportunity Zones is being drawn right now. Governors decide which census tracts get nominated, and once this round closes at the end of September, the map is locked for a decade. A tract left off waits until 2037 for another chance.

Opportunity Zones give investors a tax break for putting money into a designated community. And this round, rural zones carry a stronger incentive than they ever have. So the tracts that make the list become the places where private capital can actually land between now and 2036. The ones that don't, won't.

Rural communities can get passed over in this process. Not because they don't qualify, but because busier, better-staffed places make more noise at the state capitol. Staying quiet is the real risk.

You can change that. This week:
-Look up your community's census tracts and check them against the eligible list on the CDFI Fund's Opportunity Zone tool at cdfifund.gov/opportunity-zones.
-Call your state's economic development office and ask who's building the governor's nomination list.
-Put your ask in writing. Name the exact tract, why it needs investment, and any project or investor ready to move.
-Bring more than one voice. A mayor, a county judge, a chamber of commerce, and a local employer together carry far more weight than one letter.

The governors of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama are making these calls now.

At Communities Unlimited, we're tracking nomination activity across all seven states and flagging persistent-poverty tracts so rural communities aren't left off the map. We've worked alongside rural towns in the South for 50 years, and we can point you to your eligible tracts and the right people at the state.

The clock is short. If your community belongs on this map, now is the time to say so.

09/01/2026

Four rural Texas water systems spent nearly a decade under temporary management. Then, their customers decided to take ownership.

See how that decision helped change the future of water service for nearly 300 households: https://communitiesu.org/blog/2026/08/10/rural-water-system-ownership-shallowater/

08/31/2026

As comes to a close, we want to recognize the operators and utility staff members we work with.

Running a small water system often means wearing several hats with limited staff and resources. You're patching pipes, chasing grant paperwork and explaining rate increases at the same board meeting, often without enough hours in the day for all of it.

Thank you for the work you do every day to keep water flowing across the rural communities we serve.

08/27/2026

Our Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) unit just went out on its first deployment, and it headed straight to Gunnison, MS.

Before broadband construction crews break ground, they have to know what's underneath it. So this week, our GIS Team walked Gunnison's water system, using the GPR to trace the distribution and customer water lines and marking each one with flags, spray paint, and even the depth in feet. Every point we found also got logged by GPS for the town's GIS mapping, about 360 points across the whole system.

These maps give the broadband crews a clear picture of what's underground so they can build without striking a water line, costing the city in expensive repairs.

Robert Williams with the Town of Gunnison worked alongside our team to locate and document the system's assets, and we walked our process with the construction foreman before the crew got started, so everyone was working off the same map.

08/26/2026

Ask Alexis Nank, Community Infrastructure Consultant at CU, what a typical day looks like as a TAP (Technical Assistance Provider), and she'll tell you there isn't one. One day she's building a financial plan with a small water system. The next, she's on-site working with staff on an assessment. The next, she's helping identify and pursue funding for needed improvements.

Operators, board members and city staff keep rural water systems running. They're the ones protecting water quality day to day. TAPs work alongside them, providing added capacity, technical expertise and support when it's needed.

This , we're recognizing that work.

08/25/2026

It's National Water Quality Month, a good time to highlight what's happening in Mound Bayou, MS.

Mound Bayou has kept its water and wastewater systems running on infrastructure that dates back decades. For years, Mayor Leighton Aldridge and city staff worked to line up the funding to change that. Now a new loan is underway to replace an aging well and worn-out water mains.

Read Mound Bayou's story: https://communitiesu.org/blog/2026/08/07/mound-bayou-water-system-upgrades/

08/21/2026

Roughly 80 homes across Arkansas, Mississippi, and East Texas now have fortified roofs. But the bigger fix was building the workforce to do it: certifying contractors and evaluators these communities didn't have before.

Safer homes. New local businesses. Skills that stay in the region long after the last roof goes on.

Read the full story:

Fortified Roof Program work in rural Arkansas is giving homeowners like Linda Madkin dry, safe housing — and building a certified contractor workforce that didn't exist before.

08/20/2026

Big things are happening across the Mississippi Delta region, and CU wants your community to be part of them.

CU's CEO Ines Polonius will co-present with Kendra Key at DELTA FEST 2026 in Jackson, Mississippi, September 2 to 4. It's a three-day gathering of entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and community leaders all working toward the same goal: stronger, more prosperous communities across the South.

More than $200 billion is already committed to projects in this region, from housing and healthcare to energy and manufacturing. The real question is who knows about it and who's ready to put it to work. That's what DELTA FEST is about.

Find out more and get your pass at www.deltafest.money
DELTA FEST is hosted by HOPE and co-created with Yancey Consulting.

Hope Enterprise Corporation Hope Credit Union

08/19/2026

Every time you turn on the tap, someone made sure that water was safe. This , we're recognizing the people who do that work. We asked Britton Howe, a member of our Community Infrastructure Team, what he wishes people knew about water quality.