The North Central Regional Small Business Development Center at Central Lakes College, Brainerd, recently recognized Cass County Economic Development Corporation and its executive director, Gail Leverson, for their support of the SBDC program. The EDC recently committed $8,500 to the SBDC, which will allow the program to provide professional business consulting services in Cass County through 2011. “Since we began working with the EDC in 2004 this partnership has been able to increase business consulting services to Cass County businesses nearly three times more than it was before we began the partnership,” said Greg Bergman, director of the SBDC. “This shows how organizations can share resources to serve their community more effectively than before.” The SBDC program provides business consulting and information to qualified business owners and prospective business owners at no cost to them through grant funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration and matching funds raised from local organization. Contact Cass County Economic Development Corporation or the SBDC at Central Lakes College for more information.