One of the state’s top officials in the U.S. Department of Agriculture visited Fiesta Foods in Hermiston on Monday.

Oregon State Director for Rural Development Vicki Walker touted the success of stimulus spending as she received a tour of the supermarket from president and owner Craig Gaylord.

Gaylord detailed for Walker the effects of two massive loans that his store recently received as the two led a small group around the store, which opened in July 2009.

Earlier this year, Bank of Whitman out of Kennewick, Wash., agreed to provide Fiesta Foods $6.9 million, 90 percent of which the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s (ARRA) Business & Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program has backed.

The bank has provided $5.1 million to Hermiston Real Estate Investments LLC for a long-term loan to pay for construction costs and $1.8 million to Fiesta Foods of Oregon Inc., for a medium-term loan to finance furnishings and equipment.

Both will replace shorter interim loans that were coming due.

“It is the biggest B&I loan that Whitman has done,” said Jim Hui, regional manager and loan officer for Bank of Whitman. He described the B&I program as a great process and said his bank has experienced no hiccups in securing an almost full guarantee for the loans to Fiesta Foods.

During an informal meal following the tour, Gaylord described plans to fill the two remaining vacant rental areas on the Fiesta Foods property with a hairdresser and a liquor store.

Walker described the AARA’s loan backing program – paid for with deficit spending by the federal government – as able to build entire cities.

According to Walker, infrastructure, housing and business developments can all be paid for through stimulus money.

“I just see great things ahead [for Fiesta Foods],” she said before leaving.