Mahaska County, Iowa

Mahaska County Ag & Rural Development

Highlighted Activities - October 1 to December 31, 2003

Agribusiness

• World Food Park: In October, MCARD contracted with Mid-Iowa Cooperative to write a $450,000 USDA Value-Added Producer Grant to formalize Mid-Iowa's alliance with World Food Processing to allow their 800+ growers to plant, grow and market WFP's non-GMO specialty soybeans in international and domestic markets. Good news! The grant was approved in December. MCARD earned a $2,500 grant-writing fee. In addition, WFP provided MCARD with a $6,000 contribution. This venture has the potential to create seven jobs at the World Food Park.
• Emu Oil: MCARD and USDA's Jeff Kuntz continue to work with a regional limited liability corporation to develop a business plan to bring an existing emu oil processing operation from Oklahoma to this area. We are meeting with them again on January 15th.
• Vineyards: Great progress in the vineyards of Mahaska County! Have you noticed that Meadow Creek Vineyards is installing the poles for their trellis system at their new vineyard on Hwy 163? It looks great! Bob Wersen has invited me to meet with him on January 6th to get an update on their progress. Jeff Leak, of Moon Valley Vineyard, reports that his carbonation project is taking shape near University Park. The main building/production facility is now under renovation. His first client has arranged for 1,000 gallons of Chardonnay to arrive there March 1st from Des Moines to have Moon Valley carbonate and co-package. An additional 1,000 to 2,000 gallons from an Indianola winery is also scheduled. With a minimum of 2,000 of gallons of wine pledged, Moon Valley will soon be in the carbonation business! Congratulations to both vineyards!
• Annie's Project: Did you know that women own 51% of the land in Iowa? Bob Wells, Extension's Field Specialist for our region, has received word that the Western Center for Risk Management Education has approved his pre-application for a program entitled "Annie's Project- Iowa/Missouri." Annie's Project is designed to empower farm women to manage information systems used in the areas of 1) Financial Records, 2) Production Records, 3) Marketing Plans and Risk Management, 4) Legal /Regulation Documentations, and 5) Human Resources and Time Management.. This same project was implemented in Illinois with great success. Bob will be submitting the full $40,000 grant request on January 23rd. Farm Bureau and Extension in northern Missouri are partners. MCARD will act as one of several project leaders.
• Green House: Speaking of Extension... Amy Nossaman, our Extension Director for Mahaska County, has some great ideas re establishing a greenhouse that can provide horticulture therapy for some of our disabled residents and veggies/plants for area consumers. She called together MCARD and Nika Naylor, with the South Central Iowa Center for Independent Living., to talk about the possibilities. On November 21st , Amy and I traveled to a green house near Reinbeck that is a part of a nursing home there. It started in the 80's as one of the first of its kind in Iowa. It pays for itself by selling plants and holiday decorations to community residents, while providing great therapy and landscaping services for the institution.

Rural Development

• New Sharon: Things are hopping in New Sharon!
  • Bank Iowa and the New Sharon Recreation and Economic Development Foundation (NSREDF) have partnered together to loan Dennis and Kathy Houser (doing business as East Market Grocery, Inc.) the funds they needed to leverage their own cash to purchase the grocery building in New Sharon. They began renovating the building this past weekend. They plan to open this spring. We are now helping them research programs to renovate the upper story apartments for rental units. Randy Irwin, City of Oskaloosa, has provided us with some leads.
  • MCARD continues to assist Pro-Line in their efforts to build and expand into a new facility south of town. The loan application Pro-Line and MCARD put together for a low interest REDI loan was approved in September. The County Engineer's office is providing engineering services, and the County has partnered with Pro-Line to submit an Iowa Department of Transportation RISE grant, put together by MCARD, to help fund the paving of a road into the site off Hwy 63. The IDOT will review the grant at their January 13th meeting, which we will attend. We are also working on applications to other incentive programs for Pro-Line. This project will retain the 61 employees currently working at Pro-Line, as well as add an additional 15 new jobs. The Oskaloosa Area Chamber provided a $4,000 forgivable loan to Pro-Line for the project.
  • A company located in New Sharon called Montezuma Technologies recently contacted us. We will be meeting with them to discuss their research and development efforts on several interesting prototypes and possible grants.
  • I received a call this week re: an apple orchard in the New Sharon area. Provided info on possible assistance programs.
• Life in Iowa: ISU Extension has an internship program entitled "Life in Iowa" that is designed to encourage graduates to settle in Iowa's communities. The program provides the interns with both career and community volunteer opportunities. Musco is teaming up with Mahaska County Extension, Mahaska County Conservation, Mahaska County Recreation Foundation and MCARD to request three interns to work with us in the Mahaska Community.
• Barnes City:
  • A new restaurant/tavern is opening up in Barnes City. Gordon Lindblom tells me it should be open next month. The owners have built a new building to house the venture on Barnes City's main street. They contacted MCARD in the hopes of finding a low interest loan, but we were not able to locate any.
  • Barnes City's pre-application for a CDBG grant for a sewer system has been approved. Chris Bowers from Area XV Regional Planning is heading up the grant writing effort. MCARD has agreed to assist him in whatever way needed.
  • Shelly Robertson, City Clerk and MCARD Committee member, recently contacted us about grants she had heard about whereby a town can get matching funds to purchase a fire truck. MCARD contacted Bureau Chief for Iowa's Fire Service Training Bureau and found that such a program is in place and applications are due in the spring. In the meantime, Shelly is working with Barnes City's volunteer fire department to gather data on their budget and current funding sources.
• Eddyville:
  • MCARD has met several times with the members of Eddyville Historical Museum Inc. They recently received their non-profit status and are now raising funds. We put them in touch with Joyce Dicks, past director for the Wayne County Historical Museum and the author of several successful museum related grant applications. Randy Irwin from the City of Oskaloosa again given us some good leads on possible grants to restore a statue and other historical sites. We have suggested they create a plan to prioritize their efforts and they are in the process of creating one.
  • I attended the November 7th ribbon cutting ceremony for the new medical clinic being built in Eddyville.
  • MCARD has also been working with the Eddyville Child Care Center to research grants and to provide input on the status of their current funding/income. The Center is raising it rates as of January 1.
  • On November 5th, MCARD attended a press conference at the Indian Hills Bio Processing Training Center at which the Economic Development Administration and the Iowa Department of Transportation announced the award of grants to help Cargill create a new industrial park there. Cargill in Blaire Nebraska implemented a similar project and they have been very successful in attracting “cluster-based” businesses to that area. It is great to see Cargill continuing to invest here. This project, though located in Monroe County, promises to bring great jobs and growth to our region.
• Rose Hill: Mark Hansen and I traveled to Rose Hill on October 22nd to visit with Mark Hall, the owner and operator of Wooden Horse Ltd. He has a small manufacturing site adjacent to his store, The Bare Necessities. We discussed the possibility of applying for a low-interest SELP loan through Regional Development. Rose Hill recently elected Mark Hall as Mayor.
• Fremont: Connie Ward recently contacted MCARD about obtaining financing to improve/repair Fremont Leisure Living, the senior housing complex there. We contacted the USDA staff in Albia who suggested that Fremont get a loan for the improvements from the local bank. The USDA would subordinate the loan. Because the USDA owns the complex, grant monies are not available.
• Oskaloosa:
  • Randau Insurance Agency recently received a $10,000 low interest SELP loan that MCARD submitted on their behalf to Area XV's REDI program. They will use the money to create one job; a customer service person for their Oskaloosa office.
  • MCARD is currently assisting a local retailer with plans to expand into new site that can include a value-added ag component. We have met with Jeff Kuntz (USDA) to discuss the possibility of USDA funds since they have been applied in another state to a similar project. We are continuing to gather information.
  • Attended the City of Oskaloosa's Open House on October 24th for their newly renovated City Hall. I was so impressed!
  • MCARD has been attending the recent meetings of a group looking at creating a Childcare Center in Oskaloosa. Led by Jerry Leighton, who heads Childcare Resource and Referral for this area, the group is looking at the feasibility/possibility of putting YMCA and Kid s Corner, as well as other child related services under one roof. At their last meeting, they discussed a site near the new elementary school. The group will gather again on January 29th
• Mahaska Communication Group: County Supervisor Willie Van Weelden, in the interest of bringing broadband service to Mahaska County's rural areas, asked MCARD to work with the Mahaska Communications Group (MCG) to research funding incentives available through the USDA for rural broadband systems. As a result, MCARD, Jeff Kuntz (USDA), and Jock Aplin, the USDA's Field Representative for the Rural Utility Service, met with MCG representatives November. We discussed MCG's plans for future service to rural residents as well current federal funding levels for such programs. Access to such broadband technology is vital to the economic development of Mahaska County. Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D. reiterates this in his report about the National Community Networking Conference held recently in Austin. According to Dr. Cohill,

  "The New York Times ran a fascinating series last week on who is moving back to rural communities--it's not big companies bringing 50-200 workers at a time. Instead, it's one family at a time, with the primary breadwinner a successful and prosperous entrepreneur businessperson who can live anywhere that there is affordable broadband. So the new focus of economic development must be identifying those factors that will influence families and microbusiness entrepreneurs. Economic developers will need entirely new strategies for identifying who might move back, what kind of help they need, and the amenities that will bring them and keep them in the community."

• Team Mahaska: Team Mahaska met on December 10th to host a roundtable discussion about local government with Senators Neil Schuerer and Richard Arnold. We had a great exchange of ideas and comments. In particular, we talked about how actions taken at the capital have affected municipal budgets and how towns are dealing with severe cuts. Team Mahaska is working to find efficiencies in three areas of local government, namely information technology, legal services, and health care coverage.
• Committee of 82: Earlier this year, we reported on the Committee of 82. As you may remember, this committee represents the 82 "rural" counties of Iowa that do not contain major metropolitan centers. They formed to counteract a committee made up of metro counties and to bring greater focus and understanding to rural development in Iowa. This fall the Committee of 82 was legally structured to allow it to develop studies, educate, fund raise and lobby. The Committee hired Iowa State University economists John Miranowski, Bruce Babcock, Dermot Hayes, Dan Otto, and Daniel Monchuk to research existing factors that impact Iowa's economic development on a county-by-county basis in Iowa and the Midwest. A preliminary study has been completed, identifying areas of impact. The Des Moines Register ran an article on the ISU report last Sunday. It gives a brief, although limited, overview of the research. The Committee of 82 is meeting on January 7th to begin discussing a plan of action. Several representatives from Mahaska County participate in the Committee of 82. We will keep you posted on their progress.
• Transportation: Organized and hosted (through Indian Hills Regional Development) a Southern Iowa Intermodal Rail Summit to launch effort to bring better rail service to region, continue to serve on as secretary of Intermodal "steering committee"

Chamber

• Town & County Banquet: Plans are underway for the 58th Annual Town & Country Banquet. It is scheduled for Saturday, March 13th. We had close to 600 attendees last year. Our move to the Penn Central Mall generated very positive reviews so are having it there again. Since our speaker last March was so terrible, we can say, without reservation, that this year's speaker will be much better. He couldn't be much worse!! Such varied entertainment just adds to the charm of the event. The North Mahaska Jazz Band has agreed to play. They are sure to be as great as always. Jim Lorber, our Ag Events Chair, is keeping us busy gathering sponsorships ($150 each). Let me know if you would like to be a sponsor.
• Executive Director Resigns: Joel Akason has announced that he has taken a position with the Greater Des Moines Partnership. His last day with the Chamber will be January 9th. I am sure you join MCARD in wishing him well.

Outreach/Miscellaneous

• Indian Hills Regional Development: This three county group is gearing up to market the Eddyville region as a destination for biotech companies. We recently engaged ArrowQuick and ArrowGraphix to redesign and update our current brochure (which we distribute at the National Bio conference every year) as well as our website. MCARD serves on the marketing committee, along with reps from Monroe and Wapello County. We are in the process of gathering photos for inclusion in the marketing pieces. We also continue to look at the need for rail to the area. In November, the IHRD hosted a meeting between the IDOT, Cargill, other area industries and representatives from a rail company, to determine the feasibility of an intermodal facility. All indications are that this area does not have the volume to support an intermodal facility. However, there is data that suggests we could support a transmodal facility (i.e. one that uses other types of transport besides shipping containers, like flat cars, hoppers, boxcars, pneumatic cars, etc.)
• Other Assistance:
  • Will help edit/review a grant app that the Mahaska Co. Conservation and Mahaska County Rec Foundation are working on re: the Eveland Access area.
  • Gave a presentation at Oskaloosa High School on Career Day
  • Had fun helping the Chamber staff paint the OACDG conference room one afternoon in November
  • Had more fun on December 4th helping Main Street with their Lighted Christmas Parade
  • Booked Tom Quinn, of ISU Extension, to meet with the Southern Iowa Fair Foundation on January 15th to help them through a planning process for improvements to the Fairgrounds.
• Letters to Elected Officials: MCARD sent a letter to each of Mahaska County's newly elected rural mayors and council people to introduce them to, or remind them about, the resources available through MCARD and to invite them to sign up to receive this report.
• MCARD Funding: MCARD has just received a generous contribution from Smith-Wakes. Thank you! On January 7th, we are going before the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors to request the continuance of their $30,000 annual contribution to MCARD for 2004. We encourage you to voice your support of our program now more than ever!

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