Recent News
Regional News
Iowa Microloan Program
Western Iowa Advantage and the Iowa Foundation for Microenterprise have announced that they are entering into discussions to make the Iowa Microloan Program available in the 8 counties served by WIAD economic developers in Adair, Audubon, Carroll, Crawford, Greene, Guthrie, Ida, and Sac Counties. The Iowa Microloan Program uses funds from the SBA Microloan Program to offer specialized loans of $5000 to $35000 for startup businesses and small business expansion opportunities. The program is designed for entrepreneurs who have business plans that are just beyond the level of risk acceptable to commercial lenders. The Iowa Microloan Program provides an alternative for small entrepreneurs who for one reason or another may not fit within the loan criteria of a given lender. Extra incentives for technical assistance and financial monitoring are provided to the approved microloan clients. Rita Frahm, Ida County Economic Development & Heritage Bank, NA representative is a founding member of the IFMCV Board. Entrepreneurs interested in making an application can learn more by visiting the web site: www.Iowamicroloan.org.
Apprenticeship Seminar
Western Iowa Advantage hosted three Apprenticeship Seminars the last week of June in Denison, Panora and Carroll to provide regional stakeholders the opportunity to learn more about an apprenticeship program that will have benefits for a number of employers. Modern apprenticeship has been proven to work for many businesses around the country. As recent studies have projected a "significant labor shortage" in Iowa by 2012, our goal is to ensure businesses in our region a bright and profitable future.
The showcased apprenticeship program allows businesses to employ new or existing workers at an affordable cost. This means that many participating employers do not have to reallocate time and resources or halt everyday business in order to train workers. The end result is a skilled (and licensed, if required) employee whom is already familiar with the employer's business and industry.
Participating employers have found numerous other benefits for both business and employee. Employees have demonstrated they are more productive and have a higher morale after this type of training, not only because their skills have increased, but because they feel more valued as an employee.
This program is also successful, in part, due to its adaptability and responsiveness to employers' needs. This apprenticeship program is designed to be shaped to be more effective based on employers' feedback as training continues. For more information on the program, contact Greer Sisson, State Director, Office of Apprenticeship, U. S. Department of Labor – sisson.greer@dol.gov or 515.284.4691.
Do you have an idea for a seminar or workshop that you think would be beneficial to your business and others in the region? If so, contact a Western Iowa Advantage partner and share your idea!
Adair County
New Lottery Scratch Game to Support Veterans
By Pat Curtis
The Iowa Lottery has released a new scratch ticket that will raise money to support war veterans.
The "Freedom Rock" game features an image of the giant boulder, also dubbed The Freedom Rock, that's located near the western Iowa town of Greenfield. For over a decade, local artist Ray "Bubba" Sorensen has painted patriotic images on the 56-ton, 25-foot high boulder.
Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer says they approached Sorensen about the idea nearly a year ago. "This is a way for us at the lottery to honor the work of a local artist and help veterans at the same time," Neubauer said.
The Iowa Legislature approved the production of scratch and pull-tab games to benefit veterans in 2008. The sales began just over one year ago with estimates that the games would raise between $2 and $3 million in proceeds annually for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. Lottery officials expect sales of the patriotic themed games will reach $2.7 million for fiscal year 2009 .
"So we're going to be on the upper range of the scale we gave legislators when they asked us about this project," Neubauer said.
Kent Hartwig with the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs says that money will help hundreds of needy veterans. He says qualified veterans can receive assistance in paying for vision, hearing and dental care, prescription drugs, emergency housing repairs, counseling services and more.
Neubauer believes the new scratch tickets will be available at all
Iowa Lottery retailers by Friday. The tickets cost $2 and players can win up to 10 times on each ticket. The prizes range from $2 to $777,000.
Audubon County
Audubon County Community Foundation
The fall distribution will be $53,110. September 1, 2009 has been set as the grant deadline. Application will not be accepted prior to August 15, 2009. The new application version must be used and it must be emailed. Applications and instructions are available at www.iowacommunityfoundations.org/auduboncef. The Audubon County Community Foundation is a great boost to our county not-for-profit organizations as this will make a $155,000 total distribution this year.
County Brochures
New brochures promoting our county are near completion and will be circulating in the next week or two. One of the brochures is a four fold that promotes the points of interest throughout the county, another promotes Albert the Bull and Operation T-Bone, and there is one promoting the John James Audubon Bird Walk and John James Audubon Plaza in Audubon.
Carroll County
MidAmerican Energy CEO Visits Carroll
MidAmerican Energy Company President and CEO Bill Fehrman discussed the proposed Energy bill Tuesday with a group of Carroll County business leaders and officials. He stated the company's position on the cap and trade component of the 1,500 page bill that is currently being considered in the United States Senate.
"The bottom line is that the trading allowances will not reduce emissions and will hurt rural customers, particularly in the Midwest," according to Carroll Area Development Corporation President Gary Riedmann, who was in attendance with about 60 others. CADC invited Carroll Rotary, elected officials and other business leaders to the lunch and presentation.
Crawford County
More Green Fuels Gets Green Light taken from Iowa Renewable Fuels Association
Green Team, Grassroots Renewable Energy Network
Amaizing Energy Holding Co. of Denison has been given the green light to build a pilot scale biofuels reactor and processing system which will produce butanol. Butanol is an advanced transportation biofuel with many characteristics favorable to ethanol. To create the butanol, both methanol (made from biomass) and ethanol will be used as inputs for production. The pilot project will be located adjacent to Amaizing Energy's 55 million gallon ethanol plant in Denison.
Greene County
B&D Manufacturing Recognized as ‘Renew Rural Iowa’ Business of Month
B&D Manufacturing of Scranton, Greene County, Iowa was recognized as the Iowa Farm Bureau’s ‘Renew Rural Iowa’ program as Business of the Month. B&D manufactures geothermal heating and cooling systems for residential purposes. Dallas Warnke and his wife founded the business some years ago, but now are operating the company with their sons.
B&D makes and services non-pressurized geothermal systems. Geothermal systems are being embraced as a ‘green’ heating and cooling system because they rely on water flow through pipes underground; it’s a more efficient means to heat or cool a room, or surface.
B&D has grown from seven employees to 40 employees over the last few years. Workers assemble up to 200 geothermal machines a week and have seen an increase in business as more corporations seek out more environmentally-friendly, ‘green’ practices.
B&D Manufacturing is one of the few geothermal manufacturing companies in Iowa. The Company is making plans to double the size of their operation in the next year or so in Scranton.
Guthrie County
SynGest Announces Project to Produce Bioammonia in Guthrie County
Menlo, Iowa - SynGest, a startup company which proposes to convert biomass to anhydrous ammonia, announced earlier this spring their intent to develop their initial project on a site near Menlo in Guthrie County.
SynGest’s leaders hope that this project will become the world’s first bioammonia facility, converting approximately150,000 tons of corn cobs into approximately 50,000 annual tons of anhydrous ammonia. The company is currently working with organizations like the Iowa Corn Growers to organize farmers and funding to help farmers purchase equipment to harvest biomass.
The project would bring a tremendous amount of economic impact to the area. SynGest would create approximately 40 direct jobs and an even larger number of indirect jobs through harvesting, storing, and distributing cobs and biommonia. The projects estimated cost ranges from $90 million to $105 million.
Additionally, the project will have a positive environmental impact. SynGest will rely on very little natural gas, and sees additional synergies that could be created between it and ethanol plants, such as Hawkeye Growth located across the road. SynGest claims that it will dispose of no waste, but will use waste materials such as corn cobs, which has much less nutrient value than corn stalks.
Economically, locally produced bioammonia will help stabilize price fluctuations in the fertilizer market. Most of the fertilizer consumed in the United States is imported from other countries. SynGest hopes to build dozens of plants like the one proposed for Guthrie County.
The Guthrie County Board of Supervisors recently issued a conditional letter of support for SynGest, agreeing to either offer a 10-year, 100% property tax abatement, or a $20 million tax increment finance bond.
The Midwest Partnership Development Corporation recently sponsored two public meetings for SynGest, one in Guthrie Center and one in Menlo, at which over 120 members of the public attended to meet the SynGest leaders, hear details of the project and presentations from biomass harvest equipment suppliers.
Ida County
Ida County voted #3 Best Rural County to Live in America
from Progressive Farmer magazine
Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Agee once wrote, "You can never go home again." Don't tell that to Delayne Johnson.
Like so many of his generation that grew up on an Ida County, Iowa, farm, Johnson graduated from college and moved away to start his career. But now he's back in an area fueled by agriculture, renewable energy projects and light industry. "It was always my goal to live here," says the general manager of Galva Holstein Ag LLC. "My wife, Anne, and I want our children to live in a community where your neighbor will lend a helping hand whenever you ask."
Helping others seems to come naturally to the people who live here in the gently rolling hills of northwest Iowa. Several foundations have been established to help fund everything from recreation centers to a performing arts center. In addition, the BCIG Citizens' Scholarship Foundation, located in Ida Grove, has given an amazing $1.24 million to high school seniors over the past 14 years. It's support like this that has established Galva-Holstein as one of the state's top college prep schools, as recognized recently by The Des Moines Register.
Education is a high priority of leaders in Ida County. "Bringing industry and good jobs to the county goes hand in hand with our schools having the curriculum that complement employers' needs," says Rita Frahm, president of the Ida County Economic Development.
Philanthropy Provides the Catalyst for Galva Holstein Performing Arts Center
Construction on Ida County's newest arts venue is taking center stage in Holstein, Iowa. The project began with a $500,000 challenge grant from the Roger & Rosemary Clausen family, owners of VT Industries, Inc. whose corporate headquarters is in Holstein. This challenge was met and the $2.3 million project is now underway. Contributions were received from current residents, businesses, non-profit organizations, and alumni throughout the region.
As a result of the successful fundraising, The Galva Holstein Foundation received the Governor's Volunteer Group Award last month. The project was also recently awarded a $350,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Economic Development's "Vision Iowa: Community Attraction & Tourism" program. Additional funds were sought by NorthWest Rural Electric Cooperative with assistance from Iowa Area Group and Ida County Economic Development. Consisting of a 0% interest loan in the amount of $300,000, this grant marks the first USDA Rural Economic Development Loan & Grant awarded in Ida County. The REDL program funds projects that help build local economies and increase economic opportunities in rural communities.
Rita Frahm, president of Ida County Economic Development, believes investments like the Performing Arts Center continue to provide opportunities for the future of Ida County. "We're pleased to see continued successes like this which exemplify the economic impact of projects in our region," Frahm says.
Sac County
New Streetscapes Enhance Communities
Auburn and Lake View in Sac County are both involved in “community-changing” streetscape projects which include not only aesthetics, but infrastructure as well.
Lake View, home of beautiful Black Hawk Lake, has been working on improving their downtown streetscape for the past two years. A design concept was provided from Snyder and Associates and a sales promotion for their downtown businesses was incorporated into the plans. This $1million plus project includes infrastructure such as new streetlights, water hookups and electrical lines incorporated in the plan. The concrete on Main Street has been poured as well as the parkings and now work begins on the downtown sidewalks. This project was undertaken to enhance the downtown as a destination for the 250,000 visitors that come to Lake View and Black Hawk Lake each summer.
Auburn, adorned with new entrance signs as “A Taste of Home”, is working on a streetscape over $1 million as well. There will be four blocks of rain gardens on US Hwy. 71 providing natural drainage, as well as bump outs and new street lights. Phase two of the project will include enhancements to city hall and the park with phase three being a new terminus sign at the intersection of Hwy. 71 & Hwy. 175. The project is expected to be completed this fall.
Federal award to aid U.S. 20 Moorland to Moville stretch funded
The federal government has awarded $533,520 to continue making U.S. Highway 20 a four-lane route through northwestern Iowa.
The money is to be invested in the highway between the border of Calhoun and Sac counties and Moville in Woodbury County, according to the Federal Highway Administration. That stretch is part of the last remaining section of the highway that has not been expanded to four lanes.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley announced the award of the money the last week of June.
"We're always excited that our Iowa congressional delegation realizes how important this U.S. 20 corridor is to the state of Iowa and continues to provide us with appropriations to complete the project,'' said Shirley Phillips, the president of the U.S. 20 Corridor Association.
Phillips said the association asked Grassley and U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, for some additional money for the highway project last year. The $533,520 was included in a gigantic spending bill that President Barack Obama signed in February.
U.S. Highway 20 crosses Iowa between Dubuque and Sioux City. It is being widened to four lanes in a process that has dragged on for nearly 40 years. Now, about 90 miles between Moorland in Webster County and Moville are all that remain to be expanded. All of those 90 miles are currently the subject of construction, surveying or design work.
Earthmoving between Moorland and Iowa Highway 4 near Rockwell City is nearing completion. The bridge near Moorland Pond is to be finished this fall.
The Iowa Department of Transportation is expected to award a contract for paving the four lanes between Moorland and Iowa Highway 4 this summer. A contract for earthmoving between Iowa Highway 4 and Sac County Road N14 is also expected to be awarded this summer.
"I've been waiting for the day that I could drive across Iowa on a four-lane Highway 20,'' Grassley, a Republican, said in a statement issued by his office. ''This brings us one step closer to that.''
