Recent News

(L-R): Rand Fisher, President, Iowa Area Development Group; Brittany Dickey, Development Finance Director, Corn Belt Power Cooperative; Jim Vermeer, Vice President of Business Development, Corn Belt Power Cooperative; Brooke Sievers, Civil Engineer, ISG; Scott Jacobs, Calhoun County Board of Supervisors; Keaton Hildreth, CEO, Calhoun County Electric Cooperative Association; Jill Heisterkamp...Continue Reading

The U.S. is gradually recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and states have heavily relaxed their COVID-19 restrictions. As a result, the unemployment rate has dropped to 5.8% from its high of 14.8% in April 2020. The country’s progress toward economic recovery has been largely possible because of the strides it ha...Continue Reading

With its fertile fields, livestock, and poultry farming, Iowa is synonymous with agriculture. According to the USDA, Iowa is number one in production of corn, feed crops, eggs, and corn; number two for soybeans; and number four for cattle. These abundant resources and raw materials are the fuel that power...Continue Reading

ELK HORN — With parents struggling to deal with a day care shortage, the Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton Community School District will help open a day care in Elk Horn, to be located in the Elk Horn school building. “The day care, Kids in the Village, has been a work in progress over th...Continue Reading

Heartland Bank broke ground May 12 on its new 4,600-square foot office building in the 1700 block of N. Elm St in Jefferson. Heartland Bank opened on the northeast corner of Jefferson’s downtown square in February 2020. There are now five fulltime employees there, led by Scott Weber, business development officer. Kevi...Continue Reading

The Jefferson city council moved forward on rezoning a portion of northeast Jefferson at its regular meeting May 11, approving the first reading of a pair of ordinances for the rezoning. That action followed two public hearings at which no one spoke. The neighborhood involved generally surrounds St Joseph Catholic Churc...Continue Reading

A local innovative and trailblazing manufacturer in liquid transfer equipment recently reached a milestone as the 300th TTR-20 hose real left the production plant and entered the field. President and CEO of Puck Enterprises of Manning, Jeremy Puck, says they are proud of this accomplishment. “This 300th TTR-20 represents the continued growt...Continue Reading

Three of 25 awards for excellence in the tourism industry were presented to area businesses, organizations and attractions during the annual Iowa Tourism Conference this week. The awards were divided into metro and rural classifications in 13 categories and conference attendees voted for the People’s Choice award, which went t...Continue Reading

April 28, 2021 (Des Moines, Iowa) — The Iowa Tourism Office and the Travel Federation of Iowa presented 25 awards recognizing excellence in the tourism industry at a ceremony today in Des Moines during the 2021 Iowa Tourism Conference. “These awards are a great opportunity to recognize our industry partners fo...Continue Reading

Guthrie County Hospital and GCH Clinics in Panora invite the community to attend a groundbreaking ceremony Monday, April 26 at 1 p.m. at the site of the new clinic construction at 103 SE 13th Street, Panora. The 6,800 square foot clinic will include family medicine, walk-in clinic, radiology, and laborator...Continue Reading

Last November, Corn Board Manufacturing Inc. announced their intentions to construct a 50,000+ square foot production facility just outside of Odebolt for corn stover-based wood alternative products. Construction is underway on the physical structure while relationships are being built to bring the needed raw materials from local farmers to th...Continue Reading

Western Iowa Energy (WIE) in Sac County is a major driver of the rapidly growing biodiesel industry as a BQ9000 Accredited Producer capable of generating 45 million gallons annually. Their accreditation attests they have passed a rigorous review and inspection of their quality control processes by an independent auditor. Biodiesel i...Continue Reading

Denison and other county towns on the list for Wednesday Seth Varner and Austin Schneider are on a mission to visit every incorporated town in Iowa; they’ve dubbed their journey Visit939Iowa, with 939 being the number of towns they plan to visit. Varner and Schneider are roommates at the University of Nebrask...Continue Reading

As a leader, it’s no surprise that one of your most crucial jobs is making sure employees are productive day in and day out. Many leaders have attempted to increase team productivity by introducing state-of-the-art technologies and testing the most successful workflow methods they could find. Unfortunately, they’re missing ...Continue Reading

We know how to get down to business. We also know how to protect yours. That’s why we offer customized commercial coverages and dedicated support in the event of a data breach, equipment breakdown, and more. Trust in Tomorrow.® Talk to a Grinnell Mutual agent today.   View the PDF here. Continue Reading

You might think that creativity requires the antithesis of rules and regulation. Even the thought of being creative conjures up images of disorder. Messy rooms, paint everywhere, scraps of paper with ideas scrawled across them. The frantic creative genius works away, oblivious to the world around them. Chaos. Method i...Continue Reading

Why economic developers need to market their Opportunity Zones now is to attract investors to the underfunded areas of their communities. Opportunity Zone legislation passed in 2017 and is designed to promote growth in stagnant and underdeveloped regions of the country. There are more than 8,700 Opportunity Zones designated throug...Continue Reading

As we were ringing in 2020, it’s safe to say that almost no one could have imagined the novel year that was virtually at our doorsteps. Like a monsoon, Covid-19 arrived, and with it a plethora of changes to not only how we live and work, but how business i...Continue Reading

It has now been five years since Farmers’ Cooperative and West Central merged, forming Landus, Iowa’s largest agricultural cooperative. They officially marked the anniversary date on Thursday, April 1 with a look back at the milestones reached over the past half decade. These include: facility updates at many locations, wit...Continue Reading

AD: How has COVID-19 changed the employee experience in manufacturing, and what facets of this should organizations retain going forward? Zenk: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have been experiencing a drastically different work environment. Thousands of manufacturers across the U.S. and around the world were deemed essential during the pandemic...Continue Reading

Judging by the number of e-commerce and health-related facility investments all around us in this pandemic year, you’d expect those categories to vault to the top of any global ranking by industry sector. They didn’t quite reach the summit, but logistics (+19.3%) and life sciences (+12%) show the biggest — an...Continue Reading

Back in the 1980s, the term “offshoring” became a business buzzword as more and more U.S. companies moved manufacturing to foreign countries, typically to save on labor costs. In recent years, “reshoring” has been added to the lexicon as companies decide to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., for variou...Continue Reading

The coronavirus pandemic plunged the world into a deep health and economic crisis. The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine points to a “light at the end of the tunnel” for the country’s physical health, but as we collectively take stock for ways to rebuild our economy stronger and more resilien...Continue Reading

In a year full of turmoil and strife caused by an unexpected pandemic, data centers were quickly recognized for their crucial presence in all lives, for maintaining communication and knowledge during a period of sudden change for humanity. Data center operators and major services held fast throughout the troubled, early day...Continue Reading