Economic development continues to thrive in southeast Iowa

Economic development is the backbone of most communities and often goes without recognition. Behind each organization is a board looking to bring new opportunities to its community for both financial and physical growth opportunities.

Josh Laraby, Executive Director of the Fairfield Economic Development Association (FEDA) said his days are never alike. The day can range from sitting down with an entrepreneur with 'a dollar in their pocket and a huge vision” to meeting with existing companies to discuss expansions to recruiting new businesses in town.

'Economic development is really about looking at what the economic growth opportunities in your community are and the economic growth hurdles,” he said.

FEDA is a membership organization designed to allow for growth and vision in the community, he said.

'The work that we do … always is dependent on our partnerships. Private and public partnerships could not be more important to us to move forward on anything that we are working on,” he said.

Kristi Ray, secretary/treasurer of the Area Development Board in Henry County said the organization was formed out of a 28-E agreement with the county and each individual city inside. The county and each city individually invest money.

The Area Development Commission is made up of both private and public partnerships, she said. As a board, there are many goals and areas of focus but currently retention is number one.

Recruitment is an important area, but if a company needs 400 workers for example, the county and cities within the county may not be able to supply that many. Instead, the focus has gone to retaining businesses and employees to ensure they have safe, reliable jobs within the county.

In addition to retention, focus on expansions has been big, Ray said. In the last five years, multiple industries have expanded their businesses to bring in an additional $31 million to Mt. Pleasant.

To develop and enhance Fairfield, Laraby said there are six main areas of focus: internal and external community marketing, attracting new business and industry, supporting existing industry, education and workforce development, advocacy and community development.

Within the last five years, two housing developments have gone up in town that have helped support multiple of those areas of focus, he said.

The North Campus Village housing development is a condo unit where 56 new units were introduced in phase 5 of the plans and brought in more $7.5 million in new valuation. The units are workforce housing and are affordable homes meets the wages of the community, he said. A second development has added 17 new units and brought in more than $2.5 million for Fairfield.

Housing development has been a big push for the Washington Economic Development Group (WEDG) as well. In its 2020-2022 investor campaign report, it identifies supporting new residential lots, increasing the inventory of homes ‘ripe' for rehab and pursuing additional funds to help owner occupied homes with rehab projects as goals.

Adding in workers has been a big focus in Henry County also, Ray said. A partnership with Avance USA has brought in qualified workers from Puerto Rico to live and work in Henry County.

'This is working great to get families to move here,” she said adding one has already been placed at Lomont Molding in Henry County and another will soon be placed at the Henry County Health Center. Because of COVID-19, the process has slowed down but still is continuing. 'That was a really creative way to grow the workforce because I can't go get a bus load of workers from anywhere.”

Bringing in new workers helps expand the local sales tax, especially in retail area Ray said.

'Anytime that one job comes into town, it's a beautiful thing,” she said, adding there is not just an economic impact on retail but more workers means more families, more children in schools, more shoppers, diners and even church goers. 'There is no silver bullet as to what does a job means, we just know it is a very positive thing.”

One development Laraby is especially proud of is the town's ability to lead the initiative on child care. Lack of proper child care is not only an issue for families, he said, but for workforce retention and infrastructure as well.

Laraby acts as the project co-manager for Jefferson County Kids, a 14,000 square foot day care facility that will have the capacity to serve up to 185 children, according to a news release on the FEDA website. Partnerships have been formed with Tammy Wetjen-Kesterson from Early Childhood Iowa who represents Iowa, Jefferson and Keokuk counties and the local school district to address needs of growing families.

'Childcare is important because if we have access, our businesses can continue to grow so we can attract more working families to our community,” he said.

In Washington, WEDG helped the county in the creation of the new ambulance service when the owners of privately owned Washington County Ambulance were retiring from the business, the report states. Another success story in Washington County is with Premier 1, a farm supply chain.

Through the success of the business, WEDG was able to help the company secure a grant that would help in allowing for 2.7 miles of road in front of the business be repaved, effectively increasing access to the facility.

Although COVID-19 has put a damper on things, nothing has been stopped yet. Laraby said a higher priority has been put on helping existing businesses, but FEDA still is continuing to move forward with long-term projects such as the day care.

'Economic development is a combination of focusing on long-term strategic priorities and also responding to the long term needs of the economy,” he said.

Ray said in Henry County, things have slowed down a touch but nothing has been called off. However, delays will affect the local economic development environment but the community may not feel the effects for some time, she said.

'Its been interesting because I have not had anybody come to me and say ‘this is off.' They are all saying ‘this is delayed,'” she said. 'It is definitely going to slow things down and put us behind.”