Community Development reports successes

MARENGO — Laura Sauser, director for Iowa County Community Development, explained to the Marengo City Council this month why public money is well spent on the organization.

Iowa County Community Development has helped bring $242,000 in grant dollars to Iowa County in the last year and more than $900,000 since its inception in 2022, Sauser said during the Jan. 8 Marengo City Council meeting.

Rural communities can’t always do projects they’d like to do because they lack funding, said Sauser. Her job is to find money the state is offering and match it to projects in Iowa County that need funding.

For example, said Sauser, Community Development was made aware of state money available to meat markets for expansion and matched an Iowa County business with those funds.

Another grant allowed Community Development to put together a video to market Iowa County, said Sauser.

The video, which shows aerial views of the county and footage of businesses and events, can be viewed at iowacountydevelopment.com and on YouTube.

“Just another way to promote Iowa County,” Sauser said.

ICCD is often a point of contact for investors, Sauser said. She’s been director of ICCD for two years and regularly hears from developers seeking information about available buildings in the county and from business owners looking for grants to improve their properties, she said.

Sauser spends nearly half her time in the communities she represents. “I’m in North English. I’m in Victor. I’m in Amana. I’m in Williamsburg, [and Marengo],” she said. She knows what’s going on in each community and can match them with funding or get them in touch with each other if one community is doing something that another can copy.

The Community Catalyst Building Remediation Program has been a big help for property owners, Sauser said. Williamsburg has received the grant three times, and Marengo once.

The grant is for unused or underutilized buildings that can grow the economy of a community if it’s put back into use. “That’s more revenue for the city,” said Sauser.

Williamsburg’s awards have resulted in retail space and upper-story bed-and-breakfast units on and near its square.

In Marengo, the grant helped Ben and Bobbi Miller renovate a building on the square that now offers upper-story living and houses JA Casa Magnolia, a Mexican restaurant, on the ground floor.

State officials have been impressed with Williamsburg’s use of Catalyst grants and have visited the town. Sauser encouraged them to make a trip to Marengo while they were in the area, said Marengo City Administrator Karla Marck.

Sauser is also on the East Central Iowa Housing Trust Fund Board and connects Iowa County residents with services offered there.

ICCD has recently implemented a mentorship training program for businesses. “It’s like a consulting service,” said Marck.

ICCD is a point of contact for entrepreneurs, said Sauser. “We want to make it easy for people to start a business,” said Sauser. ICCD looks for ways to incentivize taking that risk, she said.

Marengo made a three-year commitment to help fund ICCD, said Marck, and had hoped the organization would eventually be funded 100% by Iowa County.

“I’d love to see the supervisors take a larger piece of the pie,” Sauser said. However, the county has cut funding to ICCD by half, and the organization has increased its fundraising efforts.

“We do have it in the budget for next year,” said Marck, but the Marengo City Council hasn’t yet approved the funding beyond this fiscal year.

Sauser said she thinks she’s shown that the organization is important to Iowa County.

“I certainly think it’s important,” said Marengo Mayor Adam Rabe.

Sign grants

Sauser recently brought an Iowa Department of Transportation program to the attention of the City of Marengo, said Marck. The council agreed during the same meeting to apply for the grant funds.

The state is launching a new program that will provide up to $5,000 a year to cities for replacement of damaged, worn out or substandard signs and signposts. Applications for funds will open in early March.

Only one grant application may be submitted per applicant per year. The applications will be reviewed on a first-come-first-served basis, according to Iowa DOT, but entities that have received awards in a previous cycle will take a backseat to those that have not been chosen recently.

The grant program cannot be used for placing signs in new locations, according to the DOT.

Marengo Public Works Director Lonnie Altenhofen said he’s taking an inventory of the city’s signs in anticipation of applying for the grant. Replacement could easily cost $7,000 to $8,000 a year, he said.

A stop sign and post cost about $150, and Marengo has a lot of stop signs, Altenhofen said.

Only regulatory, warning and school area signs are eligible for the program.