The “hot topics” have changed since Greene County Development Corporation hosted its first town hall meeting last August. Ground hadn’t yet been broken on the Jefferson Hy-Vee store and the walls were still being erected on Wild Rose Jefferson. Those projects are completed and the tagline for the Sept. 28 meeting, “It’s been a great year – What’s next?” was aptly chosen by GCDC executive director Ken Paxton. About 60 persons were in attendance.
Paxton followed the same format he used for the August and April meetings, and said he intends to hold a meeting every fall and every spring. “The more informed our community is the more supportive they’re going to be of our projects and what we’re doing. We’re incredibly fortunate. You look around Iowa and there’s not a small town that has anywhere near the activity going on that we do, so this town hall meeting makes a lot of sense,” he said as he opened the meeting.
Greene County Medical Center CEO Carl Behne has spoken at all three meetings, always with updates on the expansion project there. The 52,000 square-foot addition (Phase 1) went into use the last weekend in August. Behne provided a schematic showing how the current main floor will be reconfigured in Phase 2 of the project. The south wing of the medical center is being razed to allow for a new connecting corridor across the front of almost the entire length of the building. “Currently to get from one end of the building to the other end it’s two or three stairwells or two or three elevators, depending on where you are. With the new move, we’ll eliminate that and have one set of stairs, one elevator that can get you all the way across,” he said.
On the A level, where the outpatient space has been formerly, will be Advanced Women’s Care and West Central Orthopedics, an expanded physical therapy gym, an expanded cardiac rehab space and designated specialty clinics. UnityPoint Clinic will remain on the west end of the A level in the space formerly leased to McFarland Clinic.
Behne also noted the addition of providers in UnityPoint Clinic and the specialists coming to the medical center. “These providers are looking forward to the new relationships we’ve formed and the ability to serve patients here in our community,” Behne said. He named the arrival of oncologist/hematologist Dr Matthew Hill as something he is very excited about.
After a short scene from Greene County High School’s fall production of the comedy “Annie Play Will Do,” provided by leads Arthur Bardole and Danielle Johnson, Jim Ober, vice president of operations at Scranton Manufacturing, took the mic. This was the first town hall “appearance” for Scranton Manufacturing.
Scranton Manufacturing has completed a 56,000 square-foot expansion. Ober said the company was concerned about the availability of employees with the skill levels required, but the other “aggressive things” going on in the county, such as Wild Rose, the new Hy-Vee and the medical center expansion, the decision was made in 2013 to grow at the Scranton location. (The company in 2011 purchased a building in Carroll and added a welding/assembly shop.) “It’s a positive community and we have a lot of things going on. That’s why we made the determination to add on,” he said.
The expansion is primarily production space and paint booths. A storm water retention pond was an important part of the project. Ober said the company has added 27 jobs since June 2014, although the goal was to add 75 jobs. There are 77 employees under the age of 35, he said. He noted that 95 percent of them took vocational classes in high school.
Jane Fallon, general manager of Cargill Pork, spoke briefly about the feed mill proposed to be built in Grand Junction. The feed mill would purchase 6 million bushels of corn per year. It would add 15 jobs and another 12 fulltime delivery truck positions. Fallon said Cargill Pork was recently purchased by the Brazilian company JBS. The project depends on getting the new owners on board, Fallon said.
Greene County Schools superintendent Tim Christensen talked briefly on several topic including the Oct. 1 enrollment count. He is optimistic enrollment will show an increase. He talked about the school’s participation in the state’s Teacher Leadership Compensation program and the early student dismissals on Wednesdays, a continued focus on literacy, and the addition of a teacher of talented and gifted (TAG) students at the high school. “We’ve done a good job in the past of serving the needs of special education students, and with No Child Left Behind we’re trying to get students to a certain level, but we haven’t done a very good job of pushing all students. That’s something that’s extremely exciting with the TAG, that we can push all kids at all levels,” Christensen said.
He also talked about the $20 bond proposal that failed in the Sept. 8 school election. He provided a paper survey for voters to complete. See related post elsewhere in GreeneCountyNewsOnline.
Peg Raney, program coordinator for Jefferson Matters: Main Street, talked about a market survey recently completed. The survey had been distributed at the spring town hall meeting. She reported that 376 consumers and 83 businesses completed the survey. The results are included in a 29-page document.
“The study reinforces some of the things Main Street had an interest in pursuing. One of those is downtown revitalization,” Raney said. “A lot of wonderful things have happened in the downtown, but the next big thing is to do some historic preservation in a large way.’’
She provided information about the Community Development Block Grant application now being prepared by Region XII for the city of Jefferson and Jefferson Matters: Main Street. JM: MS has contacted downtown building owners and determined as many as 22 may be interested in the program. The grant would provide up to $500,000 for rehabilitation and historic preservation of the building facades. The money would be matched by up to $250,000 in city TIF funds and the remaining would be paid by building owners.
Greene County Chamber president Omega Sang announced the date of Jan. 25, 2016, for the Chamber’s annual meeting. About the welcome center, which has been at the center of much discussion and a delay of many months, Sang said, “There is minimal information to share tonight. I am confident that the Chamber and the city will be coming into agreement as far as construction very soon. The Chamber is still so excited, along with many members of our community, about what this will add to our community.”
Sang introduced Chamber tourism and events coordinator Angie Pedersen. She first reported on the 2015 Bell Tower Festival, which had “huge amounts of positive feedback,” and Hot August Night, which was a record-breaker with 450 registered vehicles.
She also reported on increasing tourism numbers. She noted that there are seven groups that booked visits to Jefferson and the county this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday alone. “That’s the kind of traffic that our attractions and businesses are getting as a result of having the quality business and attractions we have along with active tourism promotion,” Pedersen said.
She said that since the beginning of the year, she can document at least 3,200 visitors that have come on booked tours. The number doesn’t include day trippers or groups that have not contacted the Chamber. “This number is giant. We at the Chamber couldn’t be more excited about the growth and the interest the world has in what’s going on in Greene County,” she said.
The Chamber’s tourism committee is now providing swag bags to booked tour participants to encourage them to visit many Greene County businesses, not just those on the tour. She also noted collaboration with Jefferson Matters: Main Street on several projects. She will attend the Midwest bus tour marketplace in November to promote more tours. “All these happy bus tours you’ve seen rolling into town, most of them are the result of this effort, so we’re going back again this year. Our businesses are getting their promotional information ready, and they’re teaching me how to best represent them,” Pedersen said.
Paxton finished the meeting with a rundown of nine projects for which GCDC is seeking community help. See related post in GreeneCountyNewsOnline.
