~by Denise O’Brien Van, special to GreeneCountyNewsOnline
Jefferson’s city council has decided where to put $50,000 in Wild Rose Casino funds distributed by Grow Greene County, the local nonprofit group that holds the casino license and allots grants funded by a percentage of the casino’s gaming revenue.
Council members decided at their March 22 meeting to give $10,000 to the swimming pool and the Bell Tower Foundation; to help fund the purchase of equipment for the fire department and the city’s neighborhood improvement program; and for beautification on the courthouse square.
The city’s recreation department plans to use its $10,000 to repair the pool’s concession stand roof, install new sunshades and purchase new benches and lifeguard chairs, said councilman Larry Teeples.
Mayor Craig Berry said the Bell Tower Foundation will put its $10,000 toward funding a match required by a $400,000 state CAT (Community Attraction and Tourism) grant for which it has applied. The grant would fund completion of the tower’s carillon to a four-octave range of 48 bells.
Terry Lutz, a civil engineer and president of McClure Engineering Co. of Des Moines, who also is a real estate developer, spoke with the council about finding ways to solve Jefferson’s housing shortage.
He said he has met recently with local officials and bankers to discuss cracking the problem, which is common throughout rural Iowa where developers “find it virtually impossible to build affordable housing.”
He outlined two obstacles to solving the local housing crisis: financing and locating developers who will build in rural areas.
Jefferson has a leg up on the situation because a developer, JCorp of Huxley, owns land in the northwest part of city where it planned, but failed because of an inability to get financing, to build a housing complex last year.
Lutz said JCorp remains interested in building in Jefferson if its financial risk can be reduced. “You already have a builder you can work with,” he said.
He urged council members to think about using the city’s ability to finance projects and create incentives for housing that typically are used for commercial and industrial recruitment.
“You can create public-private partnerships that protect the public’s investment and encourage private development,” he said. “This may seem like a ‘give-away’ to private developers, but unless a large portion of the risk is removed, developers will not build housing” in rural areas.
Lutz suggested that local entities – the city and county, Grow Greene County and the Greene County Development Corporation – with stakes in solving the housing problem should sit down to work on it, and put some “financial skin in the game at the outset.”
Lutz offered to help local leaders create an incentive program and develop a housing policy that would encourage developers to build in the area. He estimated the cost of that assistance would be about $40,000, saying it would take two or three months to gather ideas, and four to six months to draft a plan.
In other business, the council
- Appointed Nancy Teusch to its planning and zoning commission. Teusch, a former city council member, will fill the seat left vacant by the recent death of commission member Jack Finneseth.
- Approved the hiring of Jeramie Hinote as a seasonal assistant manager at the Jefferson Community Golf Course. Hinote will be paid $2,600 a month for eight months, beginning April 1.
- Approved purchase of public works equipment: $7,397 to Fort Dodge Trailer World for a trailer to haul equipment and $29,512 to Karl Chevrolet for a 2016 three-quarter-ton Chevy pickup truck that will replace a 1994 truck that has engine troubles.
- Approved hiring a seasonal public works employee for 4.5 months at $11 an hour. The employee will assist with garbage pick-up routes and fill in for employees on sick leave or vacation, said councilman Larry Teeples, who noted that public works is “down about five people right now.”
