Greene County Development Corporation director Ken Paxton told the Jefferson city council at its Nov. 8 meeting that there are “exciting things happening in housing” in the county.
He reported that Zach Mannheimer, who came to know Greene County well while working on the Vision 2020 plan and is now working in 3D housing, facilitated contact between GCDC and Kading Properties of Urbandale. Kading specializes in building and operating single-story homes and townhomes for rent at “better than market prices,” according to the companies website.
Kading developers visited Jefferson and Greene County and they’re “very interested,” Paxton said, in the GCDC-owned land near Landus Cooperative. Paxton said they may be stick-built or 3D poured concrete.
According to Paxton, one of the things setting Greene County apart from other possible locations is the high number of people who work here but have been unable to find housing here, and the number of jobs available.
Mannheimer is also in contact with a developer in Nebraska who is interested in the land north and west of Greene County Medical Center. That property was intended to be used in the “Continuum of Care” project three years ago but is now on the market for sale.
Paxton commented on the potential of 3D housing. “3D housing has an enormous number of assets. The construction has gone down to about 50 percent of stock-built, and there’s a 60 percent savings in utilities… This country is going to be swimming in 3D housing in the next 3-5 years. We could be on the leading edge in that,” he said.
Paxton also reported that GCDC has not heard yet if the $700,000 federal Rural Innovation Stronger Economy (RISE) grant application has been approved. He had hoped to hear if the grant was approved before the election, but that now the decision may not be made until after the first of next year. “That really messes us up for our scheduling,” he said.
The grant writer is now working on another grant application that doesn’t have a fixed submission date or notification date. The grant could be turned around in four to six weeks, giving GCDC notification before the end of the year.
In addition to hearing Paxton’s quarterly report, the city council handled looked at statements of revenue and expenses for all budget departments for the first quarter of the fiscal year starting July 1. In many instances, revenues are ahead of the 25 percent mark. City administrator Mike Palmer pointed out the city’s Local Option Sales & Service Tax (LOSST) revenue is “doing very well.”
“That helps greatly, for us to be able to do a lot of public works improvement, streets, buildings. It’s pretty good news to see how we’re doing on that,” Palmer said.
“All funds are tracking. I feel really good about where we are right now,” said council member Harry Ahrenholtz, who serves on the finance committee. He added that the hotel/motel tax fund is also ahead of what was budgeted.
The council held a public hearing on the detailed plans and specifications, form of contract, and estimated of cost for sanitary sewer CIPP lining project. There were no comments and the council approved a resolution approving the plans, etc.
The council approved a façade improvement grant of $102,544.26 for work at 100 E. State St, the Centennial building. The council had previously approved a grant for $89,635 for the project. The action taken by the council amends the amount of the original grant to reflect unexpected costs. The grant is to cover half the cost of the project, which is now $205,088.52.
The council approved city depositories as Home State Bank, Peoples Bank, and Heartland Bank. City funds will no longer be invested at the Iowa Public Agency Investment Trust (IPAET).
