Jefferson city council member Luke Winkelman, just five months into his first term on the council, scored big for the city in the economic development game.
The “win” was shared when Greg Piklapp, director of Greene County Development Corporation as part of the Ames Regional Economic Alliance, made his quarterly report at the May 12 council meeting.
The “win” was convincing the Iowa Department of Transportation to allow three additional access points off Hwy 30 for economic development in Jefferson.
Piklapp had requested a review of access points last fall while working with a business considering opening a business near the intersection of Hwys 4 and 30. The business prospect, GCDC, and the city of Jefferson shared the cost of a traffic study as required by the DOT. The response was that the easements approved in the 1950s when Hwy 30 was routed there precluded any additional access points. The business prospect began looking at other locations.
Access for Wild Rose Casino was “an outlier”, Piklapp was told, and administrative rules had changed.
However, Piklapp met with DOT staff on May 12 and learned three access points were added – one across from the Redwood Motel, one off Hwy 4 east of Wild Rose Casino, and one off Hwy 30 west of the casino. Those “touch points” will allow for future business development there.
The “win” for Winkelman was that he and city administrator Scott Peterson had met in Des Moines with state Representative Carter Nordman and state Senator Jesse Green. Winkelman said that within days of meeting with Nordman and Green, they met with upper level officials at the DOT “with a common goal of ‘let’s see what we can do to make this work.”
Winkelman said Nordman and Green “did whatever they could to work in Jefferson’s best interest.”
He said, “the DOT wanted to preserve whatever future endeavors they might possibly want to do. However, there was this conflict between their possible future plans and our present economic opportunity. I’m happy we were able to come to a common solution and work in both our interests.”
Winkelman added, “it went from bleak to very optimistic in a hurry.”
Peterson said the discussions had been over the course of three weeks and the decision changed 180 degrees. “It’s amazing. The contact with Sen, Green, and especially with Rep. Nordman, pulled a lot of weight on this one and deserves a lot of recognition and praise,” he said. Piklapp said the first prospect is again interested in coming to Jefferson. He planned to meet with that company later in the week.
