Announcement to be made March 13
Gov Terry Branstad and Lt Gov Kim Reynolds will be in Jefferson Thursday, March 13, to announce that Greene County/Jefferson has been selected as Iowa’s first Home Base Iowa community.
Greene County Development Corporation executive director Ken Paxton told the Jefferson city council at its Feb. 11 meeting that he had received the notification earlier that afternoon.
“That’s a nice honor. We’ve worked pretty hard to get ahead of everything. We’re way ahead of the other counties doing this. He (Branstad) is going to use us as an example for everybody else to come after us,” Paxton said.
The Home Base Iowa public-private partnership was created to market Iowa to military veterans as a place to live. The program is open to all veterans, not only those now transitioning out of military service.
Paxton is using the Home Base Iowa initiative to attract persons to fill 800 to 1,000 new jobs he says will be available in the next two years.
Paxton told the council the GCDC website will be updated to include a generic job application that can be sent to 15 local employers. Lists of available housing will also be posted.
“We may never in the history of this county have a better chance to attract families to our community because of the variety of jobs we’ve got, jobs for men, women, fulltime, part-time, any hours you can think of…. One of our selling points now is ‘Come to Greene County for two jobs. Don’t come for one. There’s no reason both of you can’t get a job, a husband and a wife’,” Paxton said.
A task force is working to locate housing. “We’re going to do everything we can to get our housing in as good of shape as we can, so these people will be interested. We have a chance to attract families. We’re going to do everything we can as hard as we can and as fast as we can to be prepared for that,” Paxton said.
