Progress is being made on the merger of two local organizations in Greene County.

A presentation was made by Jefferson Matters: Main Street and the Jefferson Area Chamber of Commerce to the Jefferson City Council to combine the two entities. The merger is based on several factors, including the impending retirement of the current JMMS Program Director Peg Raney and the fact that both organizations are financially sound. The Council heard about the potential benefits of having one unified entity, among those were elimination of duplicate services and better use of volunteers. 

What was proposed to the Council was one full-time director as a city employee, who would be paid $70,000 a year, and funded through the hotel-motel tax. City Administrator Mike Palmer says currently JMMS receives $20,000 from the City’s general fund and $30,000 from hotel-motel tax goes to the Chamber. 

“We’re proposing that we would take that $20,000 out of the general fund, which really helps the general fund another $20,000 because that’s the one that struggles. The City gets to take $20,000 off their general fund and at the same time they can provide to this other organization $20,000 more than they had before.”   

Palmer notes if approved by the Council, the $70,000 would be invoiced to the organization and then the City would be reimbursed through hotel-motel tax. He adds, there is currently enough money generated in hotel-motel tax to cover the expense and provide City benefits. 

JMMS Board President Jamie Daubendiek says the new organization would be a new name and that it would operate out of the Thomas Jefferson Gardens Education and Welcome Center. He talks about one area the new organization would have to continue.

“We’re still going to focus on the downtown (area) in order to remain in compliance with Main Street Iowa and the National Main Street accreditation process. So we kind of envision keeping that as our core and then adding on the other Chamber committees, and events, and things like that, that they’ve been successful in the past.”  

Palmer notes, at the next regular city council meeting a preliminary agreement will be reviewed.