Three communities in the Raccoon Valley Radio-listening area were recently awarded grants from the 2020 Paint Iowa Beautiful program.

Through a partnership with Diamond Vogel the program gives free paint to a variety of public service projects, and this year’s recipients include the City of Churdan for their water tower and shelter house, the Greene County Christian Access Resource Center food pantry in Jefferson, and Main Street Guthrie Center for the Williams Building renovation.

Ken Laughery is one of several Guthrie Center residents who have put in some sweat, tears, and minimal blood into renovating the State Street building that was purchased by the organization in 2017. So far they have renovated the first floor businesses and facade, and now this paint will go towards the window frames on the second and third floors, which Laughery says they hope to eventually renovate into seven new apartments, “Well, what we’d like to do is turn those upper two floors into second and third story housing. Main Street Guthrie Center and Main Street Iowa have shown time after time the importance and the economic impact that you see when you have downtown housing.”

Laughery says they are applying for a Community Catalyst grant this April and for a Community Development Block grant this July that would pave the way to their initial goal of having the first second floor apartment completed for a resident to move in. You can learn more about the project and their donation campaign by contacting Main Street Guthrie Center at 641-332-2674 or at mainstreetgc.com.