About 75 people attended Monday night’s town hall meeting at the Greene County Community Center to hear updates of various development projects around the County.
Wild Rose Jefferson General Manager Mike Couch said the facility at the northwest corner of US Highway 30 and Iowa Highway 4 is completely enclosed with glass on the front entryway. Drywall is installed on the interior. As for the job fair, Couch added that they had a strong showing for their two-day event last week.
Chief Executive Officer Carl Behne gave an update of Greene County Medical Center. He said they are targeting mid-to-late July for the new addition to be opened. It will include speciality services like laboratory and O.B., emergency department and inpatient beds. Once the new wing is open, they will start to renovate the older portion to make updates for other departments.
Lisa Jaskey reported on the latest of the housing projects with the Greene County Development Corporation (GCDC) and the City of Jefferson. She talked about JCorporation signing on to make a 48-unit development by the water tower. Once procedures with the City Council are complete, the company plans to start their project in June and wants to be finished by late this summer or early fall. The same company also has plans to do a second project with townhomes to start in September. Discussions with other developers in Ames and Des Moines are about doing duplexes and single family homes for $150,000. Nothing has been finalized.
Greene County Chamber Board President Omega Sang talked about the Welcome Center. The building that located at 201 East Lincoln Way is looking to be completed by later this year. The total cost of the project is $235,000 with about $8,000 from public donations and another $90,000 that has been invested by the Chamber. She said they are currently discussing some finances with the City and once those have been settled, they will continue their public campaign to raise the rest.
Angie Pedersen gave an update on the Bell Tower Festival. She is a contracted employee with the Chamber to be the Bell Tower Festival Coordinator. She said she wanted to address three main areas of concern: vendors, rides and beverage garden entertainment. So far, she has 30 vendors who have signed up for the festival and available forms can be found on their website at belltowerfestival.org. She also contracted with a company for rides this year with pre-saletickets coming soon. She mentioned there will be a local DeeJay for Friday night’s entertainment in the beverage garden with the main act of Pop Rocks on Saturday night. She added that there will be a family section separate from the beverage garden so more people can enjoy the band.
Jefferson Matters: Main Street Board President Jamie Daubendiek gave an update. He said they had 73 people attend their two-day Tour of Empty Buildings last week. They are also conducting a survey for a market analysis of the downtown businesses. So far 270 surveys have been returned and is urging more people to fill them out. She mentioned that the Board hired Peg Raney as their new program director after Alan Robinson resigned earlier this year due to family reasons.
Economic Development Director Ken Paxton finished the meeting talking about potential business sites. He is working with Chris Nation, President of GCDC about making land available along Highway 30 to draw more businesses to the County. He is also looking for available land for small retailers. After being named the first county to be a Home Base Iowa community, Governor Terry Branstad and Major General Tim Orr of the Iowa National Guard sent out information to every military base in the country about bringing veterans to Iowa for jobs. Cooper resident Chuck Offenburger wrote articles for 15 national publications to help spread the word about getting more veterans to come to the County. His biggest concern is housing with all the jobs that are still coming to the community.
