Supervisors Eyeing Economic Development Support Changes

Business District Sign (file photo)

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors held a work session with members of the Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group, in which both sides appeared to walk away prepared to help bring ideas and effort to development within the county.

A resolution came before the board to continue its financial contribution to the Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group.

Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Doland said that after reading the document, he observed a few things “that seemed out of line when you read through it [Resolution].”

“There’s some of it I don’t necessarily agree with,” added Doland.

Doland pointed towards a statement in the agreement that said, “Mahaska County does not have sufficient resources to hire a Director of Economic development as a county employee and lacks sufficient resources to effectively operate an economic development program of its own.”

“We donate quite a bit of money to the economic development agencies in our county, particularly to the chamber and to MCARD [Mahaska County Agricultural and Rural Development]. I don’t know that that would be true. If we kept our money in MCARD, we could probably afford our so, so I don’t necessarily agree with that one.”

Dolan said he also disagrees with another statement that says, “The current economic problems in the agriculture and agribusiness industries have reached sufficiently serious proportions that the general welfare of the citizens of the county is threatened thereby.”

“I would argue that when we went into the recession, I don’t know, five or six years ago, that it was the ag, agriculture and agribusiness that kept us insulated from feeling the impact that a lot of the urban areas were feeling,” said Doland.

Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Groenendyk asked when the agreement was originally brought before the board.

Mahaska County Auditor Sue Brown said she wasn’t sure when the original agreement was drafted and presented.

Willie Van Weelden said that the agreement was in place “long before I got here.”

Van Weelden has served the longest among the three board members, having first been elected to the board in 2000.

Van Weelden suggested that the document be reviewed to see what language in the agreement may need to be updated.

Doland, while reviewing the document, questioned why, according to the document, MCRF or Mahaska County Recreation Foundation was included as an entity the board financially supported. No money from the county currently goes to the recreation foundation.

Van Weelden smiled saying that it could be changed, and the county could put money into the organization.

“If this has been going on for 20 years, ‘The economy of Mahaska County is not sufficiently diversified to provide a stable economic base, but is in large part dependent on agriculture and agribusiness,’” said Groenendyk, who was quoting the agreement. “If this has been going on for 20 some years, what steps are we doing differently to change? We just keep throwing money at the same thing, doing the same thing.”

“We talked about this Thursday, with all the groups here, what steps are we going to take to encourage… we’re going to do differently than we have the last 20 years, because the last 20 years has not really produced anything beneficial to change the balance of anything,” said Groenendyk.

Van Weelden said that MCARD has been important for providing assistance to rural economic development. “We’ve written a lot of grants for the various small towns. They don’t have the resources to have that done.”

Groenendyk said that during the discussion on the 27th to increase economic development, “nobody had any really good ideas yet.”

“We talked about some ideas to keep our agribusiness money in town, or in our county,” added Groenendyk, who thought it was best to table the resolution until they talked with the chamber and “see what’s going to develop there.”

Doland said he would seek clarification from Mahaska County Attorney Jim Blomgren about what legal requirements are being made of the county if they were to sign the document.

Editing by Ginger Allsup