Council Hears Update From Chamber

Oskaloosa City Hall

Oskaloosa City Hall

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa City Council met in regular session on March 18th, 2019.

The Council heard from the Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group, who presented the activities the group has been leading and participating in.

Ann Smith, Oskaloosa Chamber Executive Director, first addressed what is happening in the area of economic development. “We had 11 education and connection events the first quarter,” explained Smith.

The Chamber has also been assisting local retailers with their promotion, most recently Women’s Night Out, which recently gained recognition from the State.

The Oskaloosa Main Street hosted a Housing 360 presentation last month, while MCARD Director DeAnn DeGroot and Smith visiting the Iowa Capitol to advocate for Oskaloosa and Mahaska County to the legislature.

The Chamber has recently begun to host job listings, which has started to show growth in helping area residents connect to employers.

The Chamber welcomed 11 new businesses during the first quarter, with nine ribbon cuttings.

“We are just constantly promoting all of the good things that the city is doing,” added Smith. “Anything that is prideful or positive, we are reporting out on that.”

A tourism committee has been formed, and Interpower CEO Bob Wersen is the chair, who Smith says is collecting data, creating itineraries, and finding out who the committee can talk to in order to bring in people for day visits.

Some of the top 5 reasons the chamber has heard from area businesses for people to live in the area include quality of life, our many events — love of the Oskaloosa downtown and the historic preservation that has taken place so far.

Some of the top 5 challenges included workforce, housing, schools, roads, and other infrastructure, along with water rates.

Tom Flaherty, MCDG Director, then addressed the council, discussing the synchronist report that was compiled during interviews with local business and industry.

The synchronist interview is approximately 50 questions that took about an hour to complete. “It really helps us get to know our customers, get to know our businesses. What’s working, what isn’t,” said Flaherty.

“We’ve got very innovative companies here,” said Flaherty, who said that 95% of our companies introduce new products and services and plan to introduce new products and services within the next two years, while also reporting the same history of innovation.”These are companies trying new things all the time. We’ve got just a very robust economy around here.”

Over 60% of area industries report increasing sales, and many of them are gaining market share. “We’re also global here. We’ve got two companies that report their primary market is export.”

“We do have a workforce challenge,” added Flaherty, with 65% of area businesses looking for skilled production workers.

You can keep up to date with the Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group by visiting their website – https://www.oacdg.org/.

The Council approved the site plan for a building conversion for auto body repair and the development of outdoor parking/storage located at 1308 17th Avenue East. Steve Copeland of Copeland Auto Body made the application.

The next scheduled meeting of the Oskaloosa City Council will be April 1, 2019, at 6 pm inside of the council chambers.

Posted by on Mar 20 2019. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed

         

Search Archive

Search by Date
Search by Category
Search with Google
Log in | Copyright by Oskaloosa News