Mahaska Chamber & Development and Mahaska County receive BEST of Iowa Excellence Awards
OSKALOOSA, IOWA – May 09, 2022 – Mahaska Chamber & Development and Mahaska County have been honored with a BEST of Iowa Excellence Awards for their efforts in gathering information and data about current business trends in Iowa.
Business Expansion and Strategic Trends (BEST) of Iowa is a unique collaboration of local economic development groups working with Iowa’s utilities and the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The group’s mission is to meet with Iowa companies to identify local economic trends, business needs, and opportunities.
2021 BEST of Iowa identified trends that include workforce challenges and supply issues from interviews with more than 1,065 companies in 66 counties.
“Last year, the Mahaska Chamber and Mahaska County completed 27 visits with our local industries. From these visits, we know that there are over $45 million in planned expansions that will be occurring over the next one to three years in Mahaska County. Many of our industries are hometown headquarter industries that export to 180 countries worldwide,” stated Deann De Groot, Executive Director of the Mahaska Chamber.
“Getting firsthand feedback from businesses across our state is critical to making sure we’re setting the stage for economic success,” said Drew Conrad, Director at the Institute for Decision Making, The University of Northern Iowa. “We hope that this information will help leaders pinpoint how to best support the hardworking people of Iowa.”
The BEST of Iowa Award honors communities that went above and beyond throughout the data gathering process. In addition to Mahaska Chamber and Economic Development and Mahaska County, three other communities were honored with the award —Iowa City Area Development, City of Boone, and City of Urbandale.
Mark Groenendyk, Chair Mahaska County Board of Supervisors “We thank local manufacturers for choosing and investing in Mahaska County. Additionally, we thank the manufacturers for taking time out of their busy schedules to visit with our team sharing critical and often sensitive information.
