A town hall community meeting was held in Rippey on Monday, April 25th at 7:30 P.M. The event was one of the seven being available throughout Greene County and was hosted by the Greene County Development Corporation (GCDC). NUEVA VIDA en GREENE COUNTY (New Life in Greene County) was attended by twelve persons from both the town, as well as rural area representatives. Sid Jones, chair of the GCDC welcomed all, and began his remarks by stating there were currently 200-250 vacant positions in the County.
He introduced Carlos Arguello, leader of Latino IQ, and the multi-cultural spokesperson for the project. Carlos highlighted three areas including increasing the WORK force, first, through available transportation in a radius up to sixty miles. The second was LIVE: in that introducing Latinos and other refuges to not only to work, but move with their families to Greene County.
The third area was PLAY: Encouragement of new businesses, restaurants, shops, and entertainment without driving to Ames, Des Moines, or Minneapolis.
Amy Vandermeer, the Spanish instructor at Greene County Community Schools spoke about the Latino culture, in how very family oriented, faith based, and community minded they are as a cultural group. She reviewed and encouraged efforts that would make all of Greene County a welcoming community.
Chuck Offenburger, serving as voluntary chairperson of the steering committee, concluded the formal remarks. Chuck stated, with his identified numbers of 250 workers and their families moving to Greene County, would equal one thousand persons. This projects to a 10 percent increase of the current 8,950 persons living here now.
He portrayed a future growth of additional elementary schools, businesses, and housing construction, as Greene County becomes a prosperous play to WORK, LIVE, and PLAY.
The remainder of the time was spent responding to questions from the attendees. Steve Moorman, Regional Director for Landus Cooperative in the Rippey Hub, of the Perry, Stuart, and Dawson area, indicated they currently have two job openings in this immediate region. He strongly embraced the concept of bringing additional labor to Greene County.
Rippey City Council person, Rick Liebich also applauded the concept, but pointed out the of the enormity of the project. He cited the need for sewage and water infrastructure within the City of Rippey, prior to the construction of additional housing units.
While acknowledged, the response included information about Federal dollars for improving the infrastructure from the United States Department of Agriculture-Rural Development.
Other pertinent information shared included:
Carlos informed the group there are approximately 200,000 Latinos living in Iowa, at a median age of twenty-three.
Sid shared with the attendees, the Home State Bank, (he is the CEO) has been approached by two contractors from the Des Moines area about building homes in Greene County, as the lot prices in the metro Des Moines area were $100,000 and making building costs prohibitive for young beginning homeowners.
In general, it was an amicable information presenting town hall.
Subsequent meetings were held during the week in Grand Junction, Paton, and Jefferson. Next week’s meetings will be held May 2nd in Scranton and Churdan and a final town hall meeting on May 5th in Jefferson.
This writer encourages you to attend and learn more about inviting this new labor force into our County or speak of any concerns you may be harboring.
-Mary Weaver
Sid Jones
Chuck Offenburger
