Floyd County’s USDA offices move to new building

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The offices for Floyd County USDA services have moved.

After nearly 60 years of operating out of a building on Beck Street, the USDA’s Floyd County Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service, along with the Iowa DNR Forestry office, have taken up in a new location along Highway 18 at 404, 402, and 400 Commercial street, respectively.

The move has been a long time coming as the previous Beck Street location is in a floodplain. This ended up being problematic during the 2008 flood, resulting in the federally funded agencies having to look for a new building on higher ground.

“We were supposed to get out of there in 2015,” said Dean Lines, county executive director for the Farm Service Agency. “It just took a while to get moved.”

After several years of extensions, the trio of agency offices have finally made their move into a new 62,000 square foot building constructed by Norm and Kalvin Zimmerman. The move began on the week of Jan. 16 and they were open for customers in the first week of February.

“It was a lot of work to get it packed up and moved over,” said Lines. “Everyone is adjusting pretty well.”

Though the addresses for each agency have changed, phone numbers have remained the same.

While there is still a bit of work to be done before the new office space is complete, with new counters coming for the lobby and exterior work remaining to be complete, the employees of the agencies said they are enjoying the extra space and being in the same structure.

“It’s really nice,” said District Conservationist Josh Heims. “It will be awesome when it’s finished.”

The new space allows for easier cooperation between the three offices and makes it easier to service customers, offering a shared lobby so people can take advantage of having all three agencies in one place.

“It’s nice to have everything inside,” said Lines. “It’s easier to talk with our sister agencies.”

“I think the best part is that we have a nice spot that we can chat with customers,” said Heims.

Now settled into the new space, the U.S. Department of Agriculture offices are working to get farmers signed up for this year’s Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs, which have a deadline of March 15. Meanwhile, county conservation is preparing for a Soil Health and Planter set up session on March 7 at the Floyd County Fairgrounds.