COMMUNITY NOTES: Charles City’s balance sheet, 2024

By Tim Fox, CEO, Charles City Area Development Corp.

As I monopolize this year-end column in looking forward to 2024, I have a public service announcement. THIS JUST IN: The tractor plant has closed. It ain’t coming back. It closed 30 years ago – not just last week, as some seem to feel.

I never saw the plant. I regret this. However, it is never good economic policy to be dependent upon a single employer. In the past 25 years Charles City has decidedly diversified its manufacturing milieu and in fact grown those major businesses.

We have also narrowed the unemployment gap in comparison with the remainder of Iowa; from 1965-1998 Floyd County unemployment rate was 65.3% higher than the state’s rate.

Look at all the happenings in 2024 in Charles City – not with jaundiced eye but with the crystalline lens of fact:

• Expansions at Cambrex Charles City Inc. and Zoetis – Did you know that between 2017 and 2022 these companies had five successful Iowa Economic Development Authority High Quality Jobs applications – the most of any city/county in the state of Iowa over the span. Both companies are hiring. You should feel good about living in a county with the highest manufacturing wages in northeast Iowa – by a wide margin.

• We have a substantive project at 901 North Main Street where Pure Prairie Poultry is constructing a classy addition. We were fortunate to have a progressive City Council and cooperative City Improvement Association fostering closure of North Main Street where the firm is building and encroaching upon the street.

• We have the North Iowa Area Community College Career Academy taking shape.

• TLC: The Learning Center is settling into its new location after expansion.

• Sherman Creek housing development provides another avenue in buttressing our housing admixture. Paul Rottinghaus and his family should be credited for investing heavily in Charles City.

• Mike Molstead’s investments have rendered the dealership a destination venue for Charles City – which benefits us all.

• Floyd County Medical Center is expanding.

• The Northeast Iowa Regional Airport is upgrading while doing more with less.

• The Law Enforcement Center project shall be completed.

• Charles City is striving to maximize the momentum afforded by being named a Thriving Community by the Iowa Finance Authority. Hopefully we can leverage housing projects in 2024.

What I am trying to illustrate is the notion that a good many persons are working upon the community’s behalf in executing substantive projects. This includes private sector, public sector and not-for-profit sectors. Thanks are owed those who populate boards, commissions, councils and fire departments on a volunteer basis. The populace should be appreciative of these endeavors.

Things I envision in 2024 include resolution of the Summit Carbon Solutions hazardous carbon pipeline proposed route through the Avenue of the Saints Development Park, county industrial wind energy ordinance and the Charles City High School matter.

People often do not recognize that provision of quality schools is an economic development issue as we pursue prospective business clients, and as our companies seek to attract talent.

My desire for 2024 is that we behave rationally and collegially. Be done with “parking lot meetings” after an official meeting.

If you must resort to social media, please be informed and respectful.

We are all on the same team! Let’s act that way and do our jobs and seek solutions while employing tact and diplomacy. I commit to governing myself in alignment with these tenets and I call upon each of you to behave accordingly.