Extension Communications
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
7/30/02
Contacts:
Mark Edelman, Extension Economics, (515) 294-3000, medelman@iastate.edu
Del Marks, Continuing Education and Communication Services, (515) 294-9807,
delmarks@iastate.edu
20 Iowa Leaders and ISU Launch Community Vitality Center
AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University Extension, in cooperation with Positively Iowa, a non-profit organization, and 20 leaders from across the state have launched a new statewide initiative called the Community Vitality Center.
The center's governing board held an organizational meeting in June to elect officers and approve projects. Mark Hamilton, publisher of the Iowa Falls Times-Citizen, was elected board chair, and Beth Danoswky, director of the Iowa Rural Development Council, was elected vice chair. Other executive council members are Joan Phillips of Panora; Rick Morain, publisher of the Jefferson Bee-Herald; and Steven Padgitt, director of ISU Extension to Communities. Mark Edelman, ISU professor of economics, has been named interim director of the center.
"We hope the Community Vitality Center will become a catalyst for innovative ideas and information on innovative ideas for stimulating community vitality," Edelman said. "Community leaders involved in planning the Community Vitality Center seek to work with community leaders and the private sector to create dialogue and projects that generate real impacts in real communities," Edelman said.
The new center is the result of a memorandum of understanding approved last January. With the assistance of U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and his staff, the center has been granted $268,800 in federal extension funding during the coming year to initiate projects with the potential to improve community vitality.
The center's board approved five community-based projects at its organizational meeting in June. The first three projects are related to the theme of "Community Vitality and Entrepreneurship." Projects 4 and 5 are related to the theme of "Improving Performance of Rural Services."
Project 1 is titled, "Enhancing Entrepreneurship to Improve Iowa's Community Vitality" and it involves three activities. First, a series of public forums called Community Conversations will be held at 10 regional sites across the state this fall. Local citizens and leaders who participate in these meetings will examine three different approaches that communities may take in supporting and assisting entrepreneurs and start-up businesses.
Second, Project 1 will select and assist three communities that are interested in developing community-based approaches to facilitating business start-ups and entrepreneurship development. The project provides some seed funding.
Third, Project 1 will organize focus groups of entrepreneurs with particular interests in forming networks and clusters to identify development barriers, share information resources, attract additional seed capital, and identify training needs.
Project 2 is titled, "Integrating Rural Iowa into Iowa's Industry Cluster Strategy for Economic Development." The Institute for Decision Making at the University of Northern Iowa will lead this project. This project will select three rural communities and work with their community leaders to identify prospective industry clusters that represent opportunities for development in the region and develop strategies for the community to implement with the assistance of state agencies and other partners.
Project 3 is titled, "Iowa Places of Distinction: Keys to Success for Iowa's Fastest Growing Rural Communities." This project will identify four of the fastest growing communities in nonmetro counties in each quadrant of the state: northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest. Community leaders will be interviewed to determine their perspectives on the tools, strategies and factors that explain their community's relative success in growth. Leaders from dditional communities will be interviewed for comparison purposes.
Project 4 is titled "Small Community Water and Waste Water Infrastructure Management Collaboration." The Iowa Rural Water Association will lead this project and it is designed to identify and match small communities with partners to manage their water and waste water infrastructure in a more cost effective manner for longer life.
The title of Project 5 is "Real Estate Electronic Documentation Modernization Cost Study" and project staff will conduct interviews with local government officials and private sector leaders in six counties to estimate the costs and impacts of converting from a paper real estate recording and property tax collection system to a fully electronic system with Internet access. This could potentially shorten the time required for buying and selling real estate.
In addition, the Community Vitality Center will organize an educational program on the rural development provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill to help Iowa maximize the potential benefits for the state.
For more information contact Mark Edelman, Interim Director, Community Vitality Center, (515) 294-3000.
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