City of Le Mars gets nearly two million dollars for street improvements

The Iowa Transportation Commission Tuesday approved another piece of the state economic development award for the Wells Dairy. The commission approved what’s known as a “RISE” grant of nearly two million dollars for street improvements for the City of Le Mars. Craig Markley with the D-O-T says these grants are common for cities to help them with infrastructure for businesses — although this one was a little different.He says it’s actually kind of a hybrid application, as they had sent in an application for speculative local development, and they combined that application with the “immediate opportunity” grant for Wells Dairy. He says it combines the two types of development grants they give.He says “it’s a little different than what you would normally see, but it’s all generally for Wells Dairy” and the development that’s expected to grow up around the dairy’s new headquarters. The grant is based on a promise by Wells to retain and create jobs.He says they need to retain the 387 existing corporate jobs and create 152 new corporate level jobs. Markley says they’ve promised nearly 26-million dollars in capital investment in the project. The commission also approved a 255-thousand dollar grant for the city of Huxley’s development park and a 247-thousand dollar grant for Mills and Pottawattamie Counties for paving roads into the north to the south entrance of MidAmerican Energy in Pottawattamie County.