Sandy Ehrig
The third annual “Iowa Rural Development Summit will convene tomorrow in Grinnell.
Participants will discuss issues like a lack of housing, access to broadband and how attract retail businesses to rural areas. Sandy Ehrig is chair of the Iowa Rural Development Council, the group sponsoring the event.
“We’re full at that Hotel Grinnell. We will have 350 folks in attendance and 75 communities bringing their teams of three and 30 of those are first-timers,” she says, “so we know we’re making a dent with this effort.”
Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg says this is the next step in achieving the goals of an “Empower Rural Iowa” platform.
“We’re a big enough state where you can do big things, but we’re small enough where any individual can make a difference,” Gregg says.
The one-and-a-half day summit will examine success stories, like the city of Humbolt’s new day care center. The Summit will culminate with the announcement of $100,000 “community catalyst” grants from the state to communities that plan to restore or demolish commercial buildings.