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WIPCO wins community service award
Western Iowa Power Cooperative Wins NRECA National Community Service Award
NRECA News Release - 2007-03-20
Western Iowa Power Cooperative (WIPCO) today received a National Community Service Award for helping boost economic development in Monona County, IA.
As Monona County struggled to attract new business and boost a sluggish local economy, Western Iowa Power Cooperative responded with a plan uniting community business leaders to form a countywide economic development partnership that is fostering new economic activity and jobs.
Today, that development organization, the Monona County Economic Development Partnership, has a full-time executive director working on several projects that will create more than 120 permanent quality jobs and more than 200 temporary jobs. These projects will have a significant impact on Western Iowa Power Cooperative members through increased local tax base and more job opportunities, not to mention potential load growth.
Said NRECA President Ron Bergh, "For Western Iowa Power strengthening the community's economic viability is not just community service, it's an important component of a smart business development plan."
Monona is the only county in Iowa listing more residents over age 65 than under 17 years. The county, a large part of the electric cooperative's service area, ranked lowest in the state for manufacturing jobs and wages, despite the area being directly accessible by Interstate 29, the Missouri River and a major railroad line.
The county was also one of only two counties in the state without a full-time economic development office. Seeking to improve the situation, Western Iowa Power officials pledged to find the resources to support a full-time development director and launched a campaign to win support from community leaders and other businesses. Co-op officials led the way with a pledge of $30,000 per year for three years to fund the economic development office; co-op staff spent hundreds of hours working to recruit financial support from other businesses.
Drawing on the cooperative connections of its G&T - Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative - and technical assistance from the Iowa Area Development Group, Western Iowa Power convinced community leaders that Monona County's economic plight was unlikely to change without a full-time economic development director working to promote growth. The electric cooperative held town meetings and invited government and business leaders from the county's 10 communities to help gather support.
Said Jeffrey J. Gray, Vice President of Iowa-Nebraska State Bank, "The success of small communities is absolutely dependent on utility companies to come through, as WIPCO has, with this kind of assistance and leadership."
Western Iowa Power's leadership helped secure widespread community investment. Community leaders pledged enough support to provide a yearly budget of more than $100,000 for the Monona County Economic Development Partnership and many of those community representatives made a personal commitment to serve on the partnership's board of directors.
WIPCO received the award at the NRECA annual meeting, convening March 20-22, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. More than 11,000 representatives from cooperative electric utilities across the nation are attending the meeting, during which they will set NRECA's legislative and organizational agenda for 2007. In addition to considering and acting upon policy resolutions, delegates receive reports from NRECA officials, hear addresses by key public figures and business experts, and attend panel sessions on major issues affecting electric cooperatives and their consumer owners.
NRECA is the national service organization that represents the nation's more than 900 private, not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives, which provide service to 40 million people in 47 states.
NRECA News Release - 2007-03-20
Western Iowa Power Cooperative (WIPCO) today received a National Community Service Award for helping boost economic development in Monona County, IA.
As Monona County struggled to attract new business and boost a sluggish local economy, Western Iowa Power Cooperative responded with a plan uniting community business leaders to form a countywide economic development partnership that is fostering new economic activity and jobs.
Today, that development organization, the Monona County Economic Development Partnership, has a full-time executive director working on several projects that will create more than 120 permanent quality jobs and more than 200 temporary jobs. These projects will have a significant impact on Western Iowa Power Cooperative members through increased local tax base and more job opportunities, not to mention potential load growth.
Said NRECA President Ron Bergh, "For Western Iowa Power strengthening the community's economic viability is not just community service, it's an important component of a smart business development plan."
Monona is the only county in Iowa listing more residents over age 65 than under 17 years. The county, a large part of the electric cooperative's service area, ranked lowest in the state for manufacturing jobs and wages, despite the area being directly accessible by Interstate 29, the Missouri River and a major railroad line.
The county was also one of only two counties in the state without a full-time economic development office. Seeking to improve the situation, Western Iowa Power officials pledged to find the resources to support a full-time development director and launched a campaign to win support from community leaders and other businesses. Co-op officials led the way with a pledge of $30,000 per year for three years to fund the economic development office; co-op staff spent hundreds of hours working to recruit financial support from other businesses.
Drawing on the cooperative connections of its G&T - Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative - and technical assistance from the Iowa Area Development Group, Western Iowa Power convinced community leaders that Monona County's economic plight was unlikely to change without a full-time economic development director working to promote growth. The electric cooperative held town meetings and invited government and business leaders from the county's 10 communities to help gather support.
Said Jeffrey J. Gray, Vice President of Iowa-Nebraska State Bank, "The success of small communities is absolutely dependent on utility companies to come through, as WIPCO has, with this kind of assistance and leadership."
Western Iowa Power's leadership helped secure widespread community investment. Community leaders pledged enough support to provide a yearly budget of more than $100,000 for the Monona County Economic Development Partnership and many of those community representatives made a personal commitment to serve on the partnership's board of directors.
WIPCO received the award at the NRECA annual meeting, convening March 20-22, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. More than 11,000 representatives from cooperative electric utilities across the nation are attending the meeting, during which they will set NRECA's legislative and organizational agenda for 2007. In addition to considering and acting upon policy resolutions, delegates receive reports from NRECA officials, hear addresses by key public figures and business experts, and attend panel sessions on major issues affecting electric cooperatives and their consumer owners.
NRECA is the national service organization that represents the nation's more than 900 private, not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives, which provide service to 40 million people in 47 states.
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