Miller-Meeks stops in FM
It was one of her usual community stops to touch base with constituents for Congresswoman Marianette Millers-Meeks, but Fort Madison Mayor Matt Mohrfeld wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to tout his marina project.
“There’s no way I’m going to get this many people in one room and not talk about the marina,” he told her and a dozen representatives from local business, industry, schools and government.
The congresswoman was then asked to view a 3-minute “Pier to Pier” video showing the overall $11 million project that will require $6.5 million to start its initial phases.
But Miller-Meeks was well acquainted with the project. It was one of 10 projects she selected for project funds that are coming down from the federal movement.
“Now it goes to a community funding group and to the appropriations (committee), so we don’t know when we will hear if it is selected or how much will be appropriated,” she said after Thursday’s meeting with the group.
However, she did tell the group she was optimistic about its chances and was impressed with Mohrfeld’s application.
“Our deadline was April 28, We had a very compact window – 4 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed. I was in Clinton County yesterday and told them ‘you need to go talk to Fort Madison about their marina project.’”
Mohrfeld repeated his belief that in addition to better serving local boaters and attracting users regionally, it is a quality of life project that will aid economic development efforts.
“We have aging infrastructure and, with that, we’re trying to make improvements so that the people in this room can hire and keep quality people,” he said.
And the congresswoman heard about various projects and issues – and the vast majority were connected to creating a skilled workforce and filling positions in local businesses and industries.
For example, she heard of the Joint Education Center that involves Lee County Economic Development Group’s recent purchase of the KL Megla building south of Fort Madison.
The center is to be a school introducing Lee County high school students to trades and skill sets required at local industries and businesses.
Miller-Meeks said this was a perfect example of why economic development and training needs to be executed locally rather than on the federal level.
“Too often, unless we talk to business representatives, we don’t know what skills are needed or what you are lacking,” she said.
She added that one of the problems she has with the Biden Administration’s push to forgive student loan debt is that it may further sway some to college rather than have them consider trade occupations that are needed in the area.
Miller-Meeks also said she believes the federal unemployment enhancement, which continues in some states until September, is also keeping some from re-entering the workforce. (It ends this month in Iowa.)
“The workforce was an issue before the pandemic. This enhancement is creating more of a burden. That’s creating a barrier, and we’re not talking about minimum wage jobs. We’re talking about $15 an hour, $30,000 a year, jobs.”
City Councilwoman Rebecca Bowker, who is executive officer at Iowa State Penitentiary, said she too is concerned about the workforce shortage.
“But also, even if we could find these people, we don’t have enough housing,” she added.
On the city front, Bowker said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is placing a burden on Fort Madison by requiring sewer separation.
“We don’t have the resources now to even deal with that.”
Miller-Meeks said she realizes this mandate for a city means $30 million to $50 million, depending up the city’s size.
“We know that, the EPA knows that’s a problem,” she said, but did not elaborate on solutions.
IFC Managing Director Darrell Allman mentioned another topic – a shortage of natural gas capabilities – but it too was connected to economic development. Allman, who also served on the Lee County Economic Development Groups’ board of directors, said they have been trying to get a major industry to set up shop next to the fertilizer plant.
“In the end, they decided not to because of a lack of natural gas,” he told the congresswoman.
Lee County Supervisor Rich Larkin said the county is expecting $6.5 million from the American Rescue Funds and have appointed a committee to vet project proposals for spending it, but that the initial guidelines are vague.
“We should be able to do some infrastructure things that need to be done, but so far it seems to be kind of vague on what you can or can’t spend it on.”
Miller-Meeks also acknowledged this, and said further guidance is expected, but she was unable to say when those directives would be distributed to local governments.
Broadband expansion is often mentioned as an area of infrastructure expansion, and state incentives and federal stimulus dollars have earmarked for it, but Dan Tierney of Internet Marketing Services, asked Miller-Meeks to beware of “pretenders” that will apply for the funds, but be unable to deliver all that was promised.
“There are a lot of pretenders the are throwing their hats in the ring,” he said. “I’m sure the FCC will vet these, but we need to make sure these pretenders don’t strand those dollars for 8 to 10 years.”