Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg visits Jefferson for Empower Rural Iowa Task Force

By SARAH STORTZ
s.stortz@carrollspaper.com

A day after he stood with Governor Kim Reynolds signing a historic tax law, Iowa Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg visited Jefferson to attend a meeting for the Empower Rural Iowa Task Force.
The meeting took place inside of RVP 1875, a historical furniture shop and museum located at 115 S. Wilson Ave.

Gregg, who is co-chair for the  Empower Rural Iowa initiative, delivered the opening remarks to the attendess. The meeting focused on broadband connectivity in Iowa, where both Gregg and Empower Rural Iowa co-chair Sandy Ehrig listened to a panel of recipients for the Rural Innovation Grants.

“I want to acknowledge and thank you all for the work that you’ve done to put us in this position, we’re really standing on the shoulders of this task force,” Gregg said.

The Rural Innovation Grant program was created to support non-traditional ideas that will combat issues often faced in rural Iowa communities. The task force is made up of 22 members from all throughout Iowa.
Eligible participants for the grants include businesses, higher education institutions, city/county government, private nonprofit agencies, and foundations.
Gregg said the task force traditionally had a $400,000 allocation for these grants, but the legislation raised it to $700,000. Gregg said Reynolds requested $700,000 again as the Iowa legislature goes through the budgeting process.

“We want to make sure that we are smart with those dollars and that we’re making investments in rural communities, just as everyone would expect,” Gregg said.
The panelists included Jamie Daubendiek, the general manager for Jefferson Telecom, Adam Thompson, the city administrator for Ely, and Vince Tyson, the general manager for Citizens Mutual Telephone in Bloomfield.

Once the discussion was finished, Gregg went back on stage and shared how he felt a great amount of pride in the work from the Empower Rural Iowa Task Force.

“I think we’re starting to get to that point in the flywheel effect, so to speak,” Gregg said. “You start to see the impacts on the ground in these smaller communities, it really does make a difference, and so I certainly have been taking immense pride in that.”

After a panel was done with discussion, the group went on a tour to look at projects in downtown Jefferson that’s supported by state funding.