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Empower Rural Iowa - Investing Task Force Minutes - October 2019

Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative

Investing Rural Iowa Task Force Meeting Agenda

Hawarden Community Center

1198 Central Ave. #1100

Hawarden, Iowa 51023

Friday, October 4, 2019

12:30 p.m.

  1. Roll Call:

Present:       Lt. Governor Gregg         Sandy Ehrig         Jim Thompson

                Hunter Callanan                David Barker      Chuck Morris     

                Mark Reinig                        Vickie Larson      Steve Gilbert

                Lisa Kesting-Best (For Josh Merchant)

  1. Approval of Minutes:

Draft minutes from the September 2019 meeting had been previously distributed for review.Mark Reinig made a motion to approve the minutes and Wayne Pantini seconded the motion, which was unanimously approved.

  1. Welcoming Remarks from Lt. Governor Gregg:

Lt. Governor commented he was happy to share his hometown with the task force and thanked the community for hosting, as well as Peoples Bank for sponsoring. The tour of the old city hall captures what we are working on, and today we’ll look at the use of available programs and how do we might make them more efficient and impactful.  At the Vinton meeting we reviewed programs on dilapidated buildings, and we will add to that today, and have a guided conversation to begin a draft of recommendations to give to Governor.  Reviewed what other task forces were discussing, and thanked Ryan Boone and Rick Young from the Connecting and Growing task forces for attending this meeting.  The Connecting task force will be in Clarion on October 11th looking at connectivity in telehealth and education, and on the 16th Growing will be in Belleview looking at empowering leaders then shifting to community visioning.

  1. Remarks from Co-Chair Sandy Ehrig:

Appreciated the city tour. Hawarden was one of her communities when she was at Iowa Economic Development and it looks a lot different then 15 year ago!  The partnership between ERI and the IRDC has helped expand opportunities to provide information on both groups.  At the Iowa Ideas Conference, members of all three task forces presented.  And like we held at Mount Ayr., we will be holding another combined meeting between the IRDC and ERI on December 18 in Perry.  Also, save the date for the Iowa Rural Summit on April 29 – May 1.  Would love to have a team of three from Hawarden participate.

  1. Vacant State Building Rehabilitation Fund and Demolition Fund:

Liesl went over this new program and distributed a handout providing details. Program is like the Community Catalyst Program.  Demo is a grant program and Rehab is a loan program, but applicants can apply for both. Reference handout for information.

  1. ERI Initiative Update:

Liesl provided overview of program initiatives underway.  One of the ERI recommendations from last year was to increase the Workforce Housing Tax Credits to $30 million, with $10 to rural and to make it competitive which was done. The rural set-aside backlog has been cleared with this year’s entire WHTC allocation.

Grants:  Housing Assessment Grant Program intent is for interpretation/implementation. The need for assessments is less as the Iowa Finance Authority tool will be down to the census block and cities can get the majority of what they need for free but may need help with interpretation of data and then implementation. The $100,000 is designed to work with ISU Ext. with their Readiness tool and then partner on implementation.  Can also can partner with COG’s or do in-house.  Meant to be high level and broad for flexibility.  Local communities must be in the process or partnering – not hiring out.  Part of deliverables will be looking at implementation steps.  Have received first draft of rules, which must be approved by IEDA board in October.

Website:  Working with IRDC which is doing a website update and that will be main landing page for resources.  Will highlight housing, leadership, connectivity, other.  There will be an area for best practices and resources.   ERI landing page will shift from Governor’s website to IEDA website, which will be basic for agendas, minutes, link to IRDC, task force members etc. and information on the two new building rehab/demo program. Might be able to show something in December.

  1. Success Stories & Government Collaboration:

Jim Thompson gave examples of how government collaborations are making a difference.

The City of Emmetsburg had to deal with a warehouse that had been abandoned by the owner.  The issue was with asbestos siding and how to appropriately handle its disposal.  They used the Brownfield program to deal with it, which required deconstruction but were able to appropriately deal with building and the site.  This site can now be marketed as an asset not just another liability.

The City of Grandville used the DNR Derelict Building program to destruct a school to build a fire/EMS station.  The city and the state of Iowa worked together to create a win-win.

Clarinda just finalized a CDBG Downtown Revitalization project.  Project was very successful and definitely needed for their community.  Now we are all looking for additional ways to assist them with additional development.

Jim and Scott Flagg with DNR talk a lot and are trying to collaborate as much as possible. 

Main Street Iowa Challenge grants are continuing to be very successful.  These projects are wonderful examples of best practices.

Ed Basch is the program manager for the Nuisance Property & Abandoned Building Revolving Loan Fund.  Ed & I have worked on several partnership projects and are collaborating to identify even more.  For example, Keota Catalyst project also received this RLF to finance the rehabilitation of this downtown building.  The current balance in this loan fund is $2.6M and no applications have been received since our last meeting.  One consideration would be to create a 25 % loan guarantee to partner with local banks.

  1. Facilitated Discussion:

Goal: Review the “Discussion Draft” handout to come up with a clear view of recommendations, then have a future call to finalize.  Issue:  Many programs available and the order to apply is unclear. Some programs underfunded, some over-funded.  Grant programs preferred over loan programs. How to market the underused programs and how to work with cities to build their own programs that work with state funding. 

Q)  Lt. Gov.: Streamlining applications - What is your opinion on pre-applications, deadlines, etc.  Wayne – pre-app is one time a year?  Some programs have different application cycles.  Lt. Gov – should they all happen together?  Yes. Ideally it would be nice to have two funding cycles within a year.  Or an open window.  Sandy:  Housing Application Resource Team – open window is always best approach if pre-app.  She likes the face-to-face, there is awareness of demand so get a better sense of what needs to change.  Mark – look at frequent users both successful and non-successful to get feedback from them – why one gets funded and other not; Jim -   There are challenges with DNR’s program and the Catalyst program, generally to score well with CAT looking for shovel ready sites. If delayed because of DNR’s program it would be nice to say as soon as done, then we can start.  CDBG program dependent on federal regulations, but state-funded more flexible. Not looking to federalized state programs but would be nice to know when to move to the next construction process.  

Q) Lt Gov:  There are five or six programs all asking for similar information.  Interested to hear counter argument for having a uniform process.  Having one application and then find out which program is best fit.  The programs are housed in different agencies, but all government so should it matter? What is barrier? Liesl – The applications, while similar, each have certain things required, so the application would be big and might be a heavier lift on review and applicant.  Pre-application might be a better opportunity.  Jim – They use an incentives document with state programs, and then each community can insert their own incentives.  It’s distributed through downtown walkarounds, assessments, etc.  Dave - A single application would be a too big.  Can’t you have common info that everyone has, then someone narrows from there?  Liesl – Part of process could include a flowchart which would be available on all programs to show flow.  Jim - Education must follow.  Cities look at projects as a liability, they can’t see beyond what it is.  Sandy – maybe we need a pre-education before a pre-app.?  If education and collaboration could be a roll of ERI, that would be great. 

Q) Lt Gov.:  For a single application, can we think about what the eligibility criteria are?  Why is 1,500 population rural on one and 5,000 rural on another?  Liesl – Program intent can be the issue with the monster application hurdle.  Programs similar, but with different intent. 

Q) Lt. Gov: Aligning funding cycles, what does it take to do that?  Does it take legislation?  Wayne – some programs are dictated from the time programs are funded and rules made, then so many months to apply.  Jim – On the Catalyst it was in Rules.  Liesl – Of everything, timelines are most flexible.  Program managers were not thrilled with the idea of one application.  Wayne – can it be incorporated into IowaGrants? Once enough info is gathered could then move them into one program or another? 

LG:  What do we want this to say on first and second bullet?  Streamlined pre-app, maybe use IowaGrants?  Can the pre-app trigger technical assistance for helping a community determine what program(s) to apply for?  Sandy – Thinks we should call it a pre-qualification instead of a pre-app.

Q) Lt. Gov:  Aligning funding cycles, is there a reason not to? Mark – need to see if in Code or Rules, and if population guidelines can be figured out – usually in Code. 

Mark asked about last bullet on first page of Discussion Draft.  Jim – this is just starting, an opportunity for smaller communities to build capacity when they might not be able to win by themselves.  Finding good contractors can be an issue so having many projects is easier to attract.

Q) Lt. Gov:  There is more demand for the Main Street Challenge Grant then funds available, should we lift the $1,000,000 cap?  Advocated for more funding? Agreed. 

Q) Lt. Gov:  The DNR program uses a population of 5,000 or less, other programs have different populations, why?  Mark – smaller towns don’t have debt consideration.  Liesl – Scott mentioned if more funds available, that they have a set-aside for small communities.  Ok with trying to define rural – yes?  Dave – maybe look at having a sliding level instead of a hard level.

Q) Lt. Gov:  The IEDA Nuisance Property program has a higher interest rate for pass-through to private entities.  Should we look at reduced interest rate?  Mark - might want to look at when the program started to see where interest rates were, these might be good.  Jim – May want to have a conversation with Iowa bankers to participate.

Q) Lt. Gov:  Funding and Scaling: recommend supplementing dollars but consider eligibility requirements as well – must be good.  Agreed.  On the Catalyst program the funding is inconsistent and all out of IEDA budget. Recommends stabilizing and increasing rural set-aside.  We can look at definition of rural for the 40% and adding a line item in budget.  Jim – also the emergency grants come out of this as well.  There is no set-aside, it is a director’s option.  Agreed.

Q) Lt. Gov:  On the Workforce Housing Tax Credits, recommends continuing with double set aside, and recommends continuing the new Housing Needs Grants and Rural Innovation Grants.  Agreed.

Q) Lt Gov:  Considering expanding RISE Grant to support rural housing.  RISE funds are not applicable to housing developments and he recommends making rural housing applicable for funds. The Commission can act on without legislative authority.  Vicky – you will have a lot of applications.  Jim – Interesting to tie to ISU readiness tool.

  1. Public comment:

Jim Collins, City Administrator of Hull:  Happy that the WHTC will be available again, they are ready to apply.

  1. Wrap up and next steps:

Lt. Gov:  They will be reviewing comments from today and cleaning up the draft recommendations.  We will have a task force call on the afternoon of November 6th to discuss.  Mark your calendar for the December 18th joint meeting in Perry. 

11. Adjourn: 

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