Governor Visits Calhoun County

The 99-county tour is historically standard in Iowa. Those seeking political office often make the tour during an election year, but for Governor Kim Reynolds the 99-county tour has happened each year for her since before holding the office as Governor.

Last week the Governor and the “First Dude” as she refers to husband, Kevin Reynolds, visited Calhoun County on her 2024, 99-county tour.

Calhoun County Economic Development Executive Director, Theresa Hildreth, was surprised when she received a call from the Governor’s office asking to schedule a meeting with Governor Reynolds. “I answered a phone call one morning and was very pleased to have the question asked if we could host a small group, sit down meeting with Governor Reynolds within the week.”

Many times, on these 99-county visits, the Governor visits businesses, special events or public events. She had just spent every day of the Iowa State Fair in attendance at the fairgrounds, so the request for a small-group meeting became the perfect opportunity for Calhoun County to share all that has been developing at the Calhoun County Economic Development office.

In late 2023 a team of 17 Calhoun County leaders joined to develop a three-year Calhoun County Economic Development Strategic Plan and this plan was the center of discussion for the meeting with Governor Reynolds.

“We discussed a multitude of topics related to our Strategic Plan,” explained CCEDC Board Chair Keaton Hildreth. “We also talked about policy, schools and cell phone at schools while we shared the action the SCC Board just implemented regarding a cell phone ban for the 2024/25 school year.”

Topics of discussion extended the 1-hour planned meeting into a non-stop 2-hour session.

“We brought in some leaders from Calhoun County to address the aspects of the CCEDC Strategic Plan and to address some of the challenges we face across the county,” explained Theresa Hildreth.

Housing and childcare are critical needs across Iowa, and Calhoun County is at the center of this topic. “Manson is a community which needs both more housing and childcare options and providers,” Macie Schoon, Manson Economic Development Coordinator elaborated. “We asked the Governor to help us find solutions and I am so excited for her attention to our requests and some of the action plans she spoke of to help us find solutions to these issues.”

Each day we hear more and more through the news media about the mental health issues across the United States and the importance to take care of individuals striving to be healthier and productive despite mental health issues.

The Governor spoke of new programs which are having a significant impact on our school students battling mental health issues. A pilot program in select school districts across the state is seeing success in meeting the mental health needs of students. The Governor shared these pilot programs could be rolled out to more schools soon this fall.

Barb Riley, Public Health Director shared with the Governor how the Calhoun County Health Improvement Plan mirrors the State of Iowa Health Improvement Plan. Conversation regarding how the local public health presence is essential to keep our county surviving and thriving and that undetermined future HHS alignments are a concern of the local Board of Health. The Governor indicated she agrees local services are valuable and necessary, especially in rural areas.

As one of few critical access hospitals who provide obstetric care in Iowa, Ann Lengeling, Stewart Memorial Community Hospital Chief Nursing Officer, shared the investment this Calhoun county hospital is committing to their patients. Governor Reynolds applauded SMCH for their investment as well as recognizing the struggles of healthcare professional staffing is at this time across Iowa.

“We are working hard to share the many great opportunities for new migration of professionals from outside our state to come live and work in Iowa,” Governor explained. “We have a lower cost of living, low taxes, great schools, low crime and we are recruiting to fill the needs here by marketing in Minnesota, Chicago and California.”

The Governor touched on a new Rural Iowa Ambassador program currently in the works at Iowa Economic Development Authority in partnership with Empower Rural Iowa.

The conversation throughout the meeting circled back to the Strategic Plan on almost all points and issues. Those in attendance left the meeting encouraged by the conversation, concern and attention of the Governor and her staff member.

“I had emailed a copy of the Calhoun County Economic Development Strategic Plan to the staffer from the Governor’s Office shortly after scheduling the meeting,” explains Director Hildreth, “I was impressed when she pulled out her marked up copy of the plan. It was encouraging to see she had taken time to see what we have planned and identified as strategic measures for this organization to address and on which we identified as critical needs. In all points of discussion, she supported our strategic planning.”