T-R photo by Thomas Nelson Construction is a sign of how well the economy is doing and plenty of workers were doing the job of attaching the dome to the top of the Marshall County Courthouse on Tuesday. The dome is a hopeful symbol to Marshalltown residents during a time of economic uncertainty.

The COVID-19 pandemic may be leading the United States into a recession.

This is the first worldwide pandemic to hit Marshalltown in a century, and it brings along a series of economic challenges.

“The uncertainty of these times is tough on employees and employers,” said Lynn Olberding, Marshalltown Chamber of Commerce director. “We know that businesses are making difficult decisions to stay open, to close temporarily, to layoff workers or to continue finding ways to creatively serve the public.”

Businesses have to either adapt or close their doors.

“Under the current conditions, businesses are finding ways to respond to the ever-changing restrictions by offering curbside pick-up, free delivery and online shopping,” Olberding said. “Our restaurants have also adapted quickly to offering carry-out services and partnering with MyTown2Go to offer delivery.”

The city will lose really good restaurants and employers if Marshalltown consumers don’t continue to support them during this time, said Mayor Joel Greer.

“I hated to see that one of the plants is going to be out of operation for a while,” Greer said. “But, I know that everybody that’s been working on tornado recovery has committed themselves to making this town get back to where it was and even better.”

The challenges are real, and the city will need to create more housing to accommodate prospective growth.  

“I don’t know that we’ll ever truly know the full financial impact, but the response of the community to support our local businesses has been great to see,” Olberding said.

However, the economic reality surrounding Marshalltown and Iowa is dire. This is the first economic downturn created by a virus in recent history.

Unlike previous pandemics, COVID-19 has hit during a time when the world has never been more connected.

During the Spanish Flu pandemic from 1918 to 1919 mass travel was only available by ship and airplanes weren’t even two decades old. It took a world war to spread the disease.

Now airlines and a globalized economy have connected the world completely.

“We are definitely suffering from an economic contraction,”  said Chad Hard, Iowa State University associate professor in economics. “We’re trying to figure out how do we keep our economy functioning at a time when we have to social distance for a public health emergency?”

Keeping the supply chain moving is vital for an economy so goods and services can continue to be sent American homes.

Employers around Marshall County, Iowa and the whole nation are laying off employees because of social distancing or out of necessity.

“At the same time you see other businesses trying to ramp up, trying to add staff because they’ve been designated an essential industry,” Hart said. “The economy never lets a crisis go to waste. We’re seeing businesses shift how they do things to work around this crisis.”

Looking to the future the economy could see positive momentum after the pandemic is over, but growth won’t come immediately.

“It will take us a while to get out of this economic hole that we are currently in,” Hart said.

Recovery could take longer than previous recessions, he said.

“This is not just a purely economic downturn, but a public health concern that has turned into an economic downturn,” Hart said.

Farming was able to weather the 2008 recession, and it might be able to get past this one as well.

In the next couple of weeks farmers around Iowa will begin planting.

“The vast majority of the seed has already been purchased,” Hart said. “The big question for our agricultural markets is one: the ability of our rural communities and especially our farmers to avoid infection. That way they go out and plant those fields in a couple of weeks and work with input suppliers.”

Working with suppliers to apply fertilizer or pesticides and outside labor may be another large challenge for farmers in the coming months, Hart said.

“The downturn we face here will be deeper than what Iowa experienced in 2008/2009,” Hart said.

Manufacturing was hit the worst from the 2008 recession, but this possible recession is expected to hit all sectors of life hard, he said.

“We’ll see some permanent changes occur, just like we did in 2008,” Hart said. “Some industries don’t come back, but at this stage it’s too early to tell which ones those are.”

There is some light at the end of the tunnel.

“Communities are really figuring out what are their core businesses,” Hart said. “We still are seeing economic activity. We’re still seeing construction. We are still seeing the service industries try to work through this.”

Businesses continue to gain support acting as a communities “life’s blood,” he said. “The businesses that remain through thick and thin tend to be those where the owner is still in the town.”

On Tuesday the Marshall County Courthouse dome was placed back on its roof to applause of watching citizens.

“It is the best symbol we’ve got,” Greer said.

The tornado recovery has created a tone of hopefulness in the face of the challenges presented by pandemic.

“The town will be better,” Greer said. “We’ll be like a Cedar Rapids in 10 years.”

On Tuesday people made their way out of their homes to watch a symbol of Marshall County get repaired from the 2018 tornado, they eat locally and love their community.

“Marshalltown is resilient. We have seen examples of this over and over again: the recession of 2008, the tornado of 2018, and now we’ll see it with COVID-19,” said Olberding. “Marshalltown will recover from this pandemic if everyone pulls together and supports one another.”

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Contact Thomas Nelson at

tnelson@timesrepublican.com