STATE CENTER — Iowa Downtown Resource Center Director Jim Engle and Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) Downtown Economic Development Specialist Jim Thompson spent a long day in Marshall County on Wednesday bookended by a pair of hourlong presentations on downtown essentials at West Marshall High School in State Center in the morning and East Marshall Elementary School in Laurel in the evening along with walking tours of eight communities.

During the morning presentation in State Center, Engle highlighted the importance of buildings to downtown development in small communities before an audience of about 30 people that included several elected officials. Too often, he said, they fall into disrepair and become eyesores with reduced prospects for business activity. He shared information on resources the IEDA can provide including Catalyst grants and noted that even small steps like removing obsolete welcome signs and pulling weeds can have a long-term impact on the future of a downtown area.

Other hallmarks of attractive downtowns they mentioned are an interesting pedestrian experience, plenty of color and special events and activities designed to bring people into the area — in State Center, the Rose Festival, the Old Fashioned Christmas on Main and the upcoming Easter celebration are a few examples.

Thompson, on the other hand, took on more of a blunt tone, remarking that “too many old white guys” are running towns and not listening to the younger generation and criticized CAVE people — Citizens Against Virtually Everything — while encouraging more progressive citizens to drown out their voices.

On a more positive note, Thompson encouraged community leaders to follow the design guide he and Engle were presenting and apply for available grants, and he also shared success stories from communities in all corners of the state such as Calamus, Alden, Otley, Royal, Riverdale, Swisher, Holy Cross and Inwood.

Engle and Thompson, who originally hail from Sigourney and Grant, respectively, wrapped up by showing photos of the welcome signs from communities around Marshall County, asking which ones were inviting and which ones needed to be removed or revamped. Before embarking on their first walking tour of the day with State Center leaders, they spoke to the T-R about the message they hoped to spread.

“I think the big thing for me is sometimes small towns get into a rut because they think they can’t do what a large town does,” Engle said. “We don’t buy that, even if you start small and do the small things, the low-hanging fruit, so we try to talk about community pride and show some examples of what other communities have done to inspire people to do that in your little towns.”

Thompson offered praise for Laurel, where he felt that “something was brewing,” and he hoped other communities would follow that lead.

“I think it’s important to understand (that) we talk about housing everywhere, but you work where you have to. You live where you choose to, and we want people to decide that if Marshalltown’s not for them, the county seat’s not for them, that they could live in any of these smaller towns and be really happy,” Thompson said. “But we’ve got to make it a place that they’re proud of.”

The Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored the presentations in both State Center and Laurel, and Chamber Marshall County Economic Development Director Alex Ferneau, a Melbourne native and West Marshall alum herself, led the walking tours along with Engle and Thompson.

Melbourne Mayor Cynthia “Boo” Mansager, who attended the morning session in State Center and then participated in the walking tour of her own community later in the morning, felt the session was helpful in generating ideas for the future of Melbourne — though she did note that all of the buildings in the downtown area are currently either city-owned or privately owned and none are for sale.

“We had good participation. There were probably 11 of us maybe, nine of us, something like that, and I thought the whole program (was great). I’m very thankful to Alex Ferneau for putting it together because I think she’s done a good job, and she’s just barked up every avenue she can think of,” Mansager said. “(Engle and Thompson) gave everybody some low-hanging fruit and some really lofty goals. You know, you could rehab a building for $1 million and get $100,000 from this grant, or you could pick up the trash and weed the corner and wash your windows and it would look good. So I definitely appreciated that they took it from soup to nuts and everywhere in between, so I thought that was good.”

Ferneau, who has been with the Chamber for almost a year now, was enthusiastic in her assessment of the day.

“It was a great day in Marshall County downtowns with Jim Engle and Jim Thompson from IEDA. This is the first County where they have had an event like this,” she said. “We got to connect with a lot of local community members, hear what’s working (and what’s not), and share some fresh ideas for the future. It’s always good to get out, have real conversations, and keep building momentum for our communities. I’m thankful to work with all the communities in the county and appreciate everyone’s support!”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.