T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce Tama County Economic Development Director Jacob Buchanan, left, and Marshall County Economic Development Director Alex Ferneau, right, pose for a photo at the Chamber office in Marshalltown earlier this week.

Over the last few years — and thanks to a pair of contracts signed with the boards of supervisors in each county — the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce has expanded its economic development reach well beyond the Marshalltown city limits and across all of the communities in Marshall and Tama counties under the guidance of a pair of new hires.

Marshall County Economic Development Director Alex Ferneau, a Melbourne native and West Marshall graduate, has been with the organization since last May, and Jacob Buchanan, a South Tama alum and longtime resident of the Tama-Toledo area, started as the Chamber’s Tama County economic development director on Jan. 26.

Ferneau and Buchanan spoke to the T-R earlier this week about their goals for growth, and on Wednesday, Ferneau hosted Jim Engle and Jim Thompson of the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) for a pair of “Let’s Build Marshall County” presentations in State Center and Laurel, respectively, along with a series of walking tours through the downtown areas of several Marshall County communities.

“I would say all the small towns, they all have their little niches of what they’re good at (and) what they’re struggling with. We all have that, but there’s just different ways to look at… I would just say I always try to figure out what their goal is, what they want to do. I try to figure out what their goal is, what they want to do. I try to figure out what their wants are and see what resources I can find to help them with that,” Ferneau said.

And, as Buchanan noted, economic development in smaller towns doesn’t necessarily mean a massive multimillion dollar project — it can be as simple as a small grant or loan for equipment to facilitate a business expansion.

“That’s really, for me, what my job starts at, and then, obviously there’s huge projects that are huge to be a part of. But those individual connections in our small towns really bring our engagement into the communities. And that’s where I think we can make the most difference,” he said.

While the wants and needs in each community differ, the ultimate end goal for both Buchanan and Ferneau is to help them be successful and define what success looks like.

“I think we both work in communities where there’s a lot of big personalities that have a lot of passion for their town, and they really want their version of that. They think it’s the best way, and so they’re working through that,” Buchanan said. “And our job is that we kind of just be in that room to watch them have a conversation and help them hear each other, and that’s where I think we both excel because we’re not gonna be the kind of people that tell people ‘No, that’s not gonna work’ or ‘We don’t think that’s right.’ (We’re) working with people like ‘Oh, that’s an interesting point’ and ‘What do you guys think about that?’ And we’re really just trying to be that mediator.”

As for specific examples, Ferneau pointed to the opening of a trio of new businesses — Holy Grounds Coffee, The Main Well and Heritage Clothing and Decor — in State Center and credited the residents of that community for their strong support of local operations. She also noted the strong presence of local meat markets in Marshall County from Main at Hart to Clover Bloom Farms to Tow Simmentals & Wagyu to ST Farms Iowa to the Market Off Main in Albion.

“I would say those are very strong attributes to economic development in the county because it’s supporting the agriculture industry as well, and people like to buy local for those kinds of things especially,” she said. “And I would say, too, that I’m trying to get them to work with local organizations — the Arts + Culture Alliance, Region 6 (Resource Partners) and then the Community Foundation (of Marshall County). So those are really good resources for the county, and being able to see them actually utilize them and understand what the organizations do has been awesome… Some of the communities in the county have gotten grants from these organizations or are working with them to make their communities better too.”

Though he’s still very new to his role, Buchanan said he is working to build connections all over Tama County and not just in the Tama-Toledo area where he grew up and has since returned to as an adult. Building off the success of the “Let’s Build Marshall County” event, he has scheduled downtown walkthroughs of five Tama County communities in September over a three-day period.

“It’s really exciting, so my job before September is let’s get the most involvement (possible). This is a huge, awesome resource to have,” he said. “These people that are doing the drawings, they do drawings for these huge communities. When Cedar Falls says we want our downtown to change, they’re the ones that do the renderings. They’re coming to do it for free.”

He has already engaged with several small business owners who are trying to get their feet off the ground and connect with resources from funding to help from the Small Business Development Center in developing a business plan.

“I think the thing I’ve learned is that you think, in an age of technology where the internet is so all-consuming in what we do every day, there’s still so many resources for people that they don’t know (about),” Buchanan said. “And it’s probably because of the opposite problem where you go online and you type in ‘Small business loan,’ most of it’s junk. But if you don’t know to go to Black Hawk County Economic Development, you’re not gonna find information for their loans. If you don’t know to go to the Small Business Development Center, you’re not gonna know where the free business consulting is, so that’s really it. There’s a lot of stuff that’s working but it’s kind of too soon to talk about, but it’s really exciting even early on.”

Looking toward the future, their objective is to foster growth in housing and business development, especially as tax dollars continue to get tighter across Iowa and the nation as a whole.

“Really, it’s about working to get some attainable goals for them for everyone to work for as a team, as a group. Right now, you kind of have a lot of small communities doing their own thing, the county doing their own thing, and it’s not that we don’t want to help each other. It’s just that no one really knows ‘Where do we grow? Where do we put our efforts in?’ I think that’s what our organization is tasked with for our county,” Buchanan said. “You can just look at it from afar and go ‘There’s housing opportunities. There’s healthcare opportunities. There’s business development opportunities, all these opportunities. So the reality is, what are the easy things to fix right away, and what do we need to put our effort into to really affect all those other things.”

The Meskwaki Nation and its large casino operation present one of those opportunities, he added, as well as recently receiving the first Home Base Iowa application since Tama County received the designation. The Chamber office is located at 34 W. Main St. in Marshalltown and can be reached at (641) 753-6645.

“We are excited for the work and opportunity taking place in both Marshall and Tama Counties. We fully recognize that as a community our success or failure is not in isolation and that if Marshalltown were successful at the detriment of those surrounding us, it would ultimately be a disservice to our community and region,” Chamber President/CEO John Hall said. “Our hopes are that by finding ways to uniquely support our rural communities we can provide for a more economically healthy region, reversing trends of decline, and chart a course for a more prosperous, vibrant, and successful future.”