A new local committee of the Hometown Pride program met for an organizational meeting this week in Storm Lake.
The meeting was held on Monday at King’s Pointe Resort. The committee is made up of representatives from eight northwest Iowa communities including Storm Lake, Lakeside, Alta, Newell, Sioux Rapids, Aurelia, Lake Park, and Royal. City council’s in each community have approved participation in the program. The regional group has the capacity to expand by two additional communities as it moves forward.
Hometown Pride was founded in 2012, operating under the Keep Iowa Beautiful non-profit agency. The program offers four primary goals to participating communities including cultivate local leadership, create and enhance community amenities, foster civic pride, and boost economic vitality.
Keep Iowa Beautiful will provide the local regional group with 75 percent of the funding to retain a professional “community coach” up to 300 thousand dollars over five years. The local group is the first to be new regional organization approved for participation in two years. It aims to be operational by the end of the year.
According to Keep Iowa Beautiful leaders, a typical community can complete 15 to 20 community betterment projects over its five-year commitment, bringing in one to two million dollars or more in value to the region. Projects undertaken in the program to date include park amenities, clean-up events, public art, festivals, fundraising, leadership programs, trails, welcome signs, memorials, and more.
(PHOTO: Attending the Hometown Pride organizational meeting were: Josh Toft and Sherm Neilsen (Royal), Pam Henderson (Alta), Katie Cedar and Lindsay Ramirez (Aurelia), Matt Carstenson (Lake Park), Jared Eggers (Lakeside), Mike Katschman (Sioux Rapids), and Mike Porsch (Storm Lake). Andy Frantz and Lorin Ditzler, executive director and associate director of Keep Iowa Beautiful, assisted the local communities in organizing the regional efforts)
