Thrive Allen County will continue to provide economic development services for Iola, Allen County and Iola Industries.
Iola City Council members on Monday renewed Thrive’s contract, the final leg of the joint agreement.
The renewed contract came on a day filled with a mixed bag of news pertaining to Iola and Allen County.
The original three-year contract expired Dec. 31. The county and Iola Industries renewed their portions prior to then — all three entities pay Thrive $20,000 annually — but a renewed contract for the city “was lost in circulation,” according to a written report by City Administrator Carl Slaugh, who also previously recommended the city pull out of the agreement.
The Council voted, 7-1, for the renewal, with Austin Sigg opposed.
“There’s just some things I want to change,” Sigg said. “I’m not against Thrive.”
Sigg questioned why the three entities entered a joint agreement instead of each three entering individual contracts with Thrive.
If the three were to continue to work together, Iola should insist that both the county and Iola Industries pay the city’s annual fee to Van Scoyoc and Associates, a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, Sigg said.
“Even in the last two months, we’ve gotten nothing good out of (Van Scoyoc),” Sigg said.
Jim Gilpin, speaking on behalf of Iola Industries, explained that a collaborative approach best serves all involved. Iola Industries in the past served as a de facto economic development agent for the city on a voluntary basis. But when Max Snodgrass fell ill, it couldn’t be done for free any more, and “none of us was able to step up to the plate and respond to the dozens of emails that came through from the Kansas Department of Commerce.”
So Iola Industries approached Thrive, which at the time had no economic development responsibilities.
“We knew things were falling through the cracks every week that we had no ability to respond to,” Gilpin said.
It also became evident that Allen County’s resources outside Iola — rail service and fiber-optic Internet, for example — meant it made sense to work as a single, collaborative unit.
“It’s been a consensus ever since,” Gilpin said.
