At some point during the revitalization process of Project 17, individual communities and counties will be called upon to put some skin in the game. Iola isn’t wasting any time.
Earlier this month, Iola Mayor Bill Shirley offered the 16-member steering committee the use of one of a city-owned office building downtown. The 2 E. Jackson St. facility has been vacant since the non-profit Thrive Allen County moved to a new location last spring.
Shirley said because Iola and Allen County are about as close to being the geographic center of the 17-county region it made sense to offer what he hopes the committee will someday consider their home.
State Sen. Jeff King, one of four state legislators spearheading the effort, said although the offer hasn’t been formally accepted, it is a good example of how a community can offer resources to the cause.
“The fact that the city of Iola did that on their own without any prompting from any of us, to me is a wonderful sign of the buy-in from the entire Iola community and its representative of the buy-in we’re getting from the entire region,” said the Independence Republican and Allen Countians representative in the state senate.
Since the creation of the committee after the Nov. 17 economic summit, an emphasis has been placed on addressing the economy on a regional level, not an isolated community level.
So far so good, King said.
“A number of other cities and universities and colleges have offered to donate facilities and staff time that they might have toward the project,” he said. “That is immensely important not only to give us the resources we need to make sure the project is successful but also to get buy-in from as many different parts of the region as we can.”
King said the steering committee will likely accept or reject Iola’s offer at the next meeting in April.
