This week Iola received $350,000 to buy a new fire engine. Or half of one. Fire engines these days cost a staggering $700,000.
The gift takes the form of a Community Development Block Grant awarded by the State of Kansas, using federal funds channeled through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Thrive Allen County wrote the application on behalf of the city.
The workhorses behind the scenes were Becky Voorhies and Jonathon Goering of Thrive.
Iola mayor Jon Wells said the city has tried for years to find the means to replace ailing Engine 311, a lemon if there ever was one.
During its 10 years of service, the fire engine has been in the repair shop more than 40 times.
Iola pays Thrive $20,000 a year to help with economic development, a partnership that began in 2013. Other funding partners are Iola Industries, Humboldt and Allen County.
Quite often, economic development applies to recruiting new businesses to town, which Thrive did last fall by steering Peerless Windows to locate a manufacturing facility in Iola.
Headquartered in Fort Scott, Peerless already has 20 on staff at its Iola plant. Production is scheduled to begin next week.
Iola works closely with Thrive, both in terms of concrete things such as fire engines, but also more abstract goals like attracting families to move here.
In the last 20 years, Iola’s population has dropped from 6,900 to 5,100.
Goering is Thrive’s economic development manager, moving to Iola last summer from the Wichita area. Most recently, he’s helped Humboldt’s Our Market secure funding necessary to open up for business, and is building relationships with Humboldt’s other businesses including Monarch Cement, Murphy Tractor and B&W Trailer Hitches.
Goering is also helping the county look at expanding options at the Allen County Regional Airport, and heads up a committee focused on the region’s perennial problem of lacking affordable housing.
This summer, Thrive secured and oversaw $132,000 in the form of an additional CDBG grant for the City of Iola, to assist local businesses hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Businesses and non-profits with up to five employees were eligible for to $7,500; those with six to 50 employees could receive up to $12,000.
