(Spirit Lake)– Dickinson County Supervisors Tuesday gave their initial approval to a proposed realignment of Iowa Workforce Development service areas throughout the state. Heather Garcia, Executive Director of the Northwest and North Central Iowa Workforce Development Board says under the proposal, those two regions would be merged into one. She says it’s intended to do away with a duplication of services…
“Even though we would look at becoming a 16 county area, it would be more efficient and a better use of services, or a better use of funding, if we were to realign. So services would continue as they are, we would just have the ability to invest more funds into the infrastructure of the board and the local area and reduce that duplication.”
Garcia says it should also help with efficiency…
“It will streamline the infrastructure of the boards in the local areas and the services that are provided by the partners within those local areas so that there would then actually be a better flow of funding to support job seekers and businesses.”
She adds it will also give local leaders a say into whether or not a certain office should be closed of if a new one should be added…
“Iowa Workforce Development has kind of driven where we have had our offices in the past, but the local areas actually have more say than they have yielded in the past. So it would be up to the board and the county supervisors of all 16 counties whether or not they want to close offices or even open additional offices.”
Garcia says they have until this coming July 1st to get the realignment in place or they could lose funding from the U.S. Department of Labor.
