(Spencer)– The Spencer City Council earlier this week heard an update on a grant program for businesses in that city severely impacted by last year’s flood disaster. Curt Strouth is CEO of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation, which is administering the program on behalf of the Spencer Economic Development Corporation, or SEDC…
“To date there’s been 67 grants approved totaling over one million dollars. So to be exact, $1,033,000 of business grants have been awarded. It’s been pretty interesting because staff, as we’re administering these dollars out the door, to hear the personal testimonies of these businesses coming back to us and thanking us for the work of the council and the city and the SEDC, what the impact of these grants mean to them, is pretty impactful. So I wanted to share that to the group, that the work in these grants mean a lot.”
Strouth also gave an update on the status of some multi-family residential lots the SEDC acquired on the south side of Spencer that were also heavily impacted in last year’s flood…
“Demolition is in place to come down here mid spring to late summer to get those units down and re-developed. SEDC has approved to maintain those properties in the mode of mowing and just the routine maintenance of that.”
Strouth says they’ve already started to market the properties in the hopes of attracting developers.
