(Spencer)– The Spencer City Council earlier this week heard an update on some recovery grants awarded to businesses impacted by last year’s flood. The grant program, administered by the Spencer Economic Development Corporation, or SEDC, recently concluded. Curt Strouth, CEO of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation, told the council 70 grants were awarded totaling $1,057,000…
“There were 82 overall applications so you can see the widespread damage that our businesses here in Spencer received. So 82 applicants, 70 approved. Estimated $22 million in overall damage as part of the application, so I think it shows a significant damage report as part of that. And then $960,000 were estimated as employee retention, so the businesses who were impacted were able to keep their employees in place which I think is huge. They weren’t displaced, on unemployment or just didn’t have a job at all. So it’s great to see that.”
Strouth also gave an update on some property the SEDC plans to revitalize that was severely damaged in the flood…
“We’re waiting on FEMA right now to be able to get those, the properties actually all the way demoed down and we’re working currently, the SECD is currently working on a request for proposal to solicit for developers interested in potentially developing on that property, so that will be an exciting process to go through to get that property cleaned off and re-developed and re-vitalized in what we call the heart of our community. We’re very close to downtown to be able to put up potentially another 28 units to replace those that were impacted.”
Strouth says that project remains a high priority.
