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Mayor: More activity seen in FD

As Mayor Matt Bemrich travels around Fort Dodge, he’s seeing more vehicles on the streets and more people out and about.

“You definitely see traffic has ticked back up,” he said. “People seem to be moving around more. The appearance to me is there are more people out doing more things.”

He considers the increased activity to be a sign that the community is emerging from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The arrival of summer weather in the last couple of days has accelerated the trend, he added.

“The weather just makes you want to be active,” the mayor said.

But neither Bemrich nor Dennis Plautz, the chief executive officer of the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance, are prepared to say that business is booming yet.

“I think things are still very slow,” Plautz said. “It seems like people are coming back out, but slowly.”

“People are still skeptical,” he added.

Prior to the onset of the pandemic, the economy of Fort Dodge and Webster County was thriving, according to Bemrich.

“Our economy was in a great place before this pandemic,” he said.

He urged residents to continue practicing social distancing, wearing masks and following other public health precautions.

“No one is out of the woods yet,” he said. “People just need to make good conscientious decisions about their personal health.”

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