In August 1975, he took a temporary job in the Fort Dodge Municipal Building simply to earn some money before moving to Kansas City to take the job he really wanted.

He never went to Kansas City for that job.

Plautz decided he liked what he was doing in Fort Dodge. What followed was a 38 year career in local government in which he went from handling floodplain issues to becoming the city’s point man on all things related to economic development.

Then 12 years ago, he became the first chief executive officer of the new Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance.

-Messenger file photo
Dennis Plautz relaxes next to a mounted elk that he bagged on one of his many hunting trips. He is an avid hunter.

Over the decades, he worked with three different forms of city government and dozens of elected and appointed officials. He helped the city rise from the depths of economic gloom following the closure of two meat packing plants to become a community that proves collaboration makes for success.

But after 48 years between the city and the Growth Alliance, Plautz has decided it is time for him to retire.

“I’ve liked what I do,” he said. “It’s been fun doing this.”

The most rewarding part, he said, has been “a lot of thanks you get from people privately.”

“You start to hear companies talk appreciatively about the environment that’s been put together here that you’ve been part of,” he added. “You like to hear from people in the businesses that they appreciate it.”

His parting advice? Keep on collaborating.

“If you don’t have that, you won’t be as successful as you could be and at worst you won’t be a success at all,” he said.

Plautz said that recently the collaboration between Fort Dodge, Webster County, other area communities, schools and Iowa Central Community College is the best it has been.

He grew up in Pocahontas and earned a Bachelor’s degree in business administration from Augustana College and a master’s degree in planning and landscape architecture from Iowa State University in Ames.

After earning those degrees, he had a job lined up with an engineering firm in Kansas City, Missouri.

When he was about 60 days away from moving to take that job, he was offered a temporary position as an associate planner for the city of Fort Dodge. It was a post funded by a Comprehensive Employment and Training Act grant. He started on the job Aug. 2, 1975.

When the grant money ran out a month later, the city decided to make his job a permanent one. Plautz opted to keep working for the city.

“I just decided I’d rather stay closer to home,” he said. “I actually liked the job once I was in it.”

The job consisted of buying property in the 100-year floodplain of the Des Moines River, helping the residents move and getting the buildings demolished. He bought property in northwestern Fort Dodge, along North First Street and south of what was known as the little dam, which has since been removed.

“I spent several years doing that,” he said.

By the early 1980s, all of the housing was removed from the 100-year floodplain, an effort that paid big dividends when the 1993 floods devastated parts of Iowa but left Fort Dodge relatively unscathed.

In 1978, Plautz became director of planning for the city.

In 1980, community development efforts were combined with planning and he was placed in charge of both. Then in 1982, the building inspectors were added to his department

Not long after that, the city suffered a big economic blow when the George A. Hormel plant shut down. To make matters worse, in 1985, the IBP plant closed.

“We went from very prosperous to very depressed in a relatively short period of time,” Plautz said.

An even worse economic blow appeared to have been delivered in 1995 when the Federal Trade Commission issued a ruling that would have effectively shut down the Carnation (now Nestle Purina PetCare) plant at 2400 Fifth Ave. S. Carnation wanted to buy Alpo. The Trade Commission issued an order directing Carnation to unload a portion of its wet cat food production before it would approve the sale. The only practical way for the company to do so would be to sell the Fort Dodge plant, which would basically doom it.

State and local officials and average citizens pushed back.The letters, petitions and appearances before the commission paid off, promoting it to reverse its ruling.

“It really started the creation of the change we needed in this community to be successful,” Plautz said.

“I really do believe that we kind of turned a corner there,” he added.

In 2006, Terry Lutz became mayor and directed the city staff to view every action and decision in terms of what it would do to promote economic development. While Lutz was mayor, Plautz saw his job evolve even more to an economic development one. His title was changed to director of business affairs and community growth.

In 2011, when the former Fort Dodge Area Chamber of Commerce and the Development Corporation of Fort Dodge and Webster County came together to become the Growth Alliance, Plautz was selected to become its first chief executive officer.

“It’s been fun because there’s been so much collaboration in the community,” he said.

The fun, at least the fun of being at the heart of economic development, will soon come to an end, however.

His retirement is official on Sept. 4, Labor Day. His last actual day of Growth Alliance work will be Sept. 1.