On Thursday, Theresa Greenfield, state director in Iowa for USDA Rural Development, visited Fort Dodge and met with representatives from the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance, the city of Fort Dodge, Webster County and Iowa Central Community College. Following the meeting, Greenfield and Growth Alliance CEO Astra Ferris sat down to talk with The Messenger about how new partnerships and connections with different government agencies could help bring more federal dollars to Webster County.

“We’re really keen to visit with the community and the region, about the kinds of resources we can help partner with them to help them achieve their goals — their economic goals, education goals, community development goals,” Greenfield said.

According to Jim Kersten, vice president of external affairs and government relations at Iowa Central Community College, Webster County Supervisor Mark Campbell got the ball rolling on bringing the USDA into the discussions on the ag park’s future. After reaching out to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, they were connected with Greenfield, Kersten said.

Greenfield was given a tour of the Global Innovation ag park west of Fort Dodge, which is currently home to Cargill, Valero Renewables and CJ Bio America. She also learned about the new biofuels testing lab that Iowa Central is currently constructing across U.S. Highway 169 from the college’s main campus.

“I am just so delighted to see the collaboration between the city, the county, the college and other partners, business partners [like] Cargill, others,” Greenfield said. “It’s pretty impressive. And I’m hopeful that we can be part of something within the region to continue to help them to grow.”

The purpose of the meeting wasn’t to work on any specific project or plan for the ag park, but instead was a time to discuss what programs or opportunities the USDA or other federal agencies like the Department of Energy or the Department of Education might have to help with development there.

“So it was a learning opportunity for both of us, an opportunity to share resources to learn more about what the collaboration is looking to do, and understand ways that we could help and if we can’t help, maybe some other federal resources that might be more appropriate,” Greenfield said.

“That partnership is going to be pivotal whenever it’s time to put a shovel in the ground because those partners, I guarantee, will also be there to help us celebrate and help us roll up our sleeves to tackle what problems we need to solve together,” Ferris added.

When talking about economic development projects and targeted industries like biofuel, Ferris said, the discussion also needs to include workforce challenges that not just Iowa and the region have, but that exist across the whole country. Challenges like barriers to childcare, housing and education. Public-private partnerships are the well-rounded approach that those challenges need, she said.

“Those are things economic developers didn’t really have a discussion about 20 years ago,” she said. “So the tides have changed and I think it’s really exciting to be able to have those discussions that we’re having locally about tackling those issues with some of our federal and state liaison partners.”

Greenfield also stressed the importance of public-private partnerships when it comes to economic development.

“That’s what helps make successful, vibrant, amazing rural communities,” she said.

Ultimately, the goal is to make Fort Dodge and Webster County an attractive location for businesses and industries to develop.

“We really work really hard to make sure that we can eliminate barriers or mitigate risk for big business to come in and invest a lot of dollars and really change lives with livable wages, making those capital investments, but increasing the tax base and then also putting more livable wage in our families’ pockets here,” Ferris said. “It all comes down to that and really raising our quality of life because we’ve got to have taxes, we’ve got to have all of these things to keep continuing to make our community better.”

Helping find federal funding sources for the ag park isn’t the only way the USDA can help bolster the Fort Dodge region.

On Tuesday, UnityPoint Health – Trinity Regional Medical Center received $122,371 in funding from the USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine program. The grant will equip one hub site and 10 end-user sites through Buena Vista, Calhoun, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Sac, Webster and Wright counties with telemedicine equipment.

That equipment will allow medical professionals at TRMC to provide nephrology, dermatology, pulmonology, women’s health, pediatrics and mental health care to 10 locations, which will benefit 16,800 individuals.

The USDA also awarded the city of Knierim a $22,000 grant from the Water and Waste Disposal Predevelopment Planning Grants to help create a water facility plan and promote water quality for residents of the rural Calhoun County community.

The Biden-Harris Administration is making it a priority to send more federal resources to rural communities, Greenfield said. To help, the USDA recently launched the website rural.gov.

“The goal is for local communities and small businesses across the country and right here in Iowa to go online and be able to see where there might be federal resources that they can apply for,” she said.