Carol Hoogestraat reflects on her first year heading up economic development for the city of Hawarden, Iowa. | Wikmedia Commons
Carol Hoogestraat reflects on her first year heading up economic development for the city of Hawarden, Iowa. | Wikmedia Commons
Under the first year of a new economic development director, Hawarden has seen some positive changes.
Carol Hoogestraat provided the Hawarden City Council with a review of what she accomplished in 2022, her first year heading the economic development for the town.
“I would like to thank my coworkers. Their collaboration and knowledge has made this year a great experience for me,” she said, according to a YouTube video of the Dec. 14 council meeting. “Finding a way to make Hawarden grow and become a better place to shop, work, live and play was top of my list, and I found myself landing first with a need for more money to our businesses in the revolving loan fund, a new challenge for me in grant writing.”
She reported that in the last year, the city increased its funds by $124,000 and provided over $300,000 to local small businesses in loans that helped them purchase or expand their businesses. The city council is in the process of applying for other grants for a dog park, community center and for making use of abandoned buildings in the area as well.
Work in the first part of the year for Hoogestraat and the council was dictated mostly by a fire that hit the downtown area last winter.
“The need to save our buildings and to save our cafe was great,” Hoogestraat said at the meeting. “I applied for $100,000 Emergency Catalyst Grant to save the Central Parks building and provide the site work for the Central Cafe owners to get the site ready to rebuild.”
The city council enhanced fire district coding in the downtown area after the fire. The city is now more aware of all internal and external upgrades to the buildings and is requiring more regular inspections.
Alerts Sign-up