With Iowa’s decreasing population, Greene County is gearing up to make those numbers climb in the future.

The Jefferson City Council chambers were full of concerned citizens of Greene County about how to increase the population of the county at the Strategic Task Force meeting last night in what Chamber Executive Director Ken Paxton calls the most important meeting the county has had in a couple of years.

According to a 2010 US Census report, 90% of Iowa counties suffered population declines and Greene County specifically has lost 6% population from 2000-2010.  Paxton believes that with the Task Force in place and gathering ideas from the community, population in Greene County will stop decreasing and start climbing again.  Paxton states there are four areas to make a community successful, all of which Greene County has:  a successful hospital, excellent school system, a functioning courthouse and high speed communications.

Discussions last night included resources that Greene County has to attract people.  Paxton points out that all manufacturing jobs in the county have positions available, but are struggling to fill them.  One way to combat that is to educate high school students about the growing need of vocational and technical careers locally to give those students a chance at a career that may be not college-bound.  Other resources include lower housing and property taxes and tourism attractions like the Raccoon River Valley Trail and the Bell Tower.

Paxton comments that the Task Force is working to fulfill needs for the county to help increase its population.  He says that some of the goals is to have a motel with adequate conference space for business meetings and company functions while trying to implement a business class restaurant to attract people from surrounding counties to come to Greene County.  He says last night’s meeting is a small stepping stone in the right direction.

“I think it was an excellent chance to get some key shareholders in the community to open up the idea, get them informed, get some information among them.  Let them start thinking about it and get prepared for a second presentation.”

Paxton stresses that this will be a long-term goal (10-15 years) for the county to increase its population, but something must be started to achieve those goals.