A Greene County representative will have the distinct honor of introducing Governor Terry Branstad at his inauguration tomorrow.

Economic Development Director Ken Paxton says the Governor called him and asked if he would attend the event on Friday and introduce him.  Paxton says the reason why is because of Greene County’s leadership in being the first county as a Home Base Iowa community.  It was the governor’s initiative last year to bring military veterans to the state for jobs.

He describes part of his speech that he’ll deliver tomorrow about Greene County’s interest in the governor’s program.

“The fact that Greene County has a significant number of jobs coming and because we had all those jobs coming we were desperate to try and find locations for new employees, what were we going to do find new employees.  Sid Jones (president of Home State Bank) saw that the governor was beginning development of this Home Base Iowa initiative and so we went down and started meeting with him because of our need.”

It is estimated that the county will have about 1,000 jobs to fill within the next couple of years.

Since being named the first Home Base Iowa community, Paxton points out that he’s worked with over 40 other counties who will be utilizing some of their ideas for incentives to drive in veterans for jobs.

Paxton says he’s very humbled and honored to speak at the governor’s inauguration and Branstad begins another term and be will officially the longest serving governor in American history.