More than 40 Drake University students made the trip to Perry Monday to move forward with their pilot program with the City and Iowa Economic Development Authority.

They were shown around town by City Administrator Butch Niebuhr, Assistant City Administrator Sven Peterson and Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bob Wilson.

Niebuhr says it’s interesting to get that level of expertise, from fourth and fifth year students in the business college at Drake.

“They’re doing three things in our downtown, one is way finding off the trail and how do we get people into the downtown, and where do we get them where they need to go.  The other thing (is) empty buildings downtown.  We hooked them up with five empty buildings, and then the empty lot that we have in the downtown on Willis (Avenue).  The third thing they’re going to be working on is creating an art district in the downtown.  So they got a good introduction to our downtown and I think the students were impressed.”

Though still in the beginning stages, Niebuhr says the project is going well thus far.

“I think we’re going to get a good end result for this to show to our business owners and property owners downtown, and hopefully that’s going to get them engaged.”

Niebuhr says the program with Drake will continue for the next two years so they’re anxious to see what the various classes of students come up with.