Perry had some long distance visitors last week that were learning about how various City entities work with the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Office.

A group of around 10 people from Kazakhstan spent a week in Iowa, including a day in Perry Thursday.  They were led around town by ISU Extension Community Development Specialist Jon Wolseth, before spending the afternoon with City Administrator Butch Niebuhr and Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bob Wilson.

“We had the opportunity to talk to them about community development and how we pair with Extension on multiple levels.  We’ve had great success working with Iowa State on the design side, as well as the extension side.  Jon Wolseth has helped us with community outreach to the Latino entrepreneurs, as well as a lot of language and cultural understanding that we might have been missing.  So it was fun to talk to these ladies and gentlemen” says Wilson.

Wilson says the visitors are starting up their own extension office back home and they were able to talk to them about how Perry markets itself and works with other entities to draw people to town.  Overall, he says the visitors seemed to really enjoy their time in Perry and seeing how things work.