Jefferson Matters recently submitted its third quarter report to Main Street Iowa and one of the major highlights was the total amount of economic development that took place.

Jefferson Matters Executive Director Matt Wetrich says their report included completed building projects, and for the third quarter, there were 11 projects that were done that included close to $2.4 million of investments that were made.

“That’s mostly private investments, you got some grant money coming in, you’ve got some state and city grant programming. So you’ve got to get kind of stacking fund, and that’s what it takes to do these projects. It’s the support from these little things that lead to bigger things, and honestly most of these projects wouldn’t happen without those partnerships, and that’s what it takes.”     

Wetrich points out that their organization loves being a catalyst as being a Main Street program to help bring other funding opportunities to Greene County as a whole. He reveals that these improvements start with the business and/or building owner.

“It’s people taking a lot of pride in their property in the downtown area we’ll say, it’s not just the square, but we see it all across the community as well, we just report on what is the Main Street District. Really neat to see that ownership, and that pride, that reinvestment in the community, and that’s what we talk a lot about is that investment in the community.”  

Wetrich adds some of the completed projects include the Sierra Community Theatre, as well as the new locations for Bolton and Menk and Journey Financial, among other projects.