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Serving Local Governments In Benton, Iowa, Jones, Johnson, Linn And Washington Counties For Over 40 Years
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Calendar
June 22nd
Iowa County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan Open House
City Hall
461 Washington Street
Millersburg
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
June 25th
ECICOG Board of
Directors Meeting*
ECICOG Office
700 16th St NE
Cedar Rapids
1:30 p.m.
June 30th
Congressman Blum's Veteran's Expo and Job Fair
Veterans Memorial Hall
Cedar Rapids
1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
July 3rd
ECICOG Office Closed
in Observance of
Independence Day
July 22nd
ECICOG Office Closed in the Afternoon for Staff Training
Iowa Waste Exchange Booth Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers' Market
7:30 a.m. - Noon
*
The Policy Committee will meet as an item on the Board's agenda to discuss transportation items
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Upcoming Events ECICOG is Attending
June 22nd from
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
ECICOG's Alicia Presto will be hosting an
open house for the Iowa County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan at the City Hall in Millersburg. The goal of the open house is to educate the public about the plan.
June 30th at 1:00 p.m.
ECICOG's Robyn Jacobson will be attending
Congressman Blum's Veteran's Expo and Job Fair at Veteran's Memorial Hall in Cedar Rapids. Robyn will be providing information about our Business Assistance Revolving Loan Fund programs.
July 27th at 7:00 p.m.
ECICOG's Chad Sands will help host a
town meeting to discuss the 2015 City of Atkins Comprehensive Plan at Atkin's Elementary School Gymnasium. The goal of the meeting is to gather public input on the future growth and development of Atkins in order to update their comprehensive plan.
August 1st at 7:30 a.m.
ECICOG's Alicia Presto will be tabling at the
Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers' Market for the Iowa Waste Exchange (IWE). Visit her booth and learn about the services that the IWE can provide your business.
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Summer Reading Program
Every Hero Has a Story!
Come and learn
how Michael is a
Recycling Hero!
The 2015 ECICOG Summer Reading Program has already started! To see where Kristin will be providing the program visit her Facebook page at
http://tinyurl.com/o2rpkss
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ECICOG was established in 1973 to promote regional cooperation and provide professional planning services to local governments in Benton, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Linn and Washington Counties. ECICOG also provides solid waste planning services to Tama County and transportation planning services to Cedar County.
2015 Members of the ECICOG Board of Directors:
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Aaron
Granquist
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Jasmine
Almoayed
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Alan
Johnson
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John
Harris
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Amy
Nielsen
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Bob
Yoder
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Brent
Hinson
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Christopher
Taylor
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Darrin Gage (Chair)
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Dave
Fish
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Don
Gray
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Dusty
Embree
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Vicki Pope
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Ed
Raber
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ECICOG Staff
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Ext
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Doug Elliott
Executive Director
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122
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Gina Peters
Administrative Assistant
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120
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Tracey Achenbach
Housing Trust Funds
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139
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Mary Rump
Transportation & Regional
Development Director
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128
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Brock Grenis, AICP
Transit Administrator/Planner
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137
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Nicole Van Nelson
Public Information Specialist
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125
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Chad Sands, AICP
Housing & Community
Development Director
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127
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Gary Hughes
Grant Writer/Administrator
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129
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Melanie Riley
Community Development
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138
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Jacob Spratt
Housing Services
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124
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Jennifer Ryan Fencl
Solid Waste & Environmental
Services Director
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131
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Kristin Simon
Solid Waste Planning
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126
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Alicia Presto
Iowa Waste Exchange
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121
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Robyn Jacobson
Contracts Administrator
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134
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East Central Iowa
Council of Governments
700 Sixteenth Street NE, Suite 301
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
319-365-9941
Fax: 319-365-9981
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It is Ride Transit Week!
Ride Transit Week is this week, June 15th to 19th. The goal of Ride Transit Week is to inform the general public that public transportation is a vital strategic resource providing Iowans access to jobs, health care, education, businesses, recreation and other services every day.
East Central Iowa Transit, housed under ECICOG, has six transit providers in their regional system. The providers include Benton County Transportation, Iowa County Transportation, Johnson County Seats, Jones County Jets, Linn County Lifts, and Washington County Mini Bus. During this week, and for the rest of the month, we would like to thank them for their service.
If you haven't seen our stories about each of the transit providers, we have posted one in each newsletter over the past year. Go to www.ecicog.org/ecicog-express to view our past newsletters and to read about each of the six transit providers.
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Dump the Pump Day
On Thursday, June 18th the American Public Transportation Association and public transportation systems across the country will celebrate the 10th Annual National Dump the Pump Day.
With the continued fluctuation of gas prices, everyone is looking for a way to save money. National Dump the Pump Day encourages people to ride public transportation (instead of driving) and save money. So make sure to ride public transportation on Thursday!
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Indian Creek Watershed
Open Houses
The Indian Creek Watershed Management Authority (ICWMA) recently hosted two open house events on June 2nd and 3rd at Lowe Park in Marion to gather public input for the Indian Creek Watershed Management Plan.
More than 70 people attended the events, where the ICWMA gathered valuable input that will be incorporated into the plan. Display boards and maps highlighted key parts of the plan, and Members of the ICWMA Board and watershed experts were on hand to answer questions.
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2015 CDBG Awards
Our last newsletter went out just before CDBG awards were announced, so just in case you missed the announcement on our Facebook page or at our Board Meeting, below are all the applications ECICOG assisted with that received awards.
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City
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Type
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Amount
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| Lisbon |
Housing |
$224,574 |
| Oxford Junction |
Housing |
$232,494 |
| Belle Plaine |
Water/Sewer |
$600,000 |
| Marengo |
Water/Sewer |
$600,000 |
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Total
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$1,657,068
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CDBG Fall Application Assistance
The next set of awards and applications are coming up, so if you are interested in having ECICOG assist with a CDBG application for the fall, get started today and contact us at 319-365-9941. Ask for Melanie for housing rehabilitation projects and Gary for all other application assistance.
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ECICOG Executive Director Events
In May ECICOG Executive Director Doug Elliott presented at the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) "Making Resilience the New Normal" Convening in Washington, DC. The event brought federal, regional, and local leaders together for a discussion about how they can work together to achieve better resilience outcomes. For more information on the event visit
http://tinyurl.com/pmnvgy8
Doug also attended EntreFEST 2015 in May, where he was able to meet with officials (including
Ron Corbett the
Mayor of Cedar Rapids and
Matt Erskine the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, both pictured below) and to get an update on the region's recovery from the disasters of 2008. He also toured the Cedar Rapids Convention Center, which was constructed with the assistance of a $30 million grant from EDA. For more information on EntreFEST visit
www.entrefest.com
In June Doug attended the second of the two ICWMA Open House events. For more information on the ICWMA Open House events, read our
Indian Creek Watershed Open Houses article in this newsletter.
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ECICOG RLF Has Funding Available
ECICOG's Business Assistance Revolving
Loan Fund (RLF)
has over $2 million
that has revolved back around and is available as loans to foster new and existing business growth and development in ECICOG's region.
The loan funds are used in conjunction with local lenders to serve as gap financing for proposals, where the lender serves as the primary source of funding. As the loans are repaid, the fund revolves back out to other candidates for the program.
The RLF has provided over $4.6 million in loans to 31 businesses in ECICOG's six county region, including Benton, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Linn and Washington. These loans have leveraged an additional $27 million in matching loans and have helped to support jobs and economic growth.
For more information about the RLF visit www.ecicog.org/ecicog-rlf
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