Washington County Health Care sector makes $51 Million economic impact

Washington County has 1,149 health care workers according to a recent economic impact study done by the Iowa Hospital Association.  This is a 10% increase from 2011, and represents over 15% of all non-farm jobs in the County.

Employment and income (sum of payroll and benefits expense) are the important direct economic activities created from the five components of the health sector. There are a lot of people employed by the health care sector in Washington County:

• 249  Hospital
• 240  Physicians, Dentists & other Health Practicioners
• 534  Nursing & Residential Care
•   64  Pharmacies
•   62  Other Medical & Health Services
  
  • 44  Ambulatory Services
  • 18  Home Health Care Services

The IHA study also estimates that the annual economic impact based on these employees payroll and benefits is $51 Million, compared to $48 Million in 2010. And the retail sales generated by these workers is over $9.9 Million.

No matter how you look at it, the health care sector is a vital, stable, and important part of Washington County's growing economy.

Washington County, Iowa 2012 Economic Impact of the Health Sector

Washington Comprehensive Plan Open House & Input Meeting - Thursday evening

The City of Washington will hold a community meeting to discuss the comprehensive plan update on Thursday, February 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the Washington Public Library (115 W Washington St). The event will start with an open house at 5:30, with a presentation and Q&A session from 6 - 7 p.m. The public is encouraged to attend and participate!

Online information about the Citys planning process is available at http://www.rdgusa.com/crp/washington

The comprehensive plan will provide a vision and guide for the next 20 years of growth and change in Washington.  The plan will cover transportation, economic development, housing, land use, parks, natural resources, and more.  The City of Washington and project consultants from RDG Planning and Design will present preliminary concepts that show what Washington's land use and transportation network could look like in 2032.  The public will be invited to refine the work completed to date and provide guidance on the goals of the plan.  Your feedback is essential!

The comprehensive plan update began in October 2011 and is scheduled to be completed in June of 2012.  A 25-member committee of Washington residents is directing the efforts of Washington city staff and project consultants RDG Planning and Design.

There are several other comprehensive plans in Washington County that have been completed recently, including Washington County (assisted by ECICOG) and the City of Kalona (assisted by RDG).

Main Street Washington receives $50,000 HUD Challenge Grant

On Saturday afternoon, Main Street Washington received a $50,000 HUD Main Street Challenge Grant from Governor Terry Bransted and Main Street Iowa to start rennovations to the Triune Building at 210-212 South Marion Ave. in downtown Washington, Iowa.

The Triune Building is owned by Sandy Johnson, who plans to rennovate the building. Ms. Johnson is also the Mayor of Washington and a recent retiree hoping to work on a challenging project, which this certainly is.

Triune Building, 210-212 S. Marion Ave., Washington IA

Gov. Terry Bransted, Sen. Tom Harkin, Mayor Sandy Johnson, Amy Vetter, Marge Kline, Don Kline, Craig Swift, Terry Philips

According to Main Street Iowa, 

The Challenge Grant program is funded through an appropriation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  Since the first appropriation in 2002, this program has awarded a total of $4.9 million and has leveraged approximately $36.9 million in local investments.

Since Congress has stopped doing special appropriations, this is likely the last HUD Main Street Challenge Grant for the foreseeable future. Senator Tom Harkin has been instrumental in securing these appropriations since 2002.

In its 3-year history, Main Street Washington has received one other HUD Main Street Challenge Grant, which was $50,000 to do facade and building improvements to the BodyWrx Fitness Center on the East side of the Washington town square.

BodyWrx - beforeBodyWrx - after

There were a total of 9 HUD Main Street Challenge Grants awarded for $430,000.  Other projects awarded in The Corridor include:

• Czech Village/New Bohemia (Cedar Rapids) - $50,000 for restoration of buildings at 1113 & 1117 3rd St. SE.
• Main Street West Branch - $30,000 for restoration of a building at 109 W. Main St.

Washington Public Library celebrates LEED Certification for new facility on Feb. 6th

The Washington Free Public Library will celebrate earning LEED Certification for its new facility on the south side of the Washington town square. The event will be Monday, February 6th from 5:30-6:00pm in the upstairs Nicola-Stoufer & Washington State Bank meeting rooms. The meeting is hosted by Librarian Debbie Stanton.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design."

The new facility opened in October, 2009 and is a tremendous cultural anchor for the community and the downtown. The Library moved 2 blocks from where it had been located for over 100 years. The Washington Library Foundation and Library Board started planning for a new facility in 2005 after receiving a significant estate donation from David Elder.

The facility was designed by OPN Architects of Cedar Rapids, and the concept was developed through a public planning, charette process that they facilitated.

The $6 million facility was funded by many local donations, a $1.2M city bond, a $1M grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, and a Vision Iowa/Community Attractions and Tourism grant.

Photo by Jeff Batterson

The Washington Library is one of two LEED Certified buildings in Washington County, Iowa. The other one is the Wellman Parkside Activites Center, which opened in January, 2010.

Washington County unemployment rate jumps to 4.9% as labor force contracts

Washington County's unemployment rate jumped by 0.6% to 4.9% in December, 2011. More importantly, the County's number of unemployed grew from about 500 to about 600. This happened in conjunction with the labor force shrinking slightly and the number of employed persons falling slightly. In December 2010, unemployment was 5.0%.

The labor force and employment numbers in metro Linn and Johnson Counties experienced similar trends. Several neighboring Counties, like Keokuk and Louisa, experienced increasing Labor Force and employment numbers, but also increasing numbers of unemployed as jobs did not keep up with the growth in the labor force.

Of the estimated 600 unemployed persons, 206 were drawing Unemployment Insurance benefits (up from 155 in November). Only about 1/3 of unemployed persons are receiving Unemployment benefits. For 15 of those receiving Unemployment benefits, their last payment occurred in December, while 62 received their first Unemployment benefit payment (down from 40 in November).

Unlike most counties in Eastern Iowa, the Statewide number of unemployed persons fell in December, and the unemployment rate trended downward as well, in contract to Eastern Iowa. Iowa followed the national trend of higher employment, and lower unemployment.

The State of Iowa's unemployment rate fell to 5.6% in December. Looking further, the number of unemployed persons in Iowa decreased by 1,200, while the number of employed persons increased by 3,500 as the State's labor force grew to 1,659k.  The national unemployment rate dropped slightly to 8.5% in December.

The State and County data is from the Labor Market and Economic Research Bureau of the Iowa Workforce Development.