Local politics is local politics. The battles are often uncomfortable as they occur
between friends, neighbors and relatives.
As economic developers, one of our biggest challenges is maintaining positive relationships with everyone in elected or non-elected office,
and live to fight another day regardless of outcome. Such is the life of the economic developer,
but it pales in comparison to life in the fishbowl for an elected Mayor.
The Indianola Record-Herald provided a terrific summary this
week of the last four years of Mayor Ken Bresnan’s tenure. Noted were some of Indianola’s greatest economic
development achievements, namely Theisen's, Vintage Hills, Mercy Urgent Care,
second Mercy building, new Unity Point Clinic, a new dentist office, two
savings and loans, a new auto parts store, Monterrey restaurant, and BlakeFieldhouse. Also mentioned were the YMCA
vote which passed by 77 percent subsequently completed with over 5,000 members,
the Blank Performing Arts Center remodel, and the Kent Student Center. The Mayor counted at least 124 new full-time
and 182 part-time jobs from the noted projects, significant in a county which
had no net private sector job growth between the years 2004 and 2010, according
to Iowa Workforce Development.
Even with all that said, Mayor Bresnan is selling himself a bit short on
local economic achievements. HarvestInnovations has quadrupled the size of their employment base in Indianola since
new ownership took over in 2009, opening a new distribution facility in the
former Winfield Solutions building and expanding production. Cemen Tech has positioned themselves as a
contract manufacturer of choice of new product lines, including recent products
for Vermeer and startup company Energy Independence Partners (EIP). The latter involved a ribbon-cutting by
Governor Terry Branstad, at which the Mayor presided. The EIP wastewater product, WetWorks, started
in Germany with a company called ItN Nanovation and involves the financing of
Rusnano, who were welcomed to Indianola last year by Mayor Ken Bresnan.
Mayor Bresnan saw the big picture about how Indianola fits
regionally within Warren County and the Des Moines Metropolitan Region, and
worked to position the community within the many alliances thereof. Ken advocated for important infrastructure
and transportation priorities – including with the IDOT and Iowa’s
Congressional Delegation, which led to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of
dollars in new investment for projects such as Highway 65/69, Highway 92,
trails, etc. Mayor Bresnan also made the rejuvenation of Indianola's Square a priority, with many building owners receiving financial awards to improve their façade's through the City's downtown program, leaving the Square in a much better condition today than four years prior.
Looking back upon Mayor Bresnan’s tenure, I am grateful that
Ken was someone I could also touch base with anytime I wanted a
straight-forward opinion. The Mayor
would never hesitate to call me at my office at 7:00 AM knowing I was there,
and invited me to have a cup of coffee at Uncommon Grounds, his favorite
morning hang-out spot where he met people before driving to work for his “day
job” with the Archdiocese of Des Moines.
The Mayor also not only supported and encouraged me, but also had a
great appreciation for my staff, which was always nice for boosting morale.
Mayors come and go and legacies are forgotten in time, but
we should all be thankful for citizens who are willing to step forward and lead
us to higher ground. Indianola has
reached higher ground over the last four years.
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