Allen has high hopes for city in fourth term

Heading into his fourth term of office, Newton Mayor Chaz Allen has high hopes for the city he serves.

With tough economic times, one of the highest unemployment rates in the state and still dealing with the departure of Maytag, Newton’s largest employer, Allen and the Newton City Council have a tough job ahead of them. But Allen said things are headed in the right direction for Newton, and Allen is ready to shout it from the rooftops.

“We have a great, well-trained workforce, great schools, and a quality of life not offered at many places,” he said.

The mayor said in order to continue to provide that quality of life the city’s administrative staff is working hard to maintain a budget and get back to the “core responsibilities” of managing a city.

“We will be collapsing into the core responsibilities of the city, such as maintaining roads, fire and rescue and public safety, snow removal and other services that a city must provide,” he said.

To do that, the city must be mindful of the budget and try to brace for the trickle down of Gov. Chet Culver’s 10 percent across-the-board cuts, which Allen said the city may feel in around two years.

“We are going to be critical of the budget, and I support that,” he said. “With the governor’s across the board cuts, we need to be proactive with the trickle down effects. We’ve been through some of the roughest times with Maytag and now the recession, our budget is in good shape but we are going to treat this budget year like we have the last several so as the economy recovers we recover.”

Allen also said the city needs to continue to promote economic development, especially jobs in the green industry.

“We need to continue to promote the former Maytag Plant 2 and help TPI and Trinity produce more parts for wind energy, not just the towers and the blades but other smaller parts or refurbishing towers,” he said.

There also is discussion of not just producing soy biodiesel at the plant north of the city but expand using the plant oils to produce other products.