March 18, 2024

Jasper County Vets Affairs commission hears Home Base Iowa update

Contract signed for May retreat to be held south of Newton

Several items were discussed at Wednesday’s Jasper County Veterans Affairs Commission meeting, including progress toward a designation that has been pursued for almost a year.

Jasper County has been inching toward earning a Home Base Iowa designation designed to attract recently discharged veterans to a community. At Wednesday’s meeting, county Veterans Affairs Director Chris Chartier brought the five commissioners up to speed on the progress in putting together a detailed, unique economic incentive package designed to draw veterans into Jasper County on both the residence and employment fronts.

Chartier said the backing of local business leaders is the main next step in earning the designation from a state agency. He must get at least 10 percent of county businesses to commit to hiring veterans.

“We’re still waiting on signatures from several area businesses,” Chartier said. “Trinity (Structural Towers) just signed on, which is a huge asset for us. Once we get TPI (Composites) Inc., that will be enough to move forward, that company being so big. There is verbiage to work on in a few places, but (roadside) signs have already been paid for and have arrived, and are being stored locally.”

Since former Home Base Iowa Director Kathy Anderson came to Newton to describe the designation last April, 18 Iowa communities have earned the HBI distinction. A city can put together an incentive package and qualify on its own, but Jasper’s efforts so far have all been to earn the designation as a county.

“The good thing about the program is it’s not just a state platform that can just whittled away sometime,” Chartier said. “It’s an ever-growing competition between communities who can change and modify incentives beyond the program.”

Funded partly by the 2014 Home Base Iowa Act (SF 2352), the partnership offers home-purchasing, employment-placement and educational opportunities and aid that is designed to get former military to move to certain communities.

In other business at Wednesday’s meeting, commission chair John Billingsley signed a contract with the Military Resilience Project. The New York City nonprofit will send personnel out to Iowa on a May weekend for a special retreat at the Christian Conference Center, located south of Newton, and will select about 15 Jasper County veterans to participate.

Chartier led a discussion about how the retreat will be funded. Veterans who are chosen for the retreat will not be charged.

Chartier announced plans to travel to a homeless veterans facility in Bremer County to see what it’s like before sending Jasper County veterans to the facility. There was also discussion about training newly hired part-time Veterans Affairs employee Charlotte Ross and how she and volunteer Kurt Jackson will help cover office duties.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com