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Employers and organizations in the City of Washington came together to welcome Iowa Economic Development Authority Director Debi Durham Tuesday.

The Washington Economic Development Group organized the visit with Durham, which included tours of Brava Roof Tile, Bazooka Farmstar, and Engineered Building Design. Lunch was provided at the new YMCA building as Tracey Achenbach of the East Central Iowa Housing Trust Fund gave a presentation on housing projects in the area and YMCA of Washington County CEO Amy Schulte presented on fundraising for their phase two indoor aquatic center.

WEDG Board Past President Amanda Russell says this event was held to show Durham and her staff how state grant dollars have been used in the community, and connect local business leaders with any resources they may seek at a state level, “We also wanted to showcase what Iowa Economic Development is doing for the grants. So I know Brava mentioned it with the Manufacturing 4.0 [program], same with Bazooka Farmstar, and also with the High Quality Jobs [grant] that Bazooka was granted.”

Durham tells KCII it was great to see new aspects of Washington, and she was impressed by how many community members took part in the tour, “I don’t think we’ve ever done tours where you have all these many people, you know usually it’s just a handful of people so it’s been great to see the community support. Shows me there’s a lot of pride here, there’s a vision for how to move forward. You have great collaboration between your private and public partnerships.”

Durham mentioned a bus stop shelter she saw that Engineered Building Design is constructing for the Parkside Estates mobile home park as an example of that business and community collaboration.