Charles City community offered updates with Coffee & Conversation

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Charles City community leaders shared updates on their activities during the Chamber of Commerce’s Coffee & Conversation event on Thursday, Jan. 16.

Hosted by Soifer Family McDonald’s, representatives from area businesses, public entities, and volunteer groups came together to enjoy coffee and cookies as they went around the room to talk about their respective developments.

The conversation started with McDonald’s Area Supervisor Scott Ames, who had exciting news about the fast food restaurant’s upcoming offerings.

“We’re going to be getting back into the chicken strip business,” said Ames, explaining that chicken strips, and eventually snack wraps, could soon be returning to the McDonald’s menu.

In another dining announcement, Floyd County Medical Center CEO Dawnett Willis spoke about the upcoming FCMC 60th Anniversary Gala coming up on Friday, Feb. 21.

“It’s about honoring and remembering our 60 years of service,” said Willis. “We hope that you can come and celebrate with us.”

Featuring a catered dinner, bingo, and auction items, the black-tie event will serve as a fundraiser to support future service expansion projects at the hospital and clinic.

As for the current expansion, Willis said that construction is running on schedule with steel support columns now in place and concrete for the first floor coming soon.

In addition, Willis announced several recent hires to the hospital that will be starting this year, including nurse practitioners Joelle Zeien, Jodi Bangasser, and Brenda Cooper; obstetrics and family physician Dr. Suzie Greenman, and orthopedic surgeon Jeff Clark.

“There’s so many great things happening,” said Willis.

Continuing around the room, Marcie Andrews from the Floyd County Community Foundation noted that the foundation had its awards ceremony Wednesday night, distributing more than $150,000 to organizations in the county.

“We’re really happy to be able to give out this money,” said Andrews.

In city business, Mayor Dean Andrews talked about the upcoming renovations of City Hall, which includes a change of address for the building when they move back in next year.

“It’ll be nice to have an address where the GPS will actually take you there,” said Mayor Andrews.

Andrews also updated the crowd on upcoming housing developments in the community, such as the Commonwealth multi-uniting housing project planned to get started this spring and the in-progress development of the North Grand building, which recently started work again after receiving state tax credits.

Tim Fox of Charles City Area Economic Development Corporation also highlighted ongoing housing efforts to bolster the workforce in Charles City.

Floyd County Mobile Food Pantry organizer Jen Burton introduced several members of the Northeast Iowa Food Bank, who thanked the community and its volunteers who have contributed to the development of the program. The Mobile Food Pantry has been serving more than 300 households per month, demonstrating the need to combat food insecurity in the county.

From the Charles City Community School District, new Superintendent Brian Burnight introduced himself to the community and highlighted recent achievements celebrated in the district, such as the middle school robotics team’s success at the regional qualifier and the high school girl’s wrestling program producing several ranked wrestlers.

Finally, Community Development Director Mark Wicks wrapped up the informal chat with updates on Chamber activities, including the success of this year’s Santa Sleigh Ride, community bingo, and next month’s Chili Cook-Off coming up on Feb. 28.

With a big variety of organizations represented, Wicks said he was glad to see the strong participation in the early morning community event.

“Any time we have people talking I’m happy,” said Wicks. “We had a lot of great information.”