Business View Magazine | May 2019

227 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MAY 2019 attained certification, which means we have a 150-acre site that’s rip-roaring ready to go for larger industry. It’s probably been 35 or 40 years since we’ve had a great piece of land in position to recruit industry on a national or even international level.” The State strongly promotes those certified sites; there are about 24 in Iowa now. They are very attractive to site selectors, as well as CEOs and business development teams who go out and search for the next location for major industry. It promises to be a gamechanger for the county. Boone County has an agriculture-based economy and is proud to be the home of Fareway Grocery Stores – one of the largest privately-held grocery chains in the country with about 120 stores across five states. The company started in Boone and currently employs about 600 people, locally. Boone County is also a hub node for the Union Pacific Railroad, which has several hundred area employees on the payroll. Three to four thousand commuters who live in Boone County travel 15 minutes to Ames, where Iowa State University and the headquarters for the Iowa Department of Transportation are located. And some travel 30 to 40 minutes south to Des Moines. Phillips reports, “We see a lot of out- commuting here, as well as people coming in for the jobs in Boone County. We’re in a unique location, but I feel we’re on the uptick for growth and development of the county, as a whole.” The Boone County Chamber of Commerce, which also houses the Tourism Bureau, deals more with small business owners – assisting them, advocating for them, providing services and benefits to help them along, whereas, the economic development organization is more concerned with jobs creation and tax base initiatives - looking at the big picture and overall development of the whole county and its communities. It thinks larger, but certainly helps small businesses, as well. Being a dual-role executive over both organizations, even though they are separate entities with separate boards, Phillips has the ability to change hats and, along with his staff, help people in a variety of ways. He notes, “We have a lot of work to do in workforce development. And each of the communities of size in our county is working on housing initiatives. We’re close to the Des Moines market and, because of today’s societal acceptance of driving a little way to your job, there are over 400,000 people in our labor shed to pull from. But unemployment being as low as it is in Iowa, hovering around two percent, most people are already employed. So, we’re challenged with workforce development and if we’re going to recruit people to come here, we have to make sure we have adequate housing. In that regard, we’re very supportive of each community’s local government in their efforts to facilitate new housing or rehabilitation.” To help with the workforce issue, Boone High School offers a work-based learning program that is career and technical education oriented. Both the Chamber and Economic Development organizations are involved with that. Describing the details, Phillips relates, “It is based on the premise that there are only two ways to grow your work force. You either birth them, raise BOONE COUNTY , IOWA As community members, hundreds of employees and their families have been positively transformed by the economic impact, of which CDS Global is a proud partner. CDS Global has been an integral part of Boone for over 30 years. cds-global.com