While Joe Jennison may be stepping down as director of Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group, the City of Mount Vernon will be keeping him on as a grant writer for the next few years.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said the job would allow for two days a week of employment, with Jennison working at the city, and cost roughly $12,000 per year.
“We have a number of projects that could use grants underway,” Nosbisch said.
Based on Jennison’s track record as a grant writer for MVLCDG, that investment is good for the community of Mount Vernon.
Council member Stephanie West said she was happy to see this as a possibility for the city.
Council member Paul Tuerler concurred, noting in his 20 years in elected city government, the amount of grant money the city of Mount Vernon has received has only increased because of Jennison’s work with CDG.
“This is an ideal situation that we would be foolish not to take advantage of,” Tuerler said.
Mayor Tom Wieseler also said while it is a loss to the community that Jennison will be stepping down as one of the communities strongest cheerleaders, having this option open only continues to benefit Mount Vernon.
Jennison spoke about his success as a grant writer and guidance person for Mount Vernon during the public comment section of the meeting.
The Open 4 Business Grant Program offered by Iowa Economic Development Authority has been running for a decade now, and only one community has had an applicant every year since that grant program has been running.
“If we have Little Scratch Coffee’s application win this year, we will have won that award for eight of the 10 years the grant has been open,” Jennison said.
Along with Open 4 Business grants, Mount Vernon has also done well in the challenge grant programs offered by IEDA, collecting more than $313,000 in matching grants from that program, meaning more than $626,000 has been invested locally through those matching programs.