Email: "Tama County - An Iowa Great Place"
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TAMA NEWS-HERALD - “It’s an important process to places large and small and it’s the best return on an investment they can make,” Cyndi Pederson, the director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, told the inaugural banquet which recognized the 2009 selections as Iowa Great Places.

Tama County joined an elite group of five other finalists who achieved the status this year.

Representatives from many of the cities in the county, the Meskwaki Settlement and Tama County Economic Development were on hand for the formal recognition at the State Historical Building in Des Moines on Friday night.

Stressing a “unified effort,” Francis Boggus, the coordinator for the Great Places state initiative, stressed the cooperation in the efforts by the six areas selected.

A joint effort which includes efforts to build a History-Cultural Center on the Meskwaki Settlement, a $1.2 million restoration of Toledo’s historic Wieting Theatre, expansion and improvements at county-owned Otter Creek Lake and Park northeast of Toledo and completion of the Shaker Museum in Traer and the Agricultural Museum in Dysart were combined in the application.

These projects now become eligible to apply for special grant funding as the result of the success of the application. A Citizen Advisory Board narrows the field of applicants and makes the recommendation each year for those earning the designation.

Established in 2005, there were 20 Iowa Great Places previously chosen.

In addition to Tama County, the Greater Cedar Valley alliance (Cedar Falls-Evansdale-Waterloo), Iowa City-Coralville-North Liberty, Marion, Turkey River Corridor (Clermont-Elgin-Elkader) and the Villages of Van Buren County all shared in the Great Places honor.

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