Michelle Kelley Eldora City Clerk Housing Grant

News Talk 1540 KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk.

We're joined now by the Iowa Secretary of State, the Honorable Paul Pate.

He joins us from his office in Des Moines, the state capital complex via Zoom.

It's a conversation we recorded yesterday afternoon, so you could hear it now.

Mr. Secretary, thank you for the time.

It's great to be here.

I'm excited, you know, it's official.

The voting has started.

the 20-day window prior to the general election opened yesterday, Wednesday, as folks are hearing this.

What does that mean?

What are some of the deadlock can people now do that they couldn't earlier in the week?

Well, for the folks who already requested an absentee ballot by mail, the auditors mailed them out today.

So don't dash through your mailbox looking for it.

It might take a day or so to get there.

And for the folks who want to vote early in person, they can go down to the auditor's office and do that.

And in many communities around the state, they have satellite voting as well.

So you can go to those locations and vote if that's the option you want to pursue.

not forget we still have traditional voting on November 3rd that you can go to so that's that's really where it's at but I want to underscore my priority is making sure we all have a good solid plan to be successful for voting and it starts with making sure you know is my voter registration current have I moved

Maybe I haven't ever registered, so it's time to get that done.

And you can go to our website, the voterready.iowa.gov, and it will have all the information at your fingertips.

So you can call your county auditor, but check those things out because polling sites change too sometimes.

So, you know, if you're looking at voting on it in person, I want to make sure you don't drive the three different locations being frustrated.

This is a best way to get it done.

And if you're going to vote early,

in person, just make sure you bring your ID with you because we're not doing a testers anymore.

So you can't have your spouse with you or a friend who says, yes, that's Paul Pate.

You will need your ID and just.

Don't get too worked up over this, but if by chance you forget your ID, they'll have you vote provisional, which means that you can either come back and show them your ID later and that'll allow your ballot to be official.

So we don't want to stop people from being successful when voting, but we want to make sure it's who you are, who you say you are.

I'm one of those who marches up.

to City Hall on election day, perhaps election evening.

And I believe in that day of voting, but it also can be a problem for someone.

And so you have all of these, you can still have the same experience.

In other words, show up in person, go through the whole process.

You can just do it on a time that might be more convenient for your schedule, but not months ahead of time.

You've got a tight window.

Yeah, it's reasonable.

I think we've come a long ways in making voting accessible because there are things that are going on.

This example, our farmers, you know, the weather is trying to turn around.

It's nicer.

Well, where are they going to be?

They're going to be in the fields trying to get those crops in.

So if they want to vote by mail, there you go.

The ballot gets mailed to them.

At the end of the evening, when they're finishing their field work, they can do their balloting and get it mailed in.

And that helps them.

Some people are traveling, and they maybe will be out of state or out of the area on November 3rd.

So they want to ensure their vote gets counted.

So there's some variables there.

And Iowans, they get it, Jeff.

I mean, they really do.

We have one of the better voter records.

in the country when it comes to participation.

And I'm proud of them for that.

And we've worked hard to give them the integrity side so that they can count on their balloting being totally on the up and up.

And that way they want to be part of the process of having their voice heard.

You mentioned earlier, Mr. Secretary, voter ID, because again, you cannot vote in person without some form of ID.

For many of us, we just pull out our Iowa driver's licenses, but that's not the only way you can show proof of who you are.

There are a variety of ways.

There's a whole list there if people don't have one.

Over 90% of Iowans have a driver's license or a state ID.

So that's predominantly the one most people will use.

But there are some other ones we'll accept.

What we're looking for is you have to prove you are who you say you are.

You have to prove what address you live at.

So they're looking for some kind of a government ID that will do that for you or some kind of other formal mailing that you got, like a bank statement that shows my address of where I'm living at.

because sometimes your driver's license aren't even current.

You may have moved, but it does tell you you are Paul Pate, but you may have a new over home address.

So you might have to.

submit your driver's license and also a bank statement or something like that saying, well, I moved.

Here's where I'm at now.

So we're pretty flexible on that.

But again, between voter ID and paper ballots and your friends and neighbors working the polls, you've got a lot of safety checks, if you will, toward the integrity, not to mention the post-election audits.

Iowans, we've got it locked down for you and now it's just up to you to make sure you get out there and make sure your voice gets heard.

Paul Pate is the Secretary of State.

That means he's also the Commissioner of Elections for the State of Iowa.

VoterReady.Iowa.gov is the website for all election-related information.

SOS.Iowa.gov for the Secretary's broader website, which includes business filing information.

He joins us on News Talk 1540KXEL.

And with regard to registering to vote, you can obviously do it

in advance of an election, but we also have same-day registration.

There are certain deadlines that are important on that.

Are there not to help make things run smoothly when you show up?

Sure.

And we're getting pretty close to any registration you do now on your cell phone, because that's an option through the internet.

We probably still are going to need to verify who you are when you come in to vote.

So that's one minor.

but we'd have same-day voter registration, so people can do that.

And I do want to underscore that if you want to vote by mail, the last day to request a ballot be mailed to you is October 19th.

And we have a real nice feature that you can track right on my website.

When you request an absentee ballot, if you go on there on my website, it will let you know when the auditor received your request.

It will let you know when the auditor received your request.

or mailed you a ballot and it will let you know when your ballot got returned.

That way you'll know you were successful in voting and if you see it didn't get back to the auditor then it gives you a chance to call the auditor try to sort it out maybe you have to come down and vote in person but at least you know what you're doing and

We've got a good mail service, but the folks mail doesn't deliver overnight.

So don't plan on dropping it in the mailbox the day before the election and think it's going to get turned in in time.

It has to be in the physical possession of the county auditor by eight o'clock on November 3rd at 8 p.m.

It's got to be in their possession.

So let's make sure you allow plenty of time for it to get mailed in.

And again, that deadline for requesting.

the mail ballot is this coming Monday, October the 19th, because again, they do a great job.

But again, it's not overnight.

And we don't have the problem in Iowa that they do in some states where, well, we're not sure how long it's going to take the mail to deliver from all corners.

The rule in Iowa is about as clear as you could get if it's not in the hand of the auditor and the county auditors handle elections, 99 different counties.

the Secretary of State is the Commissioner of Elections, but it's the county auditor that handles things day to day and at the polling places.

That said, when they start counting my in-person day of vote, all of them have to be there.

You don't have to worry about integrity or somebody finding ballots.

We don't do that around here.

Now, we were pretty firm about election days November 3rd.

Now, we give you a little earlier run at it, but it's wraps up on the 3rd.

So I'm curious about voter registration in the state.

And we have, and your office prepares a nice report right on the first business day of every month, publicly available on the website, how many people are registered, how many are active, what their partisan affiliation is,

et

cetera.

We have seen Iowans take this kind of stuff seriously, right?

I mean, there are a lot of folks registered.

Many of them, I'll tell you, are nonpartisan as opposed to affiliated with an R or a D, and that's shifted over time.

But we've got an awful lot of Iowans who have taken your advice seriously and have registered to make their plan.

They certainly have, when you start looking at the polls, excuse me, with the voter registrations, since COVID particularly, they've stepped up aggressively.

We're looking at about 621,000 Democrats, 791,000 Republicans, and then there's about another 750,000 no parties.

So that's a lot of folks stepping in to want to have their voice heard.

The true test is how many are you going to come out and vote?

And with all the offices we have on the ballot this year, an open governor's race, an open U.S.

Senate race, we have some legislative and congressional spots around the state.

There's a little something for everybody.

So I think we should have a pretty respectable voter turnout.

And I think it's important, you know, let the folks know how you feel and get your voice heard by casting your ballot.

What concerns do you, as the one in charge, the person everyone looks to on election night, what concerns do you have about the election?

Because you've got to have ballots delivered.

You've got to have people transport these things from the polling place to the county courthouse.

And as I recall, law enforcement does that, correct?

But then you've also got cybersecurity issues.

Of all the things, what are you really checking and rechecking?

See, we plan for the worst and hope for the best.

And under our breath, we really root for a landslide.

So we don't have a lot of close elections.

Whichever

way, right?

Yeah, but I don't have much control over that one.

But we do what we do.

But there's a lot of prep that goes into this way before Election Day and trying to anticipate things and be ready for them.

So we're there.

If a deratio came through, we've got a plan for that.

If a polling site catches fire,

We have a plan for that.

So we really do try to prepare for some of those challenges.

But the biggest thing we've battled every day is misinformation and disinformation.

terrible, but it's rampant.

And we have a lot of foreign agents, other countries who try to create a problem for the United States by trying to encourage people not to have confidence in their elections or in their election processes.

And that's unfortunate.

So that's why I spend so much time talking about voter ID, paper ballots, poll workers, your friends and neighbors, these things so people can go well.

That can't be right.

That's the thing I saw on social media.

So that's probably my biggest task every day.

And sadly, it doesn't go to let up.

But the upside to it is...

I got by one of the best states to be secretary of stadium because Iowans truly do get it.

And that makes it a lot easier for us to, you know, manage and administer an election when people see us for what we really are and how good a job we're doing.

Remind us, Mr. Secretary, of website and key deadlines now that in person early voting has begun in the November general election.

that's right voterready.iowa.gov is the site and right now you can go down and vote early if your auditor's office you're anybody who requested an absentee ballot those should be in the mail to you right now so you should see them shortly and for those of you still want to vote by mail you have until the 19th of this month to get that request in but again November 3rd the ballot has to be physically in

in the possession of the auditor by 8 p.m.

Those are the big things.

And you can track your poll if you chose to vote by mail.

I say poll, your ballot.

You can track it by going to our website and it will tell you, you know, again, when the auditor got your request, when they mailed it to you, when they got it back.

So those are all kind of the flash points, if you will, and double check your voter ID to make sure your voter registration, I should say, make sure it's up to date and know where your polling site is if you're planning on voting in person.

Those are just some of the tips

and he, I'll tell you what, take a friend when you go to vote.

So, you know, let's make sure you all get your voice heard.

I called it the buddy system the other day on the radio.

We need the buddy system like when you go swimming,

uh, voter

ready.iowa.gov, the Iowa secretary of state and commissioner of elections, the honorable Paul Pate.

Thank you so much.

And he's hoping for a landslide.

You care.

This is where Iowa comes to talk news.

Talk 1540 KXEL.

News Talk 1540 KXCL, where Iowa comes to talk.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority announced $385,000 in Empower Rural Iowa grants this week.

15 communities are being supported, and that includes a $50,000 housing program grant for Eldora.

And we're going to find out more about this this morning with Michelle Kelly, who's Eldora's city clerk.

Thanks for being with us.

Awesome.

Thank you for having me.

Obviously good news to have this come through.

How long was the process to get to the point where this was announced earlier this week?

Yeah, so I knew the grant was available this summer and Through working with our housing and development committee.

We thought this was an opportunity that we could pursue and so I spent roughly a week or so putting together the grant application and reaching out to partnerships and Submitted it in the end of August and we found out yesterday

So the money will go towards taking down some dilapidated homes, maybe six or eight different properties and turning those lots around so that they can be rebuilt with new construction.

How much do you know about what spaces this grant will be applied to versus what might be outside the range of this funding support?

Yeah, so we have been working on a blight initiative for the last couple of years We were very grateful in 2023.

We were awarded the brownfield grant and that has given us a lot of financial accessibility to conducting those environmental studies and The focus was heavy on commercial side, but as we've seen through our code compliance officer we have a lot of homes that are just not rehabbable and

essentially are unsafe to our community.

And so we've been working through finding those homes, going through the court system or working with the homeowners if we can.

And now that we've identified several homes that could be torn down, we're now in that process of utilizing our Brownfield grant to get those studies completed and then being able to use this grant now for the rural innovation to

do the asbestos and demolition.

We've been very fortunate in our community with partnerships in town.

So with this 50,000, it will bring our working total to $200,000 of financial resources to assist with this project.

We're talking with Michelle Kelly who is Eldora's city clerk.

This week Eldora was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

It's part of the Rural Innovation Housing 2.0 program.

And I guess with that program title, what do you see being innovative or different about this opportunity versus what might be available to the city otherwise?

So what's really exciting is being able to remove something in our community that's currently hindering us.

We have been reached out by developers and part of what's stopping them is they don't want to build a brand new home when

there's a house that's right next door that isn't really appealing to that new homeowner.

So this gives us that unique opportunity to address those issues while also working on trying to increase our tax base and tax valuations, which as we've all paid attention at the state legislation level, our ability to increase those revenue is now being tighter.

And we have to be innovative on how do we bring that income back into our community.

And so we're really excited to have this opportunity.

to remove the current homes and have that land ready for development.

So again, this announcement was made earlier this week.

It's not like the check arrives the next day and then you fire up the demolition equipment before the week's out.

What's the actual timeline look like when it comes to applying this?

Yeah, so we have several homes right now that are currently in the court proceedings and that can take a couple months to several months.

So currently on our docket, we have three to four homes that we're anticipating.

We will take ownership by the end of this calendar year.

So that's when that $50,000 will be useful as we start the abatement process and working towards demolition.

What do the neighbors think?

You alluded to this being a situation where developers are looking around and wondering about doing a redevelopment project.

Have you heard from some neighbors as this has gone along and you've been looking at these properties that are dilapidated?

Are neighbors excited to be seeing them come down at some point?

Yes, they are very excited.

We've already torn down one house in our community and we actually have another one being torn down Hopefully this week and the feedback that received from neighbors, but just the public in general is They're excited to see that those things are now finally being addressed it becomes an eyesore when you see a building sit there for 15 20 years and You get a sense of what is our city doing?

What why aren't they tackling this?

But when you're on the other side and you learn

all the red tape and you can't just go to someone's house and say we're taking it from you.

There's a lot that goes into it, a lot of legal parameters.

And so I think the community is really excited to see this momentum that we're building and finally addressing those blighted properties.

And I know that the dilapidated homes that are being demolished are being characterized as not suitable for habitation, but let me just confirm with you too.

there wasn't anyone actually living in these homes that are now going through the court process and ultimately headed for demolition.

Correct.

These are all vacant homes.

Some of them were purchased on like certificate sales from corporations that aren't even in the state.

No one's living in these homes.

They've been sitting vacant for several years to decades and we're now ready in that process of we just have to take them to court going through the 657 a process.

We're talking with Michelle Kelly, Eldora's city clerk after Eldora was awarded $50,000 from the Rural Innovation Housing 2.0 program that Iowa Economic Development Authority offers.

It's going to lead to some redevelopment of several different properties in the community.

And generally, Michelle, when it comes to developing and creating new housing,

When you're looking at this from a community the size of Eldora, what kinds of things do you see?

What's challenging about getting developers active and building out housing stock and keeping it as modern as possible for potential residents?

Yeah, one of the challenges that we face is, you know, back in the day, Eldora used to be a booming industrial park community and downtown was thriving with all the business store fronts.

And as decades have passed with Highway 20 being built and people now being able to just go towards Cedar Falls or Marshalltown, Eldora kind of lost that energy with the industries and the downtown district.

And so we're trying to bring that back.

And we know this is a twofold situation.

in order to bring industries back into the community and bring businesses here, you need houses.

And although we have a market of...

you know, 20 plus homes currently for sale.

A lot of them are outdated or they need a lot of rehab.

And so when people are wanting to come to our community, the feedback that I got from our realtors is they want a price range that they can walk into and they don't have to do anything into the house.

They don't need to invest another $90,000 to rehab it.

And so we're excited to find these

Lots, once the houses are demolished, the developer can come in and create those homes that a lot of people have been looking for.

We just don't have the current market.

So you alluded to the rerouting of Highway 20 and some of the other things that have changed and evolved around Eldora.

Obviously Pine Lake State Park is still in amenity and an attraction.

What other things do you feel like are

Selling points, when you would talk with someone about Eldora, whether that's a developer or a potential new resident, what does the community offer?

Yeah, Pine Lake State Park is absolutely one of them.

It's a beautiful lake and lots of trails that you can walk around and obviously go in and fish.

We have the Iowa River, the Rock and Row, where you can ride down the river.

We have the Iowa River's Edge Bike Trail.

So there's a lot of active things in the community.

We are currently working on park upgrades to create that space for multiple generations.

And I think we have a lot of uniqueness to the community that not a lot of people are fully aware of.

And so part of this endeavor is also displaying and working with a marketing team to show people.

Eldor is great and you want to live here and here's why.

Well finally Michelle let me just wrap up with an opportunity for you to talk with your peers who might be in similar sized communities, other places.

What would you tell them about taking advantage of a program like this or finding ways to do some redevelopment if they're in a similar situation and some of what you've described resonates with their experience?

Yeah, a couple things.

One, don't let the intimidation of grants hold your community back.

I know a lot of times it can seem very daunting with the paperwork and the information that you need to put together.

But there's a lot of great training opportunities.

I know Iowa State Extension has grant program to learn how to do grant writing.

are use your resources with Iowa League of Cities but don't feel intimidated to reach out for those financial resources but also look to see what's current in your in your community and we've been very fortunate that we've had these conversations with businesses in town to say the city can't do it alone how can we partner together and whether that's seeking out their networks and getting those conversations.

going or are they financial partners where they can commit a contribution to the project that you're trying to accomplish in your community?

Michelle Kelly is Eldora's City Clerk.

Eldora this week receiving a $50,000 grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority under IEDA's Rural Innovation Housing 2.0 program.

Thanks so much, Michelle, for sharing some details.

Awesome, thank you so much.

This is the station where Iowa comes to talk, News Talk 1540 KXCL.

News Talk 1540, KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk.

Hello, I'm Jeff Stein.

Each Tuesday and Thursday during KXEL live and local, we have the privilege of speaking with Dustin Hoffman, supervising editor, senior farm broadcaster with the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.

It's our RFD 1540 conversation.

Of course, you hear reports from the network nine times each weekday here on the blow torch, and as noted, Dustin joins us here.

Tuesdays and Thursdays.

So there was a lot of news made at the time it was announced that the administration, the USDA, they were going to undertake a whole series of steps to increase the beef herds.

That will help ranchers, that will help consumers.

How's that going?

Well, it's a good question Jeff.

I mean the fact of the matter is we know that during the state fair Secretary Rollins was here announced the opening up of imports of beef products for ground beef and also you know talking about other incentive packages that would come out later on she talked about and other announcements when we were at the farm progress show about incentivizing programs to help grow the beef herd and Right now.

I mean you have to understand it still takes some time to do that.

I mean you're

looking at how do you grow a herd when the market is attractive right now to grow the herd?

If you can keep the supplies low, that market stays high.

There's really no incentive.

I mean, yes, there's a little bit more money involved if you're not a cow calf operation, if you're a feedlot and purchasing it.

But really, when you look at the markets, it's really not conducive to it.

right now, it's really not attractive at all to do that.

And even if it was, and it still takes time, you have to get heifers, you've got to get them bred, and I mean, it takes

year or two, two years to get them ready to be bred.

And then just like a human, nine months that they're pregnant.

And so you're looking at almost three years before we could see any kind of substantial growth.

Now, that doesn't mean we couldn't buy from other places, but that doesn't mean there's gonna be enough supply to do that.

And, you know, the way this country is, especially if you're looking for specific herds, like maybe you're looking for black Angus or something, you got to make sure you've got a steady supply to get them.

And so it's going to take a while.

There's no real

financial incentive to call cows at this moment.

Caves are still worth quite a bit, so why would you want to get rid of them?

I mean, why would you want to stop producing them?

But you know, the fact of the matter is, you know, try to get some more calf price, you know, try to grow some more calves, but the thing is, there is some of it, but right now the incentives are just not there.

Well, that was the problem going in.

The incentives were not there, and it's a fine line between

trying to bolster things so that ranchers can actually make a profit, but yet you also have consumers howling about the high prices at the grocery stores and you used an analogy a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago, that I thought was so telling and it had to do with the price of ground beef.

Do you remember that?

Yeah, the fact that a pound of ground beef right now is more than the entire than the federal minimum wage right now.

That's very telling.

On so many different topics Jeff, but the fact of the matter is it's it is and so when you got to spend more than hours where the wage is just to get a pound of hamburger something that is normally considered you know when you when maybe people were in a rough spot and so like that usually you could do that you know the hamburger and those hamburger helper meals and stuff like that and you get by reasonably cheap and you still can Don't get me wrong.

There's still quite a bit of value in ground beef But the fact of the matter is it's getting expensive pork is still on a price decline.

So, you know, which is odd

because there's still a lot of beef attraction at the meat counter pork is still trying to find more stability in its marketplace but the fact of the matter is the consumers are still paying high prices for beef there's no incentive for them to increase the beef because as long as demand stays high and supply stays low you're in a tough situation right now that you know you're not seeing anybody really why would you want to give up making money I don't understand all these programs have been you know really hinging on

Well, do the producers want to stop making money?

And that's a head scratcher for me.

Why would anybody want to stop doing that?

Now, I hear from people, some of them are involved in agriculture, or at least on the periphery of it.

Others who are not, and just don't understand why the government is so involved.

In other words, can you farm or ranch without the government these days?

Because it seems every time you turn around, the government's involved in one way or another,

Often it has to do with certain programs, but can you even go it alone these days?

Well, you know, the fact of the matter is it's tough.

I mean, governments got their their their reach into everything.

Let's just call it that.

And, you know, so there's been some situations where, you know, we we wanted to to do programs that we can't survive.

You know, it's just like crop insurance.

You can't survive without it, not not without causing some problems.

You know.

so there's that and you know there's also the fact the matter is the government is trying to it's kind of a rock in a hard place farmers would prefer the government stayed out of the way on some things

But on the same token, their consumers, just like any other consumer, when prices are high and things are hurting, government looks for solutions to help maybe bring it down.

You want to make sure that you kind of want to look at, okay, maybe the government does need to get involved.

Maybe they can help bring some of these prices back down through some things that they do and some tools that they have.

But the fact of the matter is right now, it's just, it's not happening.

and you can look at all you want, but the price of beef, unless it's on sale, has been tough, but people are still buying it.

So again, in that situation, this is not a slight on California farmers.

I mean, they've got a really good thing going right now.

I can't blame them for wanting to keep it going.

And so, you know, the government's reach can be a two-fold, double-edged sword, whatever you want to call it.

But for everything that they get involved in that can be kind of a nuisance, it's hard to see where the benefits of the consumer help is being felt as well.

Because sometimes when you do help the consumers, and that's what you want to do, you don't want to be a burden for the consumers, especially when you're talking about food prices.

But same token as then who has to be offset by that.

And a lot of times it's going to be the farmers.

Not the people in the middle that are making the money off of getting it from the farm to the grocery stores.

Grocery stores markup obviously is there, but it's not

quite the same percentages somewhere in between the farmer and the table.

So what's the outlook do you think?

There's so many things that have been going on to try to ease the burden on farmers, the diesel waivers, et cetera, because again, let's face it.

We're three weeks, whatever, out from an election.

What do we anticipate might happen on this front yet this calendar year?

Or is this just one of these?

We'll see what they throw against the wall before the election.

We'll see what problems they keep after.

You know, to me, as much as I don't want to talk about that or not think about that, it's something to obviously...

keep in mind.

I mean, it's going to be a tough situation.

I mean, it's just everything is promises, promises, promises.

You can't even turn on the TV anymore and escape anything going on with the campaign cycle.

So, you know, how much is this going to help?

Is it just lip service to get more support for a vote?

I don't know.

You know, it's just it seems like it.

But again, we've been seeing a lot of these announcements happening in our state.

We know I was a battleground state.

We know it is.

And so

There's a lot of lip service going on.

The question is, what happens after the election?

What happens if the election doesn't go the way of the administration?

What happens if it does?

Do any of these promises matter?

We'll have to wait and see.

Excellent insight as always, Dustin.

Thanks so much for the time today.

We'll talk again during KXEL Live and Local on Tuesday.

Sounds good, Jeff.

Dustin Hoffman is supervising editor in senior farm broadcaster with the Iowa Agra Business Radio Network.

Don't forget Weekend Ag Matters, the excellent half hour program from the network.

Saturday mornings at six or if you prefer or in addition Sunday mornings at eleven thirty and Dustin joins us here Tuesdays and Thursdays for this conversation on News Talk 1540 KXEL where Iowa comes to talk.