The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors met for a special session Monday morning at the Mahaska County Courthouse in Oskaloosa. The discussion again was based around the issue involving the behavioral health region.

This meeting came on the heels of last Wednesday’s decision to appeal to the Iowa Department of Human Services regarding their decision to disband the Mid-Iowa Behavioral Health Region, which consists of Marion and Mahaska Counties. Every other behavioral health region in the state is made up of at least three counties.

The decision to appeal last week was a surprising one, as Supervisor Mike VanderMolen decided to change his mind about appealing once it was made clear that both Chair Mark Doland and Vice-Chair Willie VanWeelden supported moving into the South Central Behavioral Health Region, which consists of Wapello, Davis, and Appanoose Counties. VanderMolen preferred to move into the Central Iowa Community Services Region to the north, including Jasper and Poweshiek Counties.

The Monday morning meeting was called because Chuck Palmer, the Director of the Iowa Department of Human Services, stated that it is necessary for the county to have a contingency plan in place in case the appeal fails. With this being said, the Board of Supervisors needed to rework the appeal letter to explain their plan.

Supervisor Mike VanderMolen was unavailable to attend the meeting, so his voice was unable to be heard on the plan, but the other two members were in support of joining the South Central Behavioral Health Region, so they amended the letter to state that intention. This passed on a 2-0 vote.

The pair of attending supervisors also voted to send Chair Mark Doland to a meeting in Bloomfield of the governing board for the topic in that region.

The next regular meeting of the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors is scheduled for next Monday, August 3rd, in the Mahaska County Courthouse in Oskaloosa. The meeting will be called to order at 9 AM.

Main Street Oskaloosa released the Brand Action Plan today and launched a website, www.brilliantoskaloosa.com, to share the recommendations and progress. The brand plan will also be available at the Oskaloosa Public Library and Oskaloosa Area Chamber & Development Group office.

“We have a plan that is robust and based on successful, proven tactics for tourism and branding,” said Oskaloosa Main Street President Josh Buckingham. “Our team believes strongly that if we follow the plan diligently, we will grow tourism and retail sales and expand the variety of businesses in the community.”

Buckingham said there is much work to be done and the Brand Leadership Team (BLT), a subcommittee of Oskaloosa Main Street, will begin to expand committees to implement the recommendations. Buckingham said the BLT has started work on a few of the recommendations, including hanging banners in the downtown and speaking to clubs and organizations to discuss the new brand and answer questions, keeping community members informed and engaged about the branding process.

Oskaloosa Main Street Director Karen Hafner said it’s been great to see the community’s positive response to the new brand. “Oskaloosa High School Art Teacher Matt Kargol recently created a bike rack made out of Oskaloosa’s new logo. We’re excited to see more community members step up and embrace Oskaloosa’s new brand,” she said.

Volunteers Needed

Buckingham said interested individuals should review the recommendations and sign up to join the various subcommittees in order to assist in the implementation. “At the February community presentation, many individuals expressed excitement and said they would sign up to help with implementing the plan,” Buckingham said. “We encourage anyone who has interest in helping to fill out a volunteer form at www.brilliantoskaloosa.com/volunteer or contact Hafner at 641-672-2751.”

Volunteers can choose from 50 recommendations and committee activities including a program to rehabilitate the facades of downtown buildings, working with the city council to hire a company that will develop a city-wide wayfinding system of signs, and consulting with a local volunteer designer for logo gear and collectibles that proudly display Oskaloosa’s new image.“The great thing about this plan is that the items listed in it are recommendations,” Hafner stressed. “The BLT and committees will be reviewing the progress regularly and make adjustments to the plan

Branding Background

The process to develop a brand plan for the community started in September 2014. It involved an online community survey with more than 1,500 participants, interviews with a wide cross section of business and community leaders, and personal experiences of the Brooks team when they visited Oskaloosa.

“Our volunteer team worked closely with the Brooks team to develop a plan that fits our unique community,” Hafner said. “The goal is for Oskaloosa to be known as a place with a vibrant downtown– a place full of activities, events, shopping and dining. We want to help make Oskaloosa a popular attraction for existing residents, as well as those thinking about living and working in Oskaloosa.”

The recommendations, known as the Brand Action Plan, were developed by Oskaloosa leaders and local citizens active in the community who worked with Roger Brooks International, a tourism and branding expert. It will guide the team on steps to take in the rebranding efforts to make Oskaloosa a tourist destination.

Members of the Oskaloosa Police Department and Fire Department will be participating in a triathlon as part of a fundraiser on August 15th.

The event will consist of a 500-meter swim, a 12-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run. Chief Mark Neff of the Oskaloosa Fire Department sat down with the Herald to discuss this topic in detail.

“We thought it would be interesting to challenge the police department to put a team together, or individuals to compete against us in the sprint triathlon,” Neff said.

The fire department is expected to have a team of three from the department participating. He also highlighted the other three individuals would be taking part in the whole event.

He added there will be some people that are going to run alone. He talked with Chief of Police Jake McGee to do the mini-triathlon. Neff said that it should be interesting to see how each of his men and the police department’s men perform during this challenge.

Although he said the triathlon has been held in the past, this will be the first time the police and fire departments have entered into this challenge.

Neff said sometime in September, there will be a trade-off between the police department and the fire department where they will swap entrance exams. These exams are generally used to determine if a person is physically fit to be able to join the various departments.

In terms of the fundraiser, Neff indicated there might be the possibility for donations. “What we are going to do is for whoever wins the competition will get to pick a local charity to donate that money to,” Neff said.

Overall, he said the event will be fun, but that it will also be challenging. “We will have to do some training for it and some of the guys have already been doing a little bit of training for it,” he said.

Story Provided By Jonathan R. Pitman

The Oskaloosa Herald