NEWSLETTERS

ICOG NEWS | OCTOBER 23, 2018

Greetings from ICOG!

Iowa Association of Councils of Governments (ICOG) are everywhere these days and involved in a lot of statewide projects. Tim Ostroski, Southern Iowa Councils of Governments, was appointed by Governor Reynolds to the Investing in Rural Iowa Task Force that is part of the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative focused on housing needs. 

ICOG was awarded the Foreign Labor Housing Inspection contract with Iowa Workforce Development. This is a new multi-year contract in which our member Councils of Governments (COGs) will work in their region to conduct housing inspections for the H-2A Visa program.

Finally, October is 5-2-1-0 Healthy Choices Count! awareness month. ICOG has been working with Iowa Department of Public Health to implement policy and community changes in five new communities and sustaining work in four additional communities. We hope to see you at the 5-2-1-0 Summit on October 30th to see what impact this program is having on the state. 

Register here.

Sincerly, 

Carl Lingen

Executive Director

staff@iarcog.com

SICOG Helps City of Creston Receive C.O.P.S Grant

In October the City of Creston, in collaboration with the Creston Community School District, was awarded a $500,000 grant through the U.S. Department of Justice C.O.P.S (Community Oriented Policing Services) School Violence Prevention Program. 

With these funds, CCSD will build on existing efforts to ensure the safety of students and staff in and around  school property. The grant, coupled with a significant match from CCSD, will provide the district with numerous updates to their safety infrastructure including a shooter alert system, panic button system, lighting upgrades, communications systems (paging and two-way radios), and metal detectors at all buildings. There were 202 eligible applications received from jurisdictions in 44 states. Ninety-one awards were made to states, counties, cities and tribes totaling $24,499,983. The City of Creston was the only applicant awarded in the State.