“What can we do to have a vibrant community?” he asked the leaders who represented several of the towns in the county.

His comments focused on his plan to make Iowa the most business and ag-friendly state. He said he wants to make life more affordable, and he wants Iowa to get back to world class schools.

“In 1987, we were #1 in the nation,” he said, “I want to make sure our state is the best in the union.”

One of his issues is that once students are through school, they should want to stay in Iowa.

“Now one of our exports are our kids.” he said. Establishing the types of jobs that will encourage them to stay and raise children in Iowa is a priority.

Another priority was delivering high-quality, affordable healthcare. In addressing the Critical Access hospitals, he explained that he served as a volunteer EMT for many years in his hometown.

“It’s unreasonable for women to have to travel 50 to 75 miles for maternal healthcare.” he said.

The question and answer session prompted some concerns about the smaller communities.

“Every area has different economic issues,” he agreed, “We cannot have one size fits all.”

Bringing jobs and industry to the smaller communities, which included everyone in the room, brought some nodding heads.

” Right now all the power is in Des Moines.” he said. “We need to think outside the box.”

Ottie Maxey, Executive Director of the Hamilton County Growth Alliance, asked about solutions for the housing in the smaller communities.

“In order to bring new housing, you have to get builders out of the metro area,” he said, “Small towns have aging and a shortage of property.”

Feenstra, thought the solution was to incentivize, using TIF dollars, a strategy already in place in Webster City, but not as easy for smaller communities.

“We gotta keep these small towns growing,” he confirmed.

But he also cautioned as he talked about using TIF in the communities. “Every TIF needs a sunset,” he said, ” The number one thing I’m hearing is that property taxes are too high.”

Webster City’s administrator, John Harrenstein, who raised concerns on the property tax controls in the legislature, explained costs continue to rise beyond the 2% limit.

“The levys need some exceptions, certain things you have to protect.” he urged.

Feenstra was born and raised in Hull, Iowa. He received his B.A. from Dordt College, and M.P.A. from Iowa State, and has a phD from Northcentral University in LaJolla, CA.

He has worked for the Foreign Candy Campany in Hull, and later served as the Hull City Administrator, Sioux County Treasurer and has served as the chairman on the Iowa Senate Ways and Means Committee in 2017. He served on the Iowa State Senate from 2009-2020 and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2021.