(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council met at 4-p.m. Wednesday in their Chambers at City Hall. Their first order of business was to hold a public hearing on the status of funded activities for the City’s CDBG-CV project (Covid Community Development Block Grant project). And, while the SWIPCO representative was unable to attend the meeting to discuss the matter, they did provide City Clerk Barb Barrick with a status report.

Barrick read, “It was reported that the project was approximately 56-percent complete, and the anticipated end date for the project is May 30th, 2023. For the project to-date, $70,612 has been spent, with $58, 226 in CDBG Expense funds expanded, and $3,100 in CDBG Administrative funds expended. There is $36, 774 remaining in CDBG Funds for the expenses. Match expended so far is $14,560.” The beneficiaries of the project are the Food Pantry recipients of the Atlantic Food Pantry in the City of Atlantic. The Council acknowledged receipt of the report.

Next up was a presentation on 2022 accomplishments and the 2023 goals for the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce. Chamber Executive Director Bailey Smith said they currently have 240 members, having not lost any members in 2022. In fact they gained 12, with their memberships coming from 12 communities in Cass County, not just Atlantic, and southwest region. Smith said among the Chamber’s accomplishments, is organizing a total of 25 events throughout 2022.

She said despite the good things that are going on, “A lot of people are hyper-focused on the fact that two business have closed. I chose to hyper-focus on the 11 that opened.” The closing of Oinker’s and Aunt B’s for reasons of retirement, she said, “Just gives us the opportunity to fill their whole building with another business, which we look forward to doing.” The Chamber relaunched its “Business Investor Fund” (BIF) in 2022, which was originally launched in 2020, but with the spread of COVID, no one wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to obtain funds for a business start-up, so it was placed on the “back burner,” until now.

The BIF Smith said, is essentially a guaranteed note for $1,000 a prospective business owner with a solid business plan signs, to help secure additional financial backing as collateral. To-date, five people have signed the note for their business. Additional information is available at the Chamber. All the banks except for Wells Fargo are partnering with the Chamber on the project.

The Atlantic City Council heard from CADCO Executive Director Jennifer McEntaffer on CADCO’s 2022 accomplishments  and 2023 goals, plus they heard from Alexsis Fleener with SHIFT ATL, on the DiscoverAtlanticIowa.com project. In their final order of business, the Council approved the reappointment of Lloyd Munson to the Board of Adjustment.