The Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce has announced the City has been recognized as a Neighborhood Champion for the fourth year in a row by American Express. Atlantic will participate in the 7th Annual Small Business Saturday to support small businesses. Bailey Smith, Executive Director at the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce, said they are “Excited to partner with all of the Atlantic Area businesses to create shopping incentives and activities to celebrate Small Business Saturday.”

Founded by American Express in 2010, Small Business Saturday® is a day to celebrate the small businesses that help support our community. American Express created the Neighborhood Champion Program to help rally communities around Small Business Saturday and is working alongside numerous business organizations to support local Small Business Saturday celebrations throughout the country. Participating organizations include: the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), the International Downtown Association, the Latino Coalition, the National Main Street Center, the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

American Express recognizes communities that have strong participation. The on-going Shop Local Initiative and Passport Program, presented by First Whitney Bank & Trust, and overall community support has helped Atlantic achieve this national recognition. Smith said “It’s a great opportunity for Atlantic to receive positive, national exposure. Atlantic has everything you need and this day is just an added reminder for the community how important their support and participation in shopping local is to keeping Atlantic a vibrant place to live.”

November 25th marks the 7th annual Small Business Saturday, a day dedicated to supporting the local businesses that create jobs, boost the economy and preserve neighborhoods around the country. Small business owners can learn more about taking part in Small Business Saturday and download free marketing materials on www.shopsmall.com. Consumers can visit www.atlanticiowa.com to find merchants to shop at on Small Business Saturday.

Some small towns continue to thrive even as their populations drop and those towns are the subject of research by a team from Iowa State University. Kimberly Zarecor (ZARE-core), director of the interdisciplinary design program in the I-S-U College of Design, says the outlook in these towns is overwhelmingly optimistic. “We are looking at communities that are losing population, which is a common thing among rural communities all over the country,” Zarecor says. “We want to look at communities that, even if they’re losing population, they seem to have stable or improving quality of life perceptions among the people in the town.” The communities are being referred to as “shrink smart” towns. “This means people still feel like it’s a great place to live. When they’re asked questions about their neighbors and their community and the support system and the services, they feel they’re all good and possibly improving, even while they’re losing population in the community,” Zarecor says. “We think these places are special.”

I-S-U has won a one-year, $100,000 planning grant from the National Science Foundation to study these “shrink smart” communities in Iowa. She says, “What we’re really interested in is quality of life and how their towns can deal with the issues of being small, being rural and losing population.” Work is underway to identify some of the communities. Since 1994, I-S-U has polled residents in 99 small Iowa towns, one in each county. Researchers hope to chose a half-dozen or so towns from that list. “There’s a certain perception that small towns aren’t doing well or that they’re on their downward swing,” Zarecor says. “For us, we want to think about what are the ways in the cycle where more people are moving into metro areas, what’s the future cycle for small towns. Maybe we’re going to see people moving back to small towns and what draws people to those towns.”

An advisory board for the study includes representatives from the Iowa League of Cities, Iowa City and County Management Association, small-town government officials and the Iowa State University Extension.

(Radio Iowa)