Posted on April 5, 2021 at 4:25 PM by Guest Writer Guest Writer
Written By: Greg Piklapp, City of Boone Councilmember
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Boone is a community that represents rural Iowa in everything; past, present and future. Our founding was based on farming, railroad and coal, grew in the early 20th Century with connected mercantile and local business expansion, the 1980s Farm Crisis and impacts starting a stagnation that changed it forever. But the future is our focus now and our community is experiencing growth not seen in decades.
We take pride in being the hometown and headquarters for Fareway Stores Inc. We have 21st Century fiber connections to help telecommuters and small business start ups. A strong focus on our historic downtown main street revitalization with building grants, new business and retail development support. A vibrant school district with new elementary, middle school and high school buildings working in STEM and trade skill programming. Our local DMACC campus has recently expanded with new sports facility upgrades as well and we work hard to forge local partnerships across age differences, political affiliations, between long time families and new arrivals.
Community publicized rankings in 2019:
- #1 as the best rising community market in Iowa: http://www.kwbg.com/2019/04/24/insurify-names-boone-as-iowas-2019-best-up-and-coming-housing-market-award/
- 9th Safest Community in Iowa by Alarms.org
- Ranking in Top 10 Affordable Small Towns Where You'd Actually Want to Live, 2019 Edition by Realtor.com: https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/top-10-affordable-small-towns-where-youd-actually-want-to-live-2019-edition/
A lot of hard work has taken place to gain this momentum and it hasn’t stopped. Quality affordable housing options are available in brand new construction or historic renovations. The City is making million dollar investments towards infrastructure upgrades, partnering for expansions in our industrial park with railroad access and helping drive growth in good paying jobs from building trades to cutting edge agriculture bio-sciences. We are only 15 minutes from the Iowa State University Research Park and the cutting edge work being accomplished. Boone also has over a dozen local parks, with nearby attractions that include boating/canoeing in Des Moines River Valley, beautiful campgrounds, historic Ledges State Park, even winter skiing and more booming tourism attractions including a new hotel and conference center.
We have a lot to offer, be ready to call Boone home!
