Where Will They Live?
Lime Springs Beef is planning to hire over 60 employees at its new plant in Lime Springs. One of the many issues this good news brings is housing for what we hope will be new residents of Lime Springs.
At community betterment meetings I’ve attended, I learned a surprising fact. There are very few housing units available for rent anyplace in Howard County! (What a business opportunity!)
Lime Springs Beef
Looking east from the “truck stop”
Sixty-plus new workers means there is a potential for sixty new families to move to our area. What rural area of Iowa wouldn’t love to have that number of new families in their community! They’d buy groceries and gas for their vehicles. They’d send their kids to school and, hopefully, attend our churches.
Eventually, they’d buy homes and build new homes. And buy new cars and four-wheelers. They’d vote and attend Sweet Corn Days and use our swimming pool and library.
But where will they live? Rental properties in the entire county are as scarce as hen’s teeth.
Business Opportunity
This would seem to be a business opportunity for some businessman or entrepreneur. And even if Lime Springs Beef wasn’t in the picture, it would appear to be a reasonable bet because there is so little rental property in Howard County. New employees of schools need a place to live, as do newcomers to existing businesses or those who simply want to live in our peaceful county for other reasons.
It can be a subject for another time and another place, but certainly the existence of Lime Springs Beef will create business opportunity after business opportunity in support of the business itself and their employees.
Harmony’s Solution
Harmony, MN, is influencing the building of new homes by offering a cash incentive, according to this article. Other Minnesota cities are offering other incentives to encourage building, and therefore living, in their towns.
Should Lime Springs be doing something to make our hometown so attractive that new workers will prefer to live in Lime Springs instead of another area?