“I’m a ‘frequent flyer’ at this store and like to stop here when I’m traveling to and from northwest Iowa,” Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, said. “I’m so appreciative that you rebuilt it.”

In late November 2021, a blaze destroyed the busy convenience store, located at the junction of U.S. Highway 20 and Iowa Highway 4. During 2022, Sparky’s rebuilt the store, which re-opened in early 2023. The business has become a popular destination not only for local residents, but motorists and over-the-road truckers traveling on four-lane U.S. Highway 20.

The convenience store/truck stop is located just south of the 115-acre Calhoun County Business Park, which offers plenty of room to grow at a prime location along U.S. Highway 20.

“We’re focused on creating opportunity,” said Theresa Hildreth, executive director of Calhoun County Economic Development Corporation, who visited with Feenstra while he was in Calhoun County. “If you’re ready to build a warehouse/distribution facility, value-added agriculture business, hotel or restaurant, everything you need to succeed is available right here.”

-Messenger photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Theresa Hildreth, left, executive director of Calhoun County Economic Development Corporation, and Calhoun County resident Andrew Lauver, right, were among the local citizens who spoke with U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, center, when he visited Calhoun County on Tuesday afternoon.

The Calhoun County Business Park is located in the heart of west-central Iowa’s agricultural region. Four-lane U.S. Highway 20 provides a direct 56-mile drive to Interstate 35 and a 90-mile drive to Interstate 29 from the business park. The dedicated highway interchange near the business park makes it an ideal location for warehousing, distribution, cold storage, and other logistic service providers, Hildreth said.

Since the completion of the four-lane U.S. Highway 20 project in late 2018, traffic counts have soared near the Calhoun County Business Park. Traffic counts rose nearly 55 percent by the summer of 2023, compared the first quarter of 2021.

“The average daily traffic count is approximately 9,000 vehicles traveling through the Highway 20 and 4 intersection,” Hildreth said.

These numbers will likely continue to grow, Feenstra added.

“As Highway 20 gets busier, the Calhoun County Business Park can be a prime location for a distribution center or other businesses,” he said.

-Messenger photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
The 115-acre Calhoun County Business Park, located just north of the Sparky’s One Stop convenience store/truck stop, offers plenty of room to grow at a prime location near the junction of four-lane Highway 20 and Highway 4 north of Rockwell City.

The Calhoun County Business Park is located in a federally-designated Opportunity Zone, which is designed to spur economic growth while providing tax benefits to investors. The business park is also locally designated as an urban renewal area, offering potential financial incentives for development.

“We’ve developed 23 acres within the business park so far and have 13 sellable acres, including four lots ranging from 1.5 acres to 4.7 acres,” Hildreth said. “We can also accommodate much larger land requests.”

Citizens share success stories, concerns with Feenstra

The Calhoun County Business Park project is spearheaded by a development team including the CCEDC, the Calhoun County Board of Supervisors, the Calhoun County Electric Cooperative Association, and Corn Belt Power Cooperative (CBPC) in Humboldt. Through the years, CBPC has partnered in 25 plus industrial parks with its member distribution cooperatives, including CCECA.

“Part of our mission is to provide a better quality of life for the people we serve,” said Keaton Hildreth, CEO of the CCECA. “Supporting this business park will help attract businesses to the area, which creates jobs and supports the local tax base.”

Hildreth and other area residents visited with Feenstra not only about the business park, but various quality-of-life issues affecting rural Iowa, including the need for more daycare options, the lack of available housing in rural Iowa, and concerns about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s overburdensome regulations targeting power plants.

Keaton Hildreth said that renewable energy sources like wind power are valuable, but they cannot replace baseload generation sources, including coal-fired power plants. (Baseload power refers to the minimum amount of electric power needed to be supplied to the electrical grid at any given time.)

On May 23, the EPA released its long-anticipated draft rules aimed at both new and existing coal and natural gas power plants. EPA’s proposed rules contain timelines that are unrealistic and unachievable, according to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Compliance deadlines endanger new and existing natural gas plants and essentially ensure coal units will opt to shut down by 2035, according to NRECA.

“The proposed rules will definitely impact the affordability and reliability of electricity,” Keaton Hildreth said during his conversation with Feenstra at Sparky’s.

Driving economic development in rural Iowa

Reliable, affordable electricity is vital to economic development, including the Calhoun County Business Park.

Project leaders are currently implementing Phase 1 of the Calhoun County Business Park’s planned four-phase development. The area includes a dedicated road entrance to the business park, drainage and stormwater detention, and water and sewer infrastructure access for buildable lots.

“Any of these lots can be subdivided once without the need to replat the land,” said Theresa Hildreth, who added that covenants are in place to cover signage, dust, odor, truck loading docks and more.