Fort Dodge, Webster County are experiencing business growth
Residents should take pride in their growing community
In the coming week, Dunham’s Sports will make its return to the Fort Dodge community by opening its new store in Corridor Plaza.
Its neighbors — Shoe Sensation and Maurice’s — will be opening soon as well.
Just to the north of the building that’s home to those three stores, rapid progress is being made on the new Chick-fil-A restaurant.
On the other side of Corridor Plaza, the mammoth sports pavilion is up and contractors are working on its interior.
All of that represents a tremendous investment in our community. And those are just the most visible elements of the influx of private investment Fort Dodge and Webster County are enjoying.
Out in the industrial park called Iowa’s Crossroads of Global Innovation, Cargill has added a corn syrup production line to its plant. Its finished product will be used in making a lot of the candy we see in stores.
All of these developments have been a long time in coming. There were probably times when people wondered if any developments were going to happen at all. Now they have, and area residents should be grateful.
Residents of Fort Dodge and Webster County should also be pleased that major corporations like Cargill and Dunham’s Sports see our community as a vibrant place worthy of investing in. Far too often, people who live here turn out to be their own worst enemies by bad-mouthing their own town. It’s time that everyone started speaking about Fort Dodge and Webster County with pride.
It should be noted that a lot of this private investment follows public investment. The city government had to invest in things like the Corridor of Commerce project on Fifth Avenue South, which wasn’t universally welcomed when it began, to create the groundwork allowing Corridor Plaza to develop.
It is time to start taking pride in the new development in our community. And it is time to start taking advantage of the new stores. Instead of ordering something online from some faraway place, head to Corridor Plaza and downtown to do business with the places that employ our friends and neighbors.