The latest local news, weather and high school sports from the Heartland

MORAVIA, IOWA -- Appanoose County is working hard on improving its economic development; last month the county joined forces with Iowa State University Center for Industrial Research and Services (CIRUS) to help with this issue.

The group put on a workshop called “Green 101” at Honey Creek Resort Monday emphasizing how to be green to help not only make businesses more environmentally friendly, but also to save money and make more money.

“Green 101” was a mix of presentations and hands-on exercises incorporating the four R’s: refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle.

“And so we teach them how to do that on everything from solid waste to chemicals to aero missions and energy so we go across the board and we do little sections where we help them understand the basic facts of the situation and then we take them into this room and we teach them how to do that,” said Mike O’Donnell, Iowa State University.

“I’m very excited about it because I think it will really bring some great value to our employees here in Appanoose County,” said Tod Faris, Appanoose County Economic and Development Executive Director.

The overall goal of CIRUS is to give the residents and businesses of Appanoose County the tools needed to improve the county’s economic development.

And what CIRUS found out at their sustainability summit back in July was that Appanoose County has strong school systems and a lot of employment around the eco-side of eco-tourism, mentioning specifically Honey Creek Resort. However, what their data showed was that the average wages tend to be lower than other parts of the state.

“What we're trying to do is have discussions, as given all the good stuff we've found. How can we use that to help improve the wages and employment in the area,” said O’Donnell.

Faris said people in Appanoose County are more than ready to take on this challenge.

“We're definitely moving forward and there's a real hunger to continue to improve and make everything --just continually improve for the better,” said Faris.