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CENTERVILLE, IOWA -- Appanoose County is working towards becoming more of a sustainable economy.

Back in July, the county learned that Iowa State University for Industrial Research and Service would be helping them with this goal.

There are four components of the program: financial stability, leadership development, natural resources and marketing.

On Wednesday local committee members met to discuss the progress that is being made within those components.

In February, a leadership academy was formed with the goal to develop leaders within the community and a new committee was formed at the Wednesday meeting.

“There's a lower income of Appanoose County as far as an average but a lot of that is because we had have a very high percentage of elderly or retired individuals -- folks in older age. And so it’s not so much folks that aren't working so therefore they have a lower income, the bigger issue  is just the lower income of our elderly,” said Tod Faris, Appanoose County Economic Development Corporation.

Fair said there is a lot of headway being made.