Grow Clinton celebrates year of big news, success stories

CLINTON, Iowa – There are big, positive things happening in this city. New and current businesses are hiring employees. More companies are coming to Clinton and more big news is on the horizon. Those were the top messages delivered by Andy Sokolovich, president and CEO of Grow Clinton on Tuesday, June 18, during that organization’s […]

CLINTON, Iowa – There are big, positive things happening in this city. New and current businesses are hiring employees. More companies are coming to Clinton and more big news is on the horizon. Those were the top messages delivered by Andy Sokolovich, president and CEO of Grow Clinton on Tuesday, June 18, during that organization’s annual meeting.

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“This year has been like no other. … When you see cranes and dirt moving, that’s economic wealth coming to our community,” said Mr. Sokolovich before a crowd of more than 100 at NelsonCorp Field in Clinton on a sunny, hot, windy Tuesday afternoon. During much of his presentation, Mr. Sokolovich outlined many of the business success stories that happened in the past year or are currently in the works. He also let the crowd in on some breaking news – a new business is getting ready to set up shop in the Lyons Business and Technology Park at Mill Creek Parkway and 19th Avenue North. He said it will bring 20 new jobs to the community, but offered no other details. He said news on the development is expected to be made public in the coming days. The Grow Clinton CEO also used Tuesday's meeting to praise the recent 2024 Tailgate N’ Tallboys country music festival held on the Clinton riverfront June 6-8. He called it a great success that helped the community in many ways, including helping many businesses, such as hotels. Mr. Sokolovich told the crowd about a young woman who called him just before the music festival. “She said she was looking for a hotel room in Clinton. ‘Where can I find one?’ I told her you can’t. They’ve been booked,” he said. Some of the other business success stories the Grow Clinton CEO outlined on Tuesday included: 

• Atlas Roofing Corporation: Celebrated the groundbreaking last year. This Lincolnway Industrial Rail and Air Park project is a $250 million construction project with 150 high paying jobs for the Clinton region. 
• Merrill Steel: Worked with Merrill Steel on incentives to move to Camanche, Iowa. Grow Clinton helped celebrate the grand opening of the $18 million plant and continues working with the company on developing its 90-person workforce. 
• Grow Clinton hosted nine site visits resulting in multiple options and land acquisition inquiries setting up a busy 2024-2025. 
• Answered 25 requests for information from industrial projects in 2023. These requests totaled over $8 billion in capital investment and over 2,500 jobs, according to Grow Clinton.
• Helping people find work by hosting drive-through job fairs. These new Grow Clinton job fairs have people drive up in their vehicles and grab a bag filled with employment information, instead of going to traditional job fairs at a meeting hall filled with tables and company reps. “We stopped doing traditional career fairs because they sucked,” said Mr. Sokolovich, adding that the traditional fairs were often a waste of time and resources.
• The Clinton riverfront continues to be one of the city’s best resources as many visitors come to Clinton to see the beautiful scenery Mr. Sokolovich said. Also, the Clinton riverfront doesn’t have the flooding issues that other cities face. “When Davenport is flooding, we’re not. We’re open for business,” he added.

Go here to see a list of more Grow Clinton accomplishments from the past year. Mr. Sokolovich added on Tuesday that there are more success stories and big news in the works. He asked the community to be patient because that additional good news is just around the corner. “You may not see them in the Clinton Herald or the Quad Cities Regional Business Journal yet, but things are happening. We are hustling,” he added. Several community members and business leaders were also honored during the Grow Clinton annual meeting. For instance, about 12 people were honored for graduating from the 2024 Grow Clinton Leadership Institute.  The course was designed to foster the growth of leaders throughout the region. The institute offers participants opportunities to improve their leadership skills, increase effectiveness in their jobs, improve community awareness, garner new tools and techniques for leading groups, and network with other community leaders. “They did a nice job of blending things together. … I learned a lot about our community, even though I’ve lived here my whole life,” said Jeremy Peters, an employee with Custom-Pak, and one of the graduates of the Leadership Institute. Grow Clinton officials also presented awards to five community members on Tuesday. Those people honored were:

• Julie Allesee Community Leader of the Year: Brian Kelly, president of Clinton Community College.
• Manager of the Year: Joe Hoinkis, plant manager at LyondellBasell.
• Karl Schmitz Memorial Award for Outstanding Ambassador: Judy Farrell, retired from First Central State Bank.
• Small Business Person of the Year: Joy Jensen, owner of Gateway Realty Group.
• Al Wise Memorial Award for Outstanding Volunteer: Wes Tharp, Pix Along the Way.