SPENCER, IA (Northwestiowanow) — U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley held a meeting in Spencer Tuesday to hear directly from employees and community stakeholders about issues impacting northwest Iowa.

As part of his annual 99-county tour, Grassley met with local leaders at Spencer Municipal Utilities on July 7. Topics included flood recovery, FEMA delays, housing, healthcare funding, workforce shortages and assistance for small businesses.

Jordan Reed with Spencer Hospital said they’re up against an impossible deadline to install equipment or lose funding.

 

 

Much of the meeting was about the lag in federal funding to help the community recover from the flood that was more than two years ago.

City Manager Kevin Robinson told the Senator communities could move much faster if the process was streamlined.

 

 

Grassley told KICD News he would take the concerns back to Washington.

 

 

And Grassley said he’ll continue to work directly with FEMA in an attempt to speed things up.