Red Oak Area Partnership formed to facilitate Lakin initiative

A new organization has been formed in Red Oak to facilitate Red Oak’s participation in the Lakin Foundation’s Revitalize Southwest Iowa Initiative.
The mission statement of the new organization is as follows: “The mission of the Red Oak Area Partnership is to serve as a conduit for funding, facilitate and develop project ideas, and provide collaboration-based leadership for nonprofit and community betterment organizations. We operate with integrity as volunteer directors and advisory board members, working intentionally through community engagement.”
Tim Werges and Tim Fridolph are two of the members of the Red Oak Area Partnership, Inc.  made up of community leaders and volunteers. The organization was formed after the announcement by the Lakin Foundation in October, 2024, of the Revitalize Southwest Iowa Initiative, a $165 million dollar donation to the Community Foundation for Western Iowa, with the purpose of the donation being economic growth and population growth in the six counties that make up Southwest Iowa.
“That funding has been allocated out to these counties and then communities pro rata based on population. So the amount of funding that Red Oak will get is based on what our population is and our endowment is roughly $18.75 million. Those funds are largely geared towards four purposes, child care, housing, education, and this kind of broad category of economic resilience,” Werges explained.
The funding can be utilized in two different forms to accomplish items in those arenas.
“One way we can use the funding is through grant dollars. We can take 5% of our endowment value annually in the form of grant funding into the community to help with things like child care as an example. We could also borrow funds from that endowment. It’s really in the form of a revolving loan fund. If we wanted to build five houses, we could borrow the funds from this endowment to construct those homes and then pay the endowment back when those houses sell,” said Werges.
Fridolph said if they did borrow funds, they would need to be careful, because that reduces the endowment.
“If the endowment is reduced, that’s going to reduce the grant dollars that we’ve got available. So obviously that’s got to be some careful consideration. Also of note, our organization, the Red Oak Area Partnership, is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We’ve got our tax exempt status from the IRS. Our goal is to be the entity that the Lakins will work with. Really what we will be is facilitators or intermediaries between these projects, whatever they might look like, and the Lakin Foundation.
Even though the funds will be held in the Community Foundation of Western Iowa, Fridolph said the Red Oak Area won’t have access to those funds directly.
“The funds will always be held by the Community Foundation, and then the final say will come from the Lakin Foundation. So just because a project’s brought forth to us and we think it’s a good thing and worthwhile to fund, if we pass that on to the Lakin Foundation and they don’t believe that it is or have questions, then it doesn’t get funded. They need an organization to be able to work with in these communities that know their communities better than the foundation does. And so that’s kind of what we’ve endeavored to be for them,” explained Fridolph.
Werges is the President of the board directors of the Red Oak Area Partnership, and Fridolph is serving as treasurer. Werges shared the names of the other members making up the initial partnership.
“Cynthia Bangston is our vice president, Steve Adams is the secretary, and Elaine Carlson is our fifth member. Our bylaws call for up to an eleven-member board. So over the course of this year we will be expanding that board to include additional members. We also formed a housing subcommittee. Some members of that include Scott Allensworth, Jeff Soe, Audie Rainey, Ann Carder, John O’Neal and Ryan Beeson,” Werges stated. “We’re also in the process of forming a community amenities subcommittee. And there will be a child care subcommittee as well. It will likely be comprised of some members of the current child development Center’s board of directors.”
Werges added that the endowment is, as structured, currently intended to be there in perpetuity.
“The grant funds would need to be spent annually. If we don’t spend them then they’re retained within the endowment and then you have more to take out in future years,” Werges commented. “They rolled out this massive plan, and I’m incredibly grateful to the Lakin Foundation for doing so. It’s a massive initiative,” Werges said.
Fridolph said while things are still fluid, members of the Red Oak Area Partnership are maintaining conversations.
“They’re still finalizing a lot of the details on their end, and we’re continuing to meet with them. We know as much as we do from what information they give us. We continue to stay in contact with them as an organization and continue to keep moving forward as we’re doing the best that we can with the information that they give us,” Fridolph advised.
Werges said they have an idea of what the timeline of things will be as we move out of 2025 and into 2026.
“Obviously, the goal would be to have the endowment funded by the beginning of 2026, given that everything progresses as it should. As for the remainder of 2025, there will be representatives from the Lakin Foundation coming to Red Oak on Aug. 13. The primary purpose of that visit is for us to relay to them what our rough plan for housing would be. Then in mid-November, we will be tasked with making a presentation to the Lakin Board of Directors, and from that presentation, they will determine if we’ve qualified to receive this funding in 2026,” Werges stated. “When I say they’ll determine if we’ve qualified, what I think they really want to do is make sure that we’re organized and ready to roll this initiative out.”
With the amount of experience on the committee, Werges said he anticipates the Lakin Foundation will be pleased.
“I don’t want to be overconfident, but I do feel that we’ve assembled a good group here, especially between the Board of Directors, but also at our housing committee level. We have some very qualified and experienced people that are working on this housing plan, so I’m pretty enthused about that,” Werges said.
When it comes to housing, available land is a must. Fridolph said they have a variety of options, including some vacant lots.
“I believe it was in Atlantic that the city bought land over there and then just deeded it over to their Vision Atlantic group. I think that’s something that as a city we could look at doing as well, if we’ve got some of these lots that we own and using those if they meet the criteria and are not in the floodplain. Using those to allow the Red Oak Area Partnership to build upon for this initiative, I think, would be a perfect thing. I think the Lakins also want to see communities that work together and can really partner on things,” Fridolph explained.
The Lakin Foundation has expressed interest in initially building homes on infill lots as opposed to a brand new housing development as those sites already have infrastructure in place, making the cost significantly less than a brand new development which can sometimes cost millions for infrastructure. There are roughly ten lots left up in the Barnett subdivision and an additional 10 at the Bancroft and Webster school sites. The land will be ready for new development at those sites within a couple of months.
In addition to the crunch for housing, Werges made it clear that Red Oak is in a crunch when it comes to available childcare.
“I’m the treasurer of the Red Oak Early Childcare Center board of directors. When the center opened in 2020, I think we were licensed for right around 50 kids. Over the next three to four years, we expanded capacity up to 145 kids. Despite that rapid expansion, there’s a wait list there. We still have more demand than we have supply. So that is definitely something that we will be working to further address as well,” Werges commented.
Fridolph said he and the other members of Red Oak Area Partnership are eternally grateful to the Lakin Foundation for the funding, as it is absolutely essential and doesn’t require competition.
“We use this word a lot, but it will be transformational for our community. Also, nobody is trying to one-up another community. Shenandoah has their own funds they’re getting. We’ve got our own funds. Villisca, Stanton, Atlantic, all these communities have their own pot of money. We don’t have to one-up somebody else to try to get more money, and we’re not divvying up money from the same funding pot. When you’re talking about, essentially, a nearly $19 million dollar investment, in a sense, into our community, it’s a game changer. This isn’t something that anyone has ever seen, at least, not that I’m aware of,” Fridolph stated.
Fridolph added the work the Red Oak Area Partnership is doing is similar to the efforts made years ago by the Red Oak Coalition.
“You had a group that people came together and we got a lot of good things out of that. The YMCA was part of that group, the History Center, the Performing Arts Center. We had this financial injection into the community. That’s the foundation that we want to build on. We don’t want this to just start and stop with the Lakin Initiative. We want to continue to build upon those things that were happening years ago, and kind of bring that back and be an entity that people can come in and rally around, and we can get a lot more things done,” advised Fridolph.
Werges added that many of our community’s assets, including the YMCA, the Wilson Performing Arts Center, and even the Red Oak Country Club, are largely the result of the efforts of some of Red Oak’s predecessors and they really left a strong foundation to build on that the community should be proud.
“A lot of that comes back to the things that were done through the coalition days, and the funding that was surrounding that was largely from the Wilson family, but it also helped that there was a large effort among the community as well to facilitate all that,” Werges commented.
Coming soon will be a website and social media presence, and anyone seeking information in the interim can contact one of the board members.