OACDG - Demographics

Oskaloosa, Iowa Community Quick Reference

Population Major Local Employers Wage Rates Labor Utilities Transportation Business Climate Quality of Life Education Images

Location
County	Mahaska
Region	Central
Community Description:	A unique community which prides itself on maintaining the integrity of its tradition and yet building a better future through progress; quality of life is a high priority; completely restored bandstand and town square; lots of growth; new auditorium, library and law enforcement center were completed within the last 5 years.

Population
	1980	1990	2000
Community	10,989	10,600	10,938
County	22,867	21,513	22,335
State	2,913,808	2,776,755	2,926,324
Estimated pop. within 50 miles.	89,000

Major Local Employers
	Product	Employment	Union Affiliation
Pella Corporation	windows	3,587	none
Vermeer Manufacturing	ag equipment	1,474	none
Cargill	corn fructose	500	none
CLOW Corporation	valves and hydrants	400	Ia of MASW
Oskaloosa Community Schools	education services	316	Various
Mahaska Health Partnership	health services	280	None
William Penn University	university	250	none
Musco Lighting	temporary lighting	229	None
Cunningham, Inc.	metal, ventilating	126	none
Pepsi-Cola Bottling	soft drinks	110	none
Panel Components Corp.	power cords and connectors	101	None
Oskaloosa Food Products	frozen, dried eggs	100	UFCW
ITW Paslode	pneumatic power tools	100	None
City of Oskaloosa	governmental services	80	Firefighters
Ajinomato-Heartland	Crystalline Lysine	78	None
Lynn's Transportation	refrigerated carriers	70	None
Wakes, Inc.	livestock feed	29	None

Wage Rates
Month:	9	Year:	1998

	Entry Wage	Average Wage
Clerk, Gen. Office	6.43	7.78
Laborer, Factory	6.25	7.85
Assembler, Prod.	8.27	9.42
Production Super.	11.38	15.98
Shipping/Receiving	6.59	8.19
Salesperson	5.02	7.80
Secretary	6.59	8.19
Sheet Metal Worker	8.00	10.24
Shipping/Receiving	7.30	9.12
Truck Driver, Heavy	8.25	9.36
Bookkeeper	7.15	8.47
Accounting Clerk	7.35	8.76
Janitor	5.76	8.20
Manager, Office	11.79	14.99

IWD Labor Survey - 1998
Available Labor Force
Male:	534
Female:	499
Total:	1033

IWD Labor Force Summary
Summary for:	MAHASKA COUNTY
Annual average for:	1998
Place of Residence
Total labor force:	11,700
Total employment:	11,430
Unemployed:	260	Percent:	2.2
Place of Work
Total nonag wage & salary workers:	7,980
Manufacturing:	1,360	Non-manufacturing:	6,620
Construction & mining:	440
Trans., communications & public utilities:			400
Wholesale & retail trade:			2,320
Wholesale:	510	Retail:	1,810
Finance, insurance & real estate:			270
Services:	2,080	Government:	1,120

Utilities

Communications

Name of local telephone company:

Quest

Time required for repair (reg. bus. hours):

Is the city in an equal access long distance market:

For Intra-LATA calls?

For Inter-LATA calls?

Yes

What type of switch is at the central office?

Digital

Is fiber currently in the ground?

Yes

Current fiber is used for:

Interoffice facilities and feeder distribution

Interoffice facilities and feeder distribution services available:

SS7:	No	Local cellular:	No
ISDNL	No	Internet:	Yes
T1-DS1:	Yes	Video conferencing:	No

Electric

Name of supplier(s):

MidAmerican Energy Company

Type of ownership:

public

Water
Name of supplier	Oskaloosa Muni. Water
Type of ownership:	private
Elevated storage capacity (gal.):	900,000
Capacity of water plant (gal.):	4,600,000
Average consumption: (gpd):	1,200,000
Peak Consumption:	1,600,000
Natural Gas
Name of distributor:	MidAmerican Energy Company
Pipeline source:	Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America
Sanitation
Type of sewage treatment plant:	secondary
Percentage of city served by sewer:	95
Avg. load (gpd):	1,300,000
Peak load (gpd):	1,800,000
Design capacity (gpd):	5,870,000

Transportation
Proximity to Markets
	Miles	Days by railroad (carload)	Days by motor freight (truckload)
Atlanta	798	5	2
Chicago	286	2	1
Denver	722	3	1
Des Moines	60	2	1
Kansas City	217	3	1
Los Angeles	1745	5	3
Milwaukee	325	3	1
Minneapolis	290	2	1
New Orleans	934	5	2
New York	1072	5	4
Omaha	190	3	1
St. Louis	278	3	1

Motor Carrier

Highway bus service available?

Yes

Number of US Highways serving city:

Number of state highways serving city:

Time in minutes to nearest:

Interstate Interchange:	30	Interstate Number:	80
Four-lane Highway:	15	Highway Number:	163

Number serving community

Motor freight carriers:	11	Local terminals:	2
Intrastate carriers:	11	Interstate carriers:	6

Rail Service

Is community served by rail?

Yes

Passenger service?

Frequency or switching service?

daily

Piggyback ramp available locally?

Distance in minutes to nearest piggyback service?

Minutes to rail if not located in community?

Name of nearest railroads:

Union Pacific

Air Service
Nearest airport:	Des Moines International
Time in minutes:	60
Longest runway (ft).:	4003
Runway type:	concrete
Unicom radio?	Yes
VOR?	Yes
ILS?	Yes
Non-directional?	Yes
Nearest commercial airport:	Oskaloosa Municipal Airport
Located in:	Des Moines
Time in minutes:	10
Airlines serving this point:	Air Midwest, American West Express, American, Astro Aviation dba Skyway, Chicago Express, COMAIR/Delta Airlines, Northwest Airlines, TWA, United.
Barge Service
Does city adjoin navigable river?	No
Barge dock available?	No
Channel depth:	0
Length of season:	0
Transportation Remarks:

Business Climate
Commercial Industrial Services
Number of machine shops in community:	1	Number of manufacturing employees in community:	2,230
Minutes to nearest machine shop if none in community:	5	Number of work stoppages in the last five years:	0
Number of tool/die shops in community:	0	Municipal Service
Minutes to nearest tool/die shop if none in community:	25	Type of local government:	Home Charter Rule with Mayor/Council/City Manager
Number of electric motor repair shops in community:	1	Date of comprehensive plan:	1998
Minutes to nearest electrical motor shop if none in community:	5	City zoning ordinance in effect?	Yes
Name(s) of daily newspapers:	Oskaloosa Herald/Shopper	Subdivision ordinance with design standards in effect?	Yes
Name(s) of weekly newspapers in community:	New Sharon Star Fremont Gazette	Number of full-time fire department personnel:	16
Number of radio stations	2	Number of volunteer fire department personnel:	0
Seating capacity of largest banquet room:	500	Number of full-time city police officers:	18
Is city served by cable TV?	Yes	Industrial waste pickup service?	No
Number of motels/hotels:	6	Percentage of city streets paved:	80
Total number of rooms available:	220	Tax Structure
Number of financial institutions in the city:	5	Assessed value of property in city:	154,009,051
Number of company-owned national chain retail stores:	26	Tax rate per $1,000 assessed value?	37.63
Chamber of commerce?	Yes	Bond indebtedness - city:	5,875,000
Is the manager full-time?	Yes	Bond indebtedness - school:	850,000
Is community CEPP certified?	Yes	Bond indebtedness - capacity of community:	10,619,889
Number of manufacturing plants in community:	38	Future indebtedness plans:	0
Number of manufacturing plants with unions:	2

Community and county financial incentive:
TIF, Tax Abatement
Municipal Remarks:

Development Services:
Full-time Industrial Director and Board of Directors offering full services to new and existing industries.
Active Civic/Industrial Improvement Programs:
Main Street (downtown revitalization); Mahaska Future View (long-range planning); Oskaloosa Community Development Foundation; Historic Preservation; Oskaloosa Area Chamber & Development Group; MCARD (Mahaska County Agricultural and Rural Development); Succes Center.

Quality of Life

Cultural and Recreational Facilities

Public park(s):

Public golf course(s):

Public tennis court(s)

Public swimming pool(s):

Number of country clubs available:

Public access to lake or river?

Yes

Activities allowed:
Swimming?	Yes	Water Skiing?	Yes
Fishing?	Yes	Motor boating?	Yes

Cultural Facilities

Theater?	Yes	Historic sites?	Yes
Library?	Yes	Art gallery?	No
Opera?	No	Symphony?	Yes
Museum?	Yes	Historical society?	Yes
Ballet?	No	Arts council?	No

Does the community have a local historic preservation council?

Yes

Is the program certified?

Yes

Average cost of construction for housing ($/sq.ft.):

Recreation and Cultural Facilities:

Brand new 700-seat community auditorium with professional programming scheduled on regular basis, completed in 1997. Lake Keomah Park, 4.5 miles east, includes 83-acre lake with boating, camping, and picnicking facilities; Lake Red Rock, 15 miles west, and Lake Rathbun, 36 miles southwest, covers 20,000 acres. Events: Lighted Christmas Parade, Art on the Square, IMCA Stock Car American Shoot Out. Attractions: Nelson Pioneer Farm.

Health facilities

Total number of hospitals within an hour drive:

Total number of beds:

Time in minutes to the nearest hospital:

Time in minutes to nearest emergency care:

Is helicopter emergency care available?

Yes

Number of clinics in community:

Specialty of clinics:

FP, Ortho., Peds., Urology, Internal, Psyc., Surg.

Number of medical personnel in county:

MD(s):	28	DC(s):	5
DO(s):	2	Other:	8
Dentist(s):	9

Climate

Average temperature winter (F):

25.4

Average temperature summer (F):

73.9

Average annual rainfall (in.):

35.1

Average annual snowfall (in.):

29.5

Religious Congregations

Protestant:	35	Catholic:	1
Jewish:	0	Other:	0
Total number of congregations:			36

Health Care:

There are four clinics. MD's include 15 specialis

Education
School District:		OSKALOOSA
		Schools	Enrollment	Teachers	Grades
	Elementary:	6	1,333	89	K-6
	Middle/Jr. High:	1	663	46	7-9
	Senior High:	1	579	47	10-12
	Private:	1	158	15	K-8
Trade and Technical
	Names of 2-year colleges, trade schools, and community colleges within 30 minutes:
	Indian Hills satellite
	Names of 4-year colleges and universities within 30 minutes:
	William Penn University and Vennard
Education remarks:
Both university and colleges provide Oskaloosa with a variety of cultural, athletic, and religious activities. A new Junior High was built in 1986. A new 700-seat community auditorium was completed in 1997, and the Carnegie Library in town completed a major addition and rennovation in 1997. A new law enforcement center has just been completed.
Dependent Care:
Mahaska County Ext. Office, 212 North "I" Street, Oskaloosa, IA 52577, 515-673-5841.

Community Contact
Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group
124 N. Market Street

Oskaloosa, IA 52577
Phone: 641-672-2591
Fax: 641-672-2047
oskycofc@oacdg.org