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Some clouds. Low 66F. Winds light and variable..
Some clouds. Low 66F. Winds light and variable.
Shelley Oltmans, executive director of the Keokuk Area Chamber of Commerce and employed by the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach office, will see her last day with the organizations on Thursday. She is taking a position at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri.
Shelley Oltmans, executive director of the Keokuk Area Chamber of Commerce and employed by the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach office, will see her last day with the organizations on Thursday. She is taking a position at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri.
It’s been eight and a half years and a variety of hair colors, but now Keokuk Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Shelley Oltmans is moving on. Oltmans made the announcement recently that she is taking a job with Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, to be a lecturer and director of the IDEA Center.
She started in May 2014 as an employee of the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, which paid half the salary while the chamber paid the other half. She said she was expecting to stay three to five years when she started.
Oltmans is not moving from Keokuk, instead she will be commuting to Canton.
“I love Keokuk,” she said.
In fact, though her role at the Chamber of Commerce is ending, she is still going to stay involved in several organizations, including being on the board of the Keokuk Neighborhood Initiative, which has sought to bring housing to town and had a prebuilt home placed at 722 N. Ninth street a few years ago. The second site the group had purchased, is going to now be used by Habitat for Humanity.
She also will stay involved in the Keokuk Community Child Development Center. That daycare came about when several people, including Oltmans, decided to do something about the distinct lack of child care options in Keokuk.
Oltmans, who has been involved in many projects during her time at the chamber, said most of her other involvements will be distributed to other organizations and individuals.
A lot has been accomplished in the past eight years and there are several projects of which Oltmans is particularly proud.
She said a dental recruitment drive comes to mind. They set up a task force to bring some more dentists to town and that resulted in Kircher Family Dentistry investing a lot of money into its business. It also helped create a community tour that is used to help recruit other businesses to the area.
The Keokuk Neighborhood Initiative also is something she has pride in. That, again, is something she in which she will stay involved.
There also was the Lee County Leadership program. She said that was a county-wide leadership course, where those involved would meet once a month and learn community leadership skills. She said it was a great program and it is supposed to start up again this fall.
The child care center is important to her, as is the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, where University of Iowa Students did two dozen projects in town. While some of it was marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, it still provided a lot of help and useful information to the city.
That project is not unlike the IDEA Center she will be directing at Culver-Stockton. She said the center is to connect faculty and students to community projects. Oltmans said it is a fairly new program. The school has the space and concept, but now needed a director. She said she has the experience and having an extensive network already in the area will help her at the new job.
“I’m excited to get back to working with students,” she said.
As far as what she will miss about her current position, she said she will miss being connected and plugged in to what is going on in town. She also will miss her colleagues and daily conversations with them.
She will be watching from the outside on some big projects like the Elkem project that has been ongoing. She’s still excited to see something done with that property, but others will be taking the lead on it.
Since she’s been the executive director of the chamber, she said there has been a fostering of great collaborations and partnerships with not only people in Keokuk, but with Lee County, Southeast Iowa and the Tri-State area.
She said one of the things that has been done recently is to keep building on what has been accomplished, rather than starting over. She said the 2018 comprehensive plan has been a framework to keep building upon, and it led to projects like the Southeast Iowa Development Center, the U of I sustainable communities project, and the housing projects.
As for the comment about Oltman’s hair in the opening sentence, that is something people have remembered her by. Oltmans said changing her hair color and style is something she has done since she was a little kid. It now has become more or less her brand, she said.
Oltmans said she’s been at events and people have come up to her and said she did not know them, but they knew she was Shelley with Keokuk who has the dyed hair.
“Then we start talking about a project,” she said. “I think it is really important for people to be who they are.”
Overall, Oltmans said she appreciates how Keokuk embraced her and the work that she has done. She said that isn’t always easy to find in a small community and she is happy to have built the relationships she has.
“It’s sad to go, but I’m happy to be able to advance my career,” she said.
There will be a reception for Oltmans at the Southeast Iowa Development Center, 1417 Exchange St., at 2 p.m. Thursday, for people to stop and wish her luck.
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Some clouds. Low 66F. Winds light and variable.
Some clouds. Low 66F. Winds light and variable.
Intervals of clouds and sunshine in the morning with more clouds for later in the day. High 87F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
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