Winn-Worth Betco News

This July, Lake Mills, IA, will be buzzing with activity as community members and visitors flock downtown for the cherished annual July Jubilee celebration. Featuring three packed days of family fun during the weekend of July 10-12, July Jubilee is one of Lake Mills’ most anticipated community events. Lake Mills Chamber of Commerce...Continue Reading

Steve Hanson feels an immeasurable connection to his 10-acre farmstead in Worth County, IA, a few miles outside Northwood. In 1945, his grandparents purchased the property and ran it as a typical Iowa farm, growing corn and soybeans and raising livestock, including hogs, cattle, and chickens.Hanson’s parents became the next...Continue Reading

Cait Dillavou of Clear Lake, IA won Third Place at the University of Iowa’s Venture School Launch Day Competition on June 11, 2026. Ten teams from across Iowa competed in the event, which was held at EntreFest, a two-day entrepreneurial conference in Iowa City, IA. Five teams competed in the...Continue Reading

Zack Smith of Lake Mills, IA won Second Place at the 2026 EntreFEST Pitch Competition on June 12th, 2026. The EntreFEST Pitch Competition, presented by Hy-Vee, brought together community leaders, founders, investors, and supporters In Iowa City to hear from five entrepreneurs as they competed for $15,000 in prize funding...Continue Reading

Area businesses and organizations are encouraged to register their interns for the NCIA Regional Intern Networking Event; a free, high-impact experience focused on leadership development, networking, and community engagement.This year’s featured speaker, Molly Mackey; author, leadership trainer, and Clear Lake High School graduate will share valuable insights to help interns...Continue Reading

New entrepreneurial incubator program helps North Iowa business owners build and grow a sustainable business ventureThe NIACC John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center recently launched Venture Launch Lab (VLL), a new entrepreneurial incubator program designed to help aspiring and early-stage business owners build the knowledge, systems, and confidence needed to successfully launch...Continue Reading

Registration is now open for the NIACC John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center’s premiere youth program for high school students, the Youth Entrepreneurial Academy (YEA). The Youth Entrepreneurial Academy is a unique opportunity for North Iowa high school students to expand their horizons, discover their personal strengths, and practice real-world skills.In 2026,...Continue Reading

Every community has a story to tell and a history, allowing the memories of the past to be cherished while a course for the future is plotted. Forest City, IA, is a charming community in Winnebago County with a rich heritage as a former industrial hub with strong educational roots...Continue Reading

Natural resource management is important in Worth County too - read about how local leaders balance economic opportunity with conservation.When Chris Barber thinks about just how much the landscape of Iowa has changed over the last 200 years, his passion for preserving the region’s natural grandeur is only reinforced.Barber, Director...Continue Reading

Natural resource management is important in Winnebago County, too - read about its economic impact there.When it comes to managing natural resources, local leaders face a balancing act. On one hand, leveraging those resources can yield significant economic benefits, but conservation is key to ensuring residents and visitors alike can...Continue Reading

What began more than a decade ago as a vision to better serve veterans across Winnebago and Worth counties came full circle on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, when Melissa Michaelis, Executive Director of Winn-Worth Betco, was surprised with the very first Home Base Iowa Community Champion Award.The award was presented...Continue Reading

The City of Fertile is proud to announce that it has officially joined more than 125 Iowa communities and counties in becoming a designated Home Base Iowa (HBI) Community—a meaningful commitment to honoring and supporting our nation’s veterans and active service members.Home Base Iowa is a statewide initiative that connects...Continue Reading

The competition to crown the 2026 Coolest Thing Made in Iowa continues as the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) today announced the Top 8 products advancing in the statewide contest, presented by Nicolet National Bank.  After another round of public voting, eight products remain in the bracket-style tournament...Continue Reading

U.S.D.A. Rural Development recently approve around four million dollars in grants for stations to add infrastructure for renewable fuels.The Iowa director of Rural Development, Mike Sexton, says the funding is for those stations that don’t have the resources of larger chains. “We still have a lot of mom and pop...Continue Reading

Work-based learning is one of the most effective ways to build Iowa’s future workforce, connecting students to real career pathways while helping employers develop talent early. Through hands-on experiences like job shadows, internships, company tours, and classroom engagement, employers play a direct role in shaping the skills and awareness students...Continue Reading

Based on our analysis of the Zillow Home Value Index, U.S. home prices are up just +0.8% year over year between March 2025 and March 2026. That marks a deceleration from the +1.2% growth rate a year earlier—though national year-over-year home price growth has recently stabilized, ticking a tad higher...Continue Reading

Most entrepreneurs are still wiring together five different apps and hoping nothing breaks at 2 AM. But AI has moved past automation into autonomy — tools that don’t just assist, they plan, execute and report back without supervision. PwC’s 2026 AI Performance study found that 74% of AI’s economic value...Continue Reading

Here in San Francisco, we live in a bubble, and we know it. While much of the rest of the country sees the city through the lens of Fox News cameramen searching out homeless encampments, we actually live in a very beautiful, very wealthy, and, currently, very AI-obsessed place. Traditionally,...Continue Reading

When Maria looked at herself in the mirror for the first time after her mastectomy, she stood very still.One hand rested on the bathroom counter. The other hovered near the flat space where her breast had been. The scar was raw and angry. The loss was quiet but enormous. Her...Continue Reading

As hybrid policies become the norm, some workers are falling through the cracks.Six years after the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, workplaces around the world are still settling into the new normal of workplace arrangements. While some companies continue to operate virtually, most employers now expect at least some...Continue Reading

If there’s one unmistakable takeaway from the 2026 site selection landscape so far, it’s this: investment activity remains strong, but certainty is harder than ever to secure.At the Site Selectors Guild’s 2026 Spring Conference, Guild Members gathered for a timely pulse check on the state of site selection, grounded in...Continue Reading

A fair salary is important for a great work experience, but other factors are also critical. In fact, many workers would trade a 10% raise for other key workplace benefits, a survey of 3,200 people by Reward Gateway finds.1. Well-being: 58% of people care less about a 10% pay raise...Continue Reading

Last week at the Iowa Rural Summit, the room buzzed with the kind of energy only small towns seem to generate. Among the panelists for the breakout session “Hitting Above Their Weight: Towns Under 1,000 That Rock” was advisory board member Corey Pulju, sharing stories that felt both familiar and...Continue Reading

The 2026 John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition application portal is now open. The annual statewide competition will award a total of $100,000 in cash prizes to early-stage Iowa startups and entrepreneurial ventures that intend to scale operations in Iowa. The John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition contest is intended...Continue Reading