The Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities at the University of Iowa Wednesday announced Webster City as its next community partner.

Webster City’s resilience and grass-roots recovery initiatives reportedly inspired the IISC advisory board to choose the community for IISC’s engaged-learning partnership that will bring 150 or more university students, faculty, and staff to work alongside Webster City officials and community members on 10 to 15 projects during the 2018-19 academic year. Webster City was selected in a competitive process from a pool of community applicants from across Iowa. This partnership’s value to the community is estimated at $250,000, officials said.

“I’m really honored they chose us for this partnership,” said Webster City Community Vitality Director Lindsay Henderson, who found out Webster City was selected for the partnership on Friday.

“This is a game changer for Webster City. This new opportunity will energize the community and lay the groundwork for future investments,” said State Rep. Rob Bacon, House District 48. “I’m very excited for Webster City and Hamilton County.”