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SWIPCO outlines regional transit and housing work affecting Pottawattamie County

3039811 · April 15, 2025

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Summary

Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO) representatives briefed supervisors on transit ridership, regional housing and planning services provided to Pottawattamie County and surrounding counties, including recent projects and local staffing and payroll numbers.

John McCurdy, executive director of the Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO), and Mark Lander, director of SWITA (the region’s transit arm), updated the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors on agency programs that affect the county, including transit operations, housing assistance and community development projects.

McCurdy said SWIPCO serves eight counties; SWIPCO employs about 100 people across the region, with 24 staff who live in Pottawattamie County and a payroll exceeding $1 million locally. He described recent county-focused work: downtown façade grants and zoning updates in Walnut, rental-code and dangerous-building inspections in Oakland, a childcare community-development block grant collaboration with Lakeland Foundation and Peace Haven, and shared nuisance-enforcement concepts for smaller towns.

Mark Lander gave ridership and service details for SWITA’s county operations: about 20 drivers are based in Pottawattamie County; SWITA ran 148,112 trips last year totaling roughly 444,000 miles and about 22,000 revenue hours. McCurdy and Lander said the agency operates four work routes and five vanpools in the county and estimated approximately 65,000 rides annually tied to work routes and vanpool services in and out of the county. Lander described employer-subsidized vanpools (noting a $600 monthly subsidy per vanpool) and said SWITA operates a 24/7 service model for some routes.

Why it matters: SWIPCO’s planning, code and transit services deliver regional transportation options and targeted community-development support; the county’s membership and local staff presence mean some regional investments have direct local impact.

Supervisors asked about crossover with other agencies (for example weatherization and energy-efficiency programs) and about data and staffing; McCurdy said some housing trust-fund dollars do not flow to Pottawattamie County because the county is not currently a housing-trust member, limiting the scope of certain SWIPCO housing programs here. McCurdy said the agency is winding down large flood-recovery projects in other counties and refocusing on community development and housing readiness in smaller towns.