2019 was a successful year for Mercer County Better Together. The community and economic development organization led efforts to bring jobs, recreation, and boost children's literacy.
Executive Director Kyle McEwen says one measure of their success is the organization spent 77,000 dollars on its various programs, and estimates the benefits at 479,000 dollars - a return on investment of six to one.
"The 479,000 number is a really conservative number. The actual r-o-i (return on investment) might be, who knows, double that, when you consider the downstream effects of all these different community readiness steps, community revitalization steps, different projects, and programs."
They completed recreation projects for all the towns in the county that had been started in 2018, and agreed on an "advocacy agenda" to take to state government in Springfield.
McEwen says Mercer County Better Together also begain working with University of Illinois Extension to revitalize downtown Viola.
"It's been neglected over the years and so we were able to get the right players at the table to get a plan completed which is valued at right about 35,000 dollars, and that was done free."
In addition his group helped the Aledo United Methodist Church and county health department set up a food pantry that distributed over 1,600 meals.
For the coming year, McEwen says one of their main projects will be the census, and making sure residents know how important it is to be counted.
