Hello Carlisle Businesses,
As the community recovers from the recent water outage, we are working with Warren County Economic Development Corp. (WCEDC) and business community stakeholders to support local businesses and better understand the impact this emergency has had on our business community. We are reaching out today with TWO IMPORTANT & TIME-SENSITIVE ITEMS. Please see below:
1. Carlisle Bounce Back Bucks Program – Participating businesses needed by the 15th!
- We are excited to announce Carlisle Bounce Back Bucks, a pop-up gift certificate promotion of the newly established Carlisle Business Recovery Task Force. The program is designed to double residents’ spending power and quickly get money flowing into affected businesses. This program focuses on brick-and-mortar food/beverage, retail, and service businesses that were negatively impacted by the outage. A promotional flyer with the details is attached.
- Bounce Back Bucks go on sale this Friday and Saturday and will be redeemable only at participating Carlisle businesses during the spending period of October 16–31, 2026.
- There will be two Bounce Back Buck payout dates to get money to participating businesses faster: businesses will be able to turn in the certificates they collected each Monday of the spending period and will receive a check for the value of those certificates. The Carlisle Police Officers Association (a 501c3 non-profit) has graciously agreed to let us run this program through them which allows donations to be tax-deductible and provides us with quick, local processing for business payouts.
- The number of certificates we can sell depends on how many donors we secure by this Friday. Our goal is to hit or surpass $20,000 which would result in a $40,000 impact. If you know anyone who has expressed a desire to provide financial support towards recovery efforts, please have them reach out to Rachel Gocken a rgocken@wcedc.com. Any unused funds will be put toward additional business recovery efforts in the coming weeks/months.
- Interested in participating? Simply email Rachel Gocken at rgocken@wcedc.com by this Thursday, Oct 15th to confirm your business would like to be an approved location where Bounce Back Bucks can be redeemed. We will finalize the list of participating locations by this Friday the 16th (when certificates go on sale and the spending period begins). Certificates will have a QR code that links to a landing page where participating businesses will be listed, along with the donors who helped make this program possible.
2. Business Impact Survey – Responses requested by the 19th.
- We also want to hear directly from our local business community about how the water outage affected your operations. We ask that you complete a brief Business Impact Survey to help us better understand the financial and operational challenges experienced during the emergency. Your feedback will help guide conversations regarding potential additional relief, resources, and business support efforts moving forward.
- Complete the Business Impact Survey Here! – Please feel free to share the survey link with any fellow businesses so we can capture as much information as possible by Monday, Oct 19th.
Thank you for your continued commitment to the Carlisle community. We recognize the challenges this emergency has created and are committed to working together to support our local businesses as we move forward. This is a lot of information, and we have a very short time to communicate it to all of you and the public. PLEASE do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Rachel Gocken, Executive Director
Warren County Economic Development Corp.
110 N. Howard Street – Indianola, IA 50125
O: 515-961-1067 | C: 515-779-7865