Just over one year after an EF-3 tornado destroyed several buildings along the Vermeer Mile, Governor Kim Reynolds returned to the corporation to meet with the future of the company. Reynolds, Lt. Governor Adam Gregg, and Vermeer Chair Mary Andringa co-hosted a roundtable with apprenticeship students from Pella High School currently working in the new program developed over the past few years in the community. Reynolds received an update about the progress of Vermeer’s rebuild as well, and says it’s remarkable how the company has come back and how quickly they returned to full production.

“I even said it that day [after the storm], that I have no doubt they’ll come back stronger and better than ever and it’s just who we are as Iowans–we’re tenacious, we’re determined, we’re resilient. The community’s response, the government’s response at the federal and the state, to anything we could do the help through that. But the fact they had people back within 30 days, and in 45, they were up and going, I mean it’s just incredible,” she says.

Hear more from Mary Andringa about Governor Reynold’s visit to Vermeer on today’s Let’s Talk Pella.