Members of the Pella Area Community and Economic Alliance received an update about economic performance in 2020.

Executive Director Karen Eischen says they released a year in review report in January that focused on the impact of COVID-19 on visitor traffic in 2020 and how the pandemic impacted community events and businesses.

At their recent virtual meeting, Eischen discussed details about taxable sales, based on data from the Iowa Department of Revenue. Eischen says about a $3.1 million increase was reported from 2019 to 2020.

“Even with COVID, the confidence to go out and do improvements or investments or purchase new things was there — I think that’s great to see,” she says. “It’s a little less growth than we’ve seen in the past, but obviously given that happened, that was expected and understandable.”

Eischen says the taxable sales growth locally was much higher than most communities in Iowa, and that Pella-area businesses were fortunate that spending continued at near-normal numbers despite the pandemic.