Iowa banks mark expansion in Vinton, Beaman

Northwestern Financial Review, Oct 1-Oct 14, 2003

Cedar Valley Bank & Trust Co., La Porte City, Iowa, celebrated its recent expansion into Vinton with an open house at its new branch. The $30 million bank branched into Vinton, a town of 5,100 people, early this summer and now operates three locations in Benton and Black Hawk counties.

"I'm really pleased with how the new branch turned out," said David Coulter, the bank's president and CEO. "There have been a lot of nice comments about the feel of the building, and that was important to us."

The branch is located one block off Main Street where the bank was able to provide customer parking and a drive-up teller window. While downtown Vinton is nice, Coulter said, Main Street businesses have issues with parking that the bank wanted to avoid.

Kirk Gross Company of Waterloo oversaw the design of the project and hired local contractors for construction. "We need to make local folks part of our operations," Coulter said. "The Kirk Gross team really understood that."

"Cedar Valley Bank & Trust was demonstrating their commitment to the Vinton community by establishing this branch location and, in the process of constructing it, demonstrated that commitment on another level as well," said Chuck Yagla, director of business development for Kirk Gross Company.

Cedar Valley Bank & Trust, established in 1906, opened a branch office in Mount Auburn in 1993.

Kirk Gross Company also recently completed an expansion for Farmers Savings Bank of Beaman, Iowa with the opening of a new motor bank in Marshalltown. "The new facility provides our customers with a much more convenient location on the south side of Marshalltown," said Rob Judkins, the bank's vice president. "It's a prime location as far as traffic is concerned."

With the addition of the motor bank, the $100 million Farmers Savings Bank now has six banking locations in Iowa. Mary Jacobson is the branch manager for the motor bank.