“We’ve got room to grow,” Ryan said.

A positive attitude doesn’t hurt, concluded Gradeless.

“An economic downturn is not going to stop festivals and events,” Gradeless said. “People care. Just look at our historic square. It’s preserved, and you can see how clean everything is.”

Wapello County was down by about one-tenth of a percent, losing 41 residents for a total of 36,010 residents.

Ottumwa Mayor Dale Uehling credits local economic development the ability to stay fairly constant while other counties drop.

“We’ve had some job growth with some of our companies: Cargill both at Eddyville and Cargill Meat Solutions, John Deere, Winbco and Al-jon,” he said. “American Bottling has remained strong, we have new companies like Frog Legs — unless something unforeseen happens, I look for us to remain in fairly strong economic condition.”

In fact, with the coming of a Job Corps site to the area around the Ottumwa Industrial Airport, he said the outlook is even brighter.

“I certainly would have liked to see us with some growth. And when we have the 2010 count, I think we may see some growth,” Uehling said. “But the fact that we are holding our own is positive.”

Mahaska County also saw only a small change, losing 38 people. And while Appanoose, Jefferson and Keokuk all lost residents between 2000-06, the local news isn’t all bad. Both Van Buren and Davis Counties grew slightly over the last few years.

“We think we’re a really good place to live because of numerous [benefits] here,” said Davis County Supervisor Max Proctor.

He cited the lakes, the history and other amenities that are attractive to Davis County residents. But there are other counties that have such things, and they lost ground.

“Anything I tell you would be conjecture. Certainly, our Amish population is helping; they’re pretty steady. And our young people are coming back in a few instances, and people are coming back here to retire. It’s a fairly economical place to live. We’ve had people move here from Ottumwa,” Proctor said.

County officials have seen the declining numbers around them, and Proctor said he’s glad for even a small increase. The more people in a municipality, the more spread out the tax burden is.

“To hold your own is a good thing. We don’t seem like we’ve got an abundance of money, but it’s certainly better than going the other way.”

Every new house is a new source of property tax to support the community, he said. But are they building in Davis County?