By Trish Svoboda

Penni Zelinkoff hosted Wake Up Clay County at 12th Street Estates on Wednesday.

Penni owns two businesses, Pennywise Investment, and Pennywise Homes. A few years ago, she was looking to expand and do development work in a smaller town where she could really make an impact and help the community. Clay Center is the town that came to mind, as she remembers meeting residents around the town and seeing the support and assistance throughout the community stuck out to her.

A year and a half ago, she bought an eight-acre parcel of land with the goal of creating affordable housing. There are 44 lots designated for housing that can hold single or double-wide homes. Penni says they’re doing all new infrastructure, new water lines, brand new electric, and transformers. Twin Valley will also be doing all-new fiber optics.

Some decisions still have to be made, such as the type of housing they want to build. Some options include a 55 and older concept, perhaps duplexes or maybe even triplexes could come in, or they could stick with manufactured homes. Either way, Penni wants to make sure it’s something that will benefit the community and is what the community wants.