TRUMAN — Exciting news recently rippled through Truman with the announcement that the city may be getting a Dollar General.

With plans falling into place over the past few months, the City Council this month accepted the deed to a frontage road along Highway 15 in Truman, contingent on construction of a building for Dollar General.

City Administrator Bethanie Ekstrom, who has been a main contact between parties, said the developer has given the city permission to announce there will be a Dollar General in Truman if a sale takes place.

“At this point, the gentleman selling the land is hoping to have all of the papers signed in June and then I believe it was September that they would want to start building,” Ekstrom explained.

The seller Ekstrom is referring to is Dennis Rode, who hopes to sell the land to the developer. The city will be responsible for maintaining the frontage road.

“The way it was explained to me, Dollar General doesn’t own their buildings,” Ekstrom said. “Instead, they work with a development company.”

The developer then rents the building to Dollar General. In this case, the developer working on the site in Truman is Ratcliff Development, based out of Louisiana.

The store would be built on an empty lot next to Casey’s General Store.

Ekstrom said she was recently in contact with the contractor’s team and they are working on getting the required permits to build.

“We’re taking steps in the right direction. It’s definitely not a for sure thing, but we have all the things in place to get there,” Ekstrom said.

Plans to get a Dollar General store began last summer when a realtor in Winnebago, Elise Nielsen, sent emails to a number of Dollar General addresses. She was interested in seeing a Dollar General come to Truman, after seeing how much the store benefitted Winnebago. Once she received a response, she got in contact with Truman resident Debbie Neitzke and the two began looking for potential sites.

Several other cities in the area, including Winnebago, Blue Earth and Sherburn, have Dollar General stores.

According to the company’s website, there are more than 15,000 Dollar General stores in 44 states. The stores sell food, snacks, heath and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, family apparel, housewares, seasonal items, paper products and more.

“It’s been a process, however it will by a great asset to our community,” Ekstrom remarked.