REINBECK -- According to Steve Tscherter, the Great Financial Meltdown may have enveloped Wall Street, but apparently not Main Street.

Certainly, Tscherter's assessment appears evident in the current growth of the company over which he presides, Reinbeck-based Lincoln Savings Bank.

LSB, which has 12 branches in the Cedar Valley, is developing new locations in Waverly and Grinnell. The company offers a variety of services, including investment, real estate, lending and financial-planning services.

It's that diversity that has led to the 106-year-old firm's continued longevity, Tscherter said.

"It's been part of our strategy for many years," Tscherter said. "In order to maintain customers and build a customer base going forward, we feel we have to be a one-stop shop."

A growth spurt during times of financial turmoil in some of the world's financial capitals might seem incongruous, but it's a natural next step in Lincoln's plan, Tscherter said.

"It's part of our overlying strategy for the bank to have aggressive growth strategies," he said. "We seek to grow not only through acquisition but through our range of services, products and expertise that help us develop a deeper relationship with our customers. The growth aspect is certainly a strong strategy for us, but we try and balance that with profitability."

It's been quiet growth, Tscherter admitted.

"If you were to go to the FDIC Web site and do a search by our footprint -- Chickasaw, Black Hawk, Bremer and Tama counties -- you'd find we were the No. 1 deposit facility in that footprint," he said. "So, obviously, we've played a role as a deposit facility. But we also do a lot of lending. We may not be the No. 1 lender in the footprint we have, but we'd be very close."

The Main Street component of LSB's business philosophy is strong, said Tscherter, who added that the bank was about 90-percent oriented to agriculture business until the late 1990s.

"We believe in passionate community stewardship," he said. "That's built into the performance evaluations for all officers. They're all urged toward involvement in community organizations and to fill leadership positions in those organizations."

Several LSB officers, including Tscherter, are involved in the Cedar Valley Alliance.

"We can all draw upon our experiences in these organizations to benefit our current roles," Tscherter said.

Lincoln is no stranger to tough economic times.

The company, founded in August 1902 in Lincoln, saw three of its four branches fail in 1934.

Only the charter location survived.

Lester Bicket, who went on to serve as bank president from that point until his death in 1976, was credited with saving the bank, Tscherter said.

"He sought to make the one charter stronger and go from there," Tscherter said.

That spirit remains strong with the company, he added.

And, he added, it provides some substance to an optimistic attitude about the future, even during today's turbulent times, Tscherter noted.

"The national economy, the world economy certainly are in a perilous state," he said. "But we certainly don't have a lot of overbuilding and speculation here; we have pretty conservative developers. They're not going out and lavishly spending to attract people into $350,000 homes. We're insulated by conservative intelligence in these markets, where you get speculators in these other markets."

Today, the bank and its offshoot enterprises are less reliant on an ag-based economy, with about 49 percent of its business rooted in non-farm business, Tscherter said.

He added about 30 percent of the company's business is oriented toward agriculture.

Now, the company is moving into two new communities.

The new Waverly location, targeted for a January opening, is a natural extension of the bank's Cedar Valley customer base, Tscherter said.

"It's a college town with an 8,500 population, and we try to serve the population centers, the viable communities in the Cedar Valley, and certainly Waverly is one of those," he said.

The thinking is similar in the decision to move into Grinnell, Tscherter said.

"Grinnell is one of those vibrant communities with a highly ranked liberal arts college," he said. "Certainly, a community with lots of burgeoning industry and commercial activity, being 45 miles from Des Moines, it's far enough out to be self-sustaining but close enough that a lot of professionals will commute to Des Moines."

He declined to disclose the costs of either project, other than to call them "fair-market" transactions.

But they fit well into the company's plans for continued growth.

"This is a viable region, with a good future," Tscherter said. "We'll be part of that."

Contact Jim Offner at (319) 291-1598 or jim.offner@wcfcourier.com.