Apr 26

Iowa border history, with a focus on the Iowa Great Lakes

Posted on Friday, April 26, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Arnold Garson of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative wrote a Substack post last week about how the Iowa Great Lakes almost didn’t figure in to the state of Iowa. His writeup touches on the paired-states issue before the Civil War (slave state Florida, free state Iowa; slave state Texas, free state Wisconsin) and how the Des Moines Register promoted and covered the region in the 20th century.

The eagle-eyed reader will spot an uncredited map in the piece. That map would be from a page on this very website created more than 15 years ago about the different proposed Iowa borders.

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Apr 24

Ellen Young, 1944-2024

Posted on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Ellen Young, former editor of the Traer Star-Clipper and longtime booster of the town of Traer, died April 11. Her obituary was printed last week in the North Tama Telegraph, which replaced the TSC in 2020. Here is an excerpt:

She was a driver in many community functions including the creation of the Salt and Pepper Shaker Gallery, coordinating the alumni class reunion dinners and often helped with the Winding Stairs Festival. Ellen was a founding member of the Tama County Development Board and Traer Development Corporation. Ellen also attended Iowa Tourism meetings promoting Traer and Tama County. Ellen had served on the Community Foundation of NE Iowa for several years. Ellen was a prolific grant writer bringing lots of funds to a lot of organizations in Traer over the years.

Ellen was editor of the Star-Clipper for nearly 20 years, retiring in 2002. The Waterloo Courier did a profile of her in 1994.

She didn’t mind a high school student combing through the bound volume archives looking for the town’s top stories of the 20th century — or dropping in just because. Her gift to graduating seniors was a year’s subscription to the paper at their new college address.

Now who’s going to relentlessly promote the town of Traer?

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Apr 22

From Vicksburg to Savannah

Posted on Monday, April 22, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Here’s my recap of a presentation/story earlier this month of Company C, 10th Iowa Infantry, also known as the “Tama County Rifles.” Their battle record and travels were both stellar.

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Apr 18

Is ‘no’ acceptable input?

Posted on Thursday, April 18, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

“The Iowa Department of Transportation is requesting your input on a for a proposed roundabout at the intersection of Iowa 3 and Iowa 143 near Marcus in Cherokee county,” says the press release, incorrectly not capitalizing “County” at the end.

The title is a rhetorical question, of course. Construction is planned for the entirety of calendar year 2026. Feedback is wanted by Friday.

It is true that clutter in the area has grown. My pictures at 143’s south end from 2004 and 2009 are very out of date in that respect. The Shell that wasn’t there in 2004 is now a larger Casey’s. A small motel is just to the east of the intersection now.

But…a roundabout? Do you have to?

Posted in Construction | Comments Off on Is ‘no’ acceptable input?
Apr 16

Circumnavigation report Day 5

Posted on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at 1:00 PM by Jeff

The lovely Loess Hills are the next part of my 2015 circumnavigation of Iowa.

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Apr 12

CR gets money to replace 8th Avenue Bridge

Posted on Friday, April 12, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Three years ago, when I wrote about Cedar Rapids wanting to replace the Eighth Avenue bridge, I cited a 2019 Gazette story that mentioned an estimated cost of around $30 million for the bridge and $50 million overall.

Last week, Cedar Rapids got a crucial amount of federal money to build a new bridge. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is providing $56.4 million of a $76.1 million overall estimated cost, the Gazette reports. The new bridge, rather than being supported by multiple piers underneath, would be a cable-stayed bridge with one pier going into the water that also towers high in the air.

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Apr 10

Southwest Mixmaster meeting this week

Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

While much of the recent attention on interstate construction in Des Moines has been related to the northeast mixmaster, the southwest mixmaster isn’t being neglected.

A meeting on April 11 in Des Moines will take another step forward in turning the southbound I-35 to eastbound I-235 exit into a flyover ramp from its current inner loop.

Inklings of the plan first appeared in May 2022 when the 2023-27 five-year plan was released. More attention came last year when KCCI did a story about it.

The flyover ramp project is related to the I-35 to IA 141 flyover project in the sense that both are driven by suburban growth west of that 141/35 corridor. Traffic coming in from northwest Urbandale on Douglas Avenue or Grimes on 141 needs to go east on I-235 to go downtown, and the latter needs the 141 flyover on the way home.

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Apr 08

An early RAGBRAI LI correction

Posted on Monday, April 8, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The RAGBRAI map and pass-through town list was not unveiled until April (a first) and on a weekday (another first). It ran in the Des Moines Register both online and in print on April 4 (and was off the website’s front page completely by the 7th).

A deeper analysis of the route will come later, but there’s one error in the story that jumps out immediately: St. Marys is not a first-time town. It was a pass-through town in 1991, 1992, and 2009.

I happen to know the Register’s source material intimately, and I also have the maps to prove it.

I have a theory that feels perhaps too obvious. The official name for St. Marys does not have an apostrophe. A search for “St. Mary’s”, with an apostrophe, returns zero results on both my list and the Register database. A search for “Mary” returns the three hits.

There are at least two map errors as well: Shields should be for County Road H43 (not IA 43) between Libertyville and Fairfield, and County Road X99 (not IA 99) in Des Moines County.

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Apr 05

North Tama, South Tama to share superintendents

Posted on Friday, April 5, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Due to their wide disparity in enrollment, the North Tama and South Tama school districts don’t interact much. That’s going to change a bit.

The North Tama Telegraph reports that the two districts will be sharing a superintendent. South Tama’s current superintendent would spend 40% of his time in Traer. Two other positions will be split 80/20 ST/NT.

North Tama’s current superintendent, David Hill, who is leaving for Waverly-Shell Rock, wrote to the paper that the sharing agreement will be beneficial for the smaller district. “The operational sharing incentive dollars provided by the state will be GREATER THAN the dollar amount that North Tama spends on our portion of the salary and benefits, so we’ll actually be ahead financially by adding the positions,” he wrote.

UPDATE 4/7: The Telegraph has a correction to the story.

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Apr 03

A TV show about road tripping in Iowa!

Posted on Wednesday, April 3, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

At the Iowa State Fair last year, Iowa Public Television Iowa PBS teased a “Road Trip Iowa” series coming in 2024. Well, it’s here! Sadly, I was not asked to be a consultant.

The press release has one very important sentence, emphasis added: “Season 1 consists of ten 30-minute episodes featuring the businesses, towns and landscapes along the byways of Iowa. Viewers will venture to the Mines of Spain in Dubuque, the Banner Lakes at Summerset State Park, the Salt and Pepper Shaker Gallery in Traer and other destinations around the state.”

Traer is not along any of Iowa’s 14 official scenic byways. It is, however, reasonably close to the Iowa Valley Scenic Byway, which goes from US 30 north of Montour southeast to the Amanas.

According to Advance magazine, the first episode debuts tonight and it will be the Western Skies Scenic Byway (Stuart to Missouri Valley). That will be followed by two-parters on the Jefferson Highway and Great River Road. I believe the Lincoln Highway will be in the second season.

The press release also says: “Iowa PBS will host three trivia nights to celebrate the launch of the new series. These competitive and entertaining events will take place on April 29 in Iowa Falls, May 1 in Clinton and May 10 in Harlan.”

Trivia? About Iowa’s scenic byways? Hmmmm…..

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