Oct 30

The Monster Patch

Posted on Friday, October 30, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

This one has been in the works for a while.

A game against Oklahoma State on Halloween night is about the ONLY time it is acceptable for Iowa State to wear all-black. With the Brewers winning the World Series, the game has moved from FS1 to Big Fox, so don’t look too bad out there, OK, Cyclones?

(The format is a little different because the feature image is from a tweet that wasn’t loading right with the story. Well, it worked in practice. Ref must have called too many pixels on the field or something.)

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Oct 29

One C.R. Wendy’s has closed

Posted on Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Wendy’s on 33rd Avenue SW in Cedar Rapids, next to I-380, has closed permanently. Signage had been completely removed as of Sunday, and the location on the corporate website gets a 404 error. There are still four other locations in Cedar Rapids, including one of two fast-food options near downtown, so the city still has Iowa’s largest presence for that fast-food chain. The question is if the new McDonald’s at Center Point Road and 32nd Street NW will take sales from the Wendy’s at Center Point Road and 42nd Street NW. (Fun fact: Decades ago the lot at the northeast corner of the latter intersection had a rural brick schoolhouse that was annexed into Cedar Rapids as the city and school grew.)

The Wendy’s on University Avenue in Cedar Falls near College Square closed earlier this year, as did the location on the south side of Marshalltown, leaving both those cities without any. There are only three exceptions statewide to a location list of smallish cities and up: “Percival”, which is really the Wendy’s in the Middle of Nowhere at I-29 and IA 2 in the southwest corner; a relatively new location on I-80 at the Avoca exit, which once housed a Maid-Rite; and on the other side of I-80 from the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Walcott.

The depressing sameness of fast-food interiors from about the past 15 years probably has not helped with image, nor has the massive increase in the cost of everything that’s squeezing franchisees. The “4 for $4” deal has been absent for years now, although the $5 “Biggie Bag” option that allows the choice of two items (only one of which may be a burger, the menu explicitly says) works out well enough.

IMO, the first step in a turnaround for the chain would be extricating itself from those absurd Coca-Cola Freestyle pop dispensers. They’re bad. No one likes them. That goes for you too, Burger King.

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Oct 26

US 30 Wheatland meeting today

Posted on Monday, October 26, 2026, at 10:21 AM by Jeff

The historical alignments of US 30 in the Wheatland area are going to get another squiggle following a construction project next year.

The Iowa DOT is holding a public information meeting this evening at the Wheatland Community Center about new bridges for 30 at the railroad and stream. Here is a direct link to the PDF map showing how 30 will get a new roadbed to the north of the current one between 142nd Street and Y32. It’s unclear if the new roadbed actually starts at the Y32 intersection or to the east.

The bridges for old 30 over the Wapsipinicon River, even if functional, couldn’t serve as a detour route because the east end of the old road does not directly meet the present road, not since the skew truss bridge closed decades ago.

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Oct 22

History at the 2026 Iowa State Fair (2)

Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Once again, a story just fell into my lap: For one day only during the Iowa State Fair, a DNR employee talked about the history of Iowa’s state parks.

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Oct 20

History at the 2026 Iowa State Fair (1)

Posted on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

This year in Des Moines, I saw a pop-up exhibit on the American Revolution and Darcy Maulsby’s excellent history about food in Iowa.

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Oct 15

IA 175 Des Moines River bridge replacement will last a year

Posted on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Iowa DOT has put up an online-feedback form regarding the replacement of the IA 175 bridge across the Des Moines River. The project will start next summer, the press release says, and presumably that will be after July 1, the start of fiscal year 2028.

This bridge’s cost has nearly doubled, and been delayed a year, since its first appearance in the 2022-26 highway plan.

The detour will follow P70, E18, and R27, which will go through Pilot Mound, use the nearest bridge to the south, and skip Stratford altogether.

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Oct 09

Bellevue breathes easier, but Iowa’s oldest school still active

Posted on Friday, October 9, 2026, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

In the fall of 2025, a new Bellevue Elementary opened. It’s near the junior high/high school building and holds grades 3-5. The new building — which, based on one video from near its completion, is exceptionally beige for grades 3-5 — is designed to have a future school building attach to it.

However, there is no timetable for any construction of that building for students in preschool through second grade. It took three bond referendum votes to reach supermajority for this one.

That means, for the near-term future, the oldest active school building in Iowa is in Bellevue — built in 1848 as the Jackson County Courthouse and used a school since 1861.

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Oct 06

License Plate Letters — RON

Posted on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Wow, we got deep into the R’s fast. They must have been assigned more in western Iowa.

(Yes, this is the first thing that came to mind.)

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Oct 01

AGWSR in third consecutive bond attempt

Posted on Thursday, October 1, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

For the third year in a row, the Ackley-Geneva-Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock school district is trying to get a bond issue approved. Before 2023, the district could have tried multiple times in a year, but the Legislature put a stop to that.

In 2024, with 1912 votes cast, a $14.45 million referendum failed by 18 votes. In 2025, with 1151 votes cast, a $12.765 million referendum failed by 63 votes. For 2026, it is $10.8 million.

(Note: Inflation would add nearly $1 million to the 2024 amount today if the work had been left unchanged.)

The 2024 and 2026 versions involve HVAC systems, new bus barns, and renovations to both science and FCS classrooms. What 2024 had that 2026 doesn’t is tuckpointing and window work, which could be covered by a PPEL instead. Both 2025 and 2026 have a multipurpose/indoor recess facility and, as stated on the 2026 version’s website: “A brand-new, state-of-the-art weight room, dedicated wrestling facilities for both boys and girls, new batting cages, and so much more.”

The information sheet for the current bond says the district has the third-lowest cumulative tax rate of the 15 schools in the North Iowa Cedar League.

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Sep 29

Tama County newspaper archives get preservation grant

Posted on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

A press release in August from the Tama County Historical Society announced reception of a grant from the State Historical Society of Iowa for “microfilm preservation of historic newspapers” in Tama County and also the former Reinbeck Courier. As worded, I’m not sure if it includes digitization of said microfilm, but either way, it’s important for archives!

In the past couple of months, online archives of the Traer Star-Clipper have advanced slightly, to include 1975 and 1976 and six weeks of 1977. This addition is small, but pivotal, and not just for Bicentennial coverage. It includes the switch to offset printing in February 1975, which ended the use of the press in the back of the Star-Clipper offices that dated back to 1953. Also, the 1976 newspapers are photographs of news pages, instead of microfilm, which means that the file sizes are much bigger but photos are readable and the presentation is cleaner. The combination of these two changes leads to seeing online reproductions with many commonalities with what subscribers saw through about the end of the 20th century.

Ideally, hopefully, digitization of newspapers from the 21st century will switch to using the original PDFs sent electronically to the press. This eliminates all fold marks, presents news photographs and ads in full color, and also has a smaller file size than photographed pages. In Tama County’s case, that would require cooperation from the papers’ owner in West Virginia.

I see that Pocahontas County’s thick 1981 history book is available through the Laurens library’s website (dated 1901 in search). Could we get the 1987 Tama County history book online too? Just a thought.

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