September 30, 2014: Swan, in far northwest Marion County, was bypassed by the state highway system when what today is IA 5 was realigned in 1928. The IA 316 bridge over the Des Moines River at Runnells was decades in the future.
The Iowa town of Swan, facing both a lawsuit and residents’ disinterest in serving in office, will disincorporate. KCCI was first to report the development. The state’s City Development Board will presumably take up the issue at its May or June meeting, but no agenda has been posted yet.
Swan has a website for City Council records, where (at the time of this blog post, at least) you can read the special meeting minutes from March 25.
Description from all regarding difficulty in finding enough people engaged in the community to continue the needed roles to keep the city going: Mayor, 3 council, clerk, water commissioner, IT, water testing. All also added personal comments on the desire to be done after this year as well as knowledge that those individuals in each of the mentioned roles will not continue after this year.
After Swan is gone, Iowa will have 939 incorporated places.