Blain’s Farm & Fleet was one of the first retail developments at the corner of IA 58 and Viking Road, opening in 1999. Beside it sprung up a Wal-Mart. Then, about a decade or so ago, the retail boom there crushed College Square and made the Viking Road intersection one of the most congested in the state.
While Blain’s may be a one-stop-shop for the rural life (and…toys?), there’s an equally strong and almost equally named competitor, Mills Fleet Farm. And in the near future, there’s going to be a Mills Fleet Farm on IA 58, just to the south, at Ridgeway Avenue.
What I’m trying to say is, confusion ahoy! Farm and Fleet, or Fleet Farm?
The more interesting issue at hand is Cedar Falls giving a go-ahead for construction at the 58/Ridgeway intersection when that is going to be an issue if the state ever tries to fix the woefully underpowered diamond interchange with US 20 just to the south. The Avenue of the Saints has been a massive success, but 58 and 20 is the one place you have to make a left turn. The Courier story says right-of-way will be preserved for an interchange, but the Ridgeway intersection is another issue.
But it’s the last sentence of the story, and a line in the P&Z agenda, that drops the really big news: Cedar Falls is getting a Raising Cane’s!