Dec 22

Oskaloosa bypass plans narrowed

Posted on Monday, December 22, 2014, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Last week the DOT showed off its proposals for a western bypass of Oskaloosa for US 63. There are four permutations, based on the locations of the start and end points of the bypass.

The south end would be either in direct line with gravel Jewell Avenue, or come at a slight angle from County Road G43. This is about where the IA 163 bypass of Oskaloosa from the old two-lane (former IA 432) begins. In either case, it is clear that US 63 is the subordinate route, and the overall distance will be longer than going through Oskaloosa.

The north end would be either by the Oskaloosa waterworks or farther to the north. The key difference is that the former does not include a new bridge over the Skunk River, but leaves intact a pair of slight curves of the road at and just north of where the bypass would meet present 63.

In either case, the bypass would meet the present road north of the railroad tracks, where a whole new overpass was recently built. If you look at the PDF maps (Option 1/2, Option 4/5), you can see a very old alignment for 63 just below (and beneath) the 63 and G39 shields.

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Dec 19

Elma Elementary closed; is Lime Springs next?

Posted on Friday, December 19, 2014, at 12:17 PM by Jeff

“On roll call, all answered aye, although Duane Bodermann of Elma hesitated before voting to close his alma mater.”

After years of debate and declining enrollment, the Howard-Winneshiek school district closed Elma Elementary at the end of last school year, leaving only a preschool.

In the briefs posted at the Lime Springs Herald online news site, the news of the closure (source of the passage at top) also indicated that Lime Springs-Chester Elementary could follow if the district continues to lose students. Ridgeway Elementary closed in 2010.

Howard-Winneshiek is the third-largest school district in the state by area. Its population is weighted toward the east half of the district in Cresco. Elma sticks out on the west end. If you drew a line straight down Kent Avenue and attached Elma to Riceville, Elma students would have a closer school and Riceville would gain some much-needed enrollment. Of course, it doesn’t work that way.

The Howard-Winn district was briefly in the news earlier this year when it was discussing a potential renaming. The junior high and high school in Cresco are named “Crestwood” rather than Howard-Winneshiek JH/HS, and the teams are Crestwood in athletics matters (see, for example, the 3A football standings, where the Cadets went 0-9).

Howard-Winn is one of only two single-high-school districts in Iowa that has a name for the high school that is not the name of the district. The other, Cherokee, has Washington High School but only applies that to the building.

UPDATE: No change in Howard-Winneshiek name.

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Dec 17

Creation, analysis of retroactive football brackets

Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2014, at 10:17 AM by Jeff

When the IHSAA said it would no longer pre-set a full bracket for the football postseason, instead setting up an “as-you-go” for each round, I wondered if there would be final brackets made after the finals. That did not happen.

So I made my own. I started with the championships, worked backward round by round, and then finally, determined seedings based on the order given in the online district standings. Here are the brackets: Class 8, Class A, Class 1A, Class 2A, Class 3A, Class 4A. The seeding is the district number plus the letter of finish, i.e. “5B” means the second-place team in District 5. Please note that they are not necessarily home team on top, as I did not have that information. Regular-season records are included for every team in the first round.

After looking at these retroactive or reverse-engineered brackets, here are some statistics of note. Remember: There are 192 teams overall and 96 first-round games overall.

  • Two 2-7 teams made it, both in 4A: Cedar Rapids Kennedy, which was technically third place in District 5 based on district record and point differential, and Clinton.
  • Three Four 3-6 teams were included: Des Moines Lincoln, Dubuque Wahlert, Underwood, and Lake Mills.
  • 21 teams had four wins (4-5), including 4-4 Des Moines East.
  • Nine teams with 7-2 records, as well as 8-1 Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire, would have been left out in the previous 16-team-per-class postseason structure. There was a three-way logjam in 8-man District 2 with three teams posting 6-1 district records. This scenario is one of the justifications for the expanded postseason.
  • District champions played fourth-place teams with five exceptions: AHSTW and Panorama in 1A; Clear Lake in 2A; and Waverly-Shell Rock and Washington in Class 3A. They all played third-place teams.
  • There were only three games where the fourth-place team won: 8-man, Harris-Lake Park over district champion Boyer Valley; 3A, Webster City over district champion Ballard; 3A, Newton over Clear Creek Amana.
  • By the quarterfinals, there were only two third-place teams still alive, both in Class A: Denver and Earlham.
  • Four of the six classes, all except 1A and 4A, made their western Iowa District 1 teams play each other again in the first round. That was unavoidable given the geographic limitations. (However, 3A District 1 champ Sioux City Heelan ended up playing District 2 fourth-place Webster City in the next round anyway after the aforementioned upset.)
  • Overall, 16 first-round games were district rematches.
  • Class 4A had a clean east-west split in the two halves of the bracket. Class A would have had the same thing, generally south+west vs. north+east, if BGM and Van Buren had been swapped.

EDIT 6/16/15: Corrected number of 3-6 teams.

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Dec 16

Seymour school replacement vote narrowly fails

Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2014, at 10:11 AM by Jeff


September 13, 2011: Top center of the original Seymour school building. Sadly, medieval-themed school flourishes just aren’t in vogue anymore.

In today’s climate, steady to slightly-higher student enrollment is a victory for small districts. The Seymour school district in Wayne County is among those so blessed.

Earlier this school year, the district campaigned for a new building to replace the oldest structure in its complex, partially seen above. Instead of rearranging everything, or moving across town, the district proposed to replace in place, putting the new two-story building in the same location as the three-story one. That can be a challenge especially when, as in Seymour’s case, structures have been added along three of the four sides.

Because bond issues require a supermajority, a Dec. 2 vote failed by 14 votes.

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Dec 15

$1B estimate to six-lane major rural interstates

Posted on Monday, December 15, 2014, at 10:43 AM by Jeff

Currently, the Iowa DOT is pouring tens of millions of dollars into upgrading urban interstate systems in Council Bluffs and Sioux City. I-80 in Iowa City has been upgraded to six lanes, and the complete rebuild of I-235 in Des Moines is a decade in the past now.

But as this article in the Des Moines Register points out, rural interstates are carrying enough traffic that they need to be six-laned, too. (And that’s without mentioning, again, that four-laning US 20 still isn’t finished.)

The biggest choke points, in my personal experience, are I-380 between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and I-35 between Ankeny and Ames. Those aren’t the only locations the state is looking at, though: The entire eastern half of I-80 could be a candidate for six-laning in the future.

The closest comparative project would be I-80 in eastern Nebraska, recently opened to six lanes from Omaha to Lincoln. Ohio finished six-laning I-71 from Columbus to Cleveland just before this Thanksgiving.

The Iowa projects would be ambitious, and currently only done piecemeal, as with a proposed bridge replacement on I-35 south of Ames. The long-range plan, such as it is, will likely be a factor in the gas tax debate next legislative session.

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Dec 12

No automatic waivers to start school in August

Posted on Friday, December 12, 2014, at 5:58 PM by Jeff

“Effective immediately, the department will no longer automatically grant waivers of the school start date requested under Iowa (law) for the 2015-2016 school year.”

Big move. Stories: Gazette, Register (AP), KCCI. It was one thing to get waivers starting school the week before Labor Day. It became another thing entirely when everyone was moving school 2½ weeks before. Sept. 1, 2015, is a Tuesday, meaning that school cannot start until Aug. 31.

One question to be answered later: How will this affect the expanded football playoffs?

If this comes up in the Legislature, changing the law to “last full week of August” would be a fine compromise.

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Dec 12

Courier features North Tama’s “Plus 1” Mondays

Posted on Friday, December 12, 2014, at 10:40 AM by Jeff

This year, the North Tama school district is not following a standard school calendar. Every other Monday is a “Plus 1” “enrichment session.” Regular classes aren’t held, and students spend more time than a regular class period on various activities.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier has an article (that originally ran earlier this week) about the program.

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Dec 11

Fool me three times, shame on…?

Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2014, at 10:30 AM by Jeff


December 6, 2012: Cheerleaders and pom squads from both sides perform before the Iowa-ISU women’s basketball game.

In 2010, with some decent hopes for the 16th-ranked ISU women’s basketball team, I went to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first time to see the in-state matchup with the 19th-ranked Hawkeyes.

The Cyclone women put up their lowest point total of the season in a 62-40 blowout, languished in the 20s in the polls for most of the rest of the season, and flamed out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Marist.

In 2012, after a successful defense of Hilton Coliseum the previous year, I went over to Iowa City again. But Chelsea Poppens was out from a concussion, and the women again put up their lowest point total of the season in a 50-42 loss that could charitably be described as “sloppy”.

I wasn’t going to go this year, but now that I’m embedded in Hawkeye country (and you weren’t before? -Ed.), it’ll be easier to attend, and I can do that much. If it’s another eventual season-low score, though, I may have to stay away in the future, for the good of the team.

The home team has won this matchup 12 of the past 13 years. This year, the Hawks are ranked 24th and ISU isn’t even receiving votes.

Did you notice the ISU women are not playing UNI this season? Bill Fennelly has been on record as favoring in-state matchups, so it’s a very curious omission.

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Dec 10

Three changes needed for the 2015 Iowa highway map

Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2014, at 10:05 AM by Jeff

Next spring, Iowa will publish its first two-year map under a cost-cutting measure. There won’t be another one until 2017.

Along with the new US 34 bridge, there are at least three other areas that need modification.

  

  1. Tama County blacktopped T69 north of D65 to the Grundy County line. (I don’t have any external links or a picture, though.)
  2. Allamakee County paved A26 from IA 76 to the Winneshiek County line. (Supervisors minutes)
  3. The sharp curves in IA 150 south of Hazleton are are now a gradual slant.
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Dec 09

Benton County US 30 meeting Wednesday

Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2014, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

We might find out tomorrow night what the DOT plans to do at the intersection of US 30 and 218 in Benton County as part of its plans to upgrade 30 to four lanes heading westward. At the last meeting, the options were either an interchange or a J-turn (a modified Michigan Left that’s just as aggravating). I don’t know if this will be the last meeting over the issue.

One Benton County resident is unhappy with the process, accusing the supervisors of “giving incomplete information”, according to the Cedar Valley Daily Times. He staunchly doesn’t want an interchange, but I don’t believe his accusations hold up given that every public document has put the J-turn up front and center as an option. There’s even a video about J-turns with the meeting notice from August 2013, 16 months ago.

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