Sep 24

Youngville US 30/218 exit open

Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2020, at 10:00 AM by Jeff


August 8, 2009: This view on westbound US 30 is now a historic one, buried underneath the north base of a bridge for US 218. The four-lane stub ended up not used as the roadbed was shifted slightly.

The much-desired, long-delayed US 30/218 interchange in Benton County opened earlier this month. The exit preserves the historic Youngville Station but changes forever the look of the original south end of US 218. (Of course it would happen weeks after I was going past it every day.)

The exit is open, although signs have not been installed yet. The Cedar Valley Times has a story with a picture looking slightly southeast from the north side, with Youngville Station in view.

This ends the long-term detour of US 218 through Van Horne, but it won’t last. Removal of an overpass at a long-gone railroad just south of the 218/E44 junction is scheduled for 2023, although that may not be the reason for a funding line for signs at the exit that same year.

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Sep 23

North Tama needs a Homecoming date

Posted on Wednesday, September 23, 2020, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Lynnville-Sully has switched to virtual learning because of a substantial number of quarantined students (story: Newton Daily News). That means all L-S activities are immediately cancelled, including a district football game Friday night at North Tama.

If you know of a Class A school (or even 1A) within a 100-mile radius of Traer that needs a game this Friday, tell them to contact the NT athletic department.

Posted in Sports, Tama County | Comments Off on North Tama needs a Homecoming date
Sep 22

Ankeny exit to open in stages

Posted on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Iowa’s second diverging diamond interchange, I-35 at 1st Street in Ankeny, will begin to open this week. It will be a long process, beyond the delay announced earlier this year.

According to the DOT, 1st Street will open Thursday, and one ramp will open each week for the next three weeks. However, there will be a delay until the last ramp (SB exit) opens and ends work on the interstate.

More diverging diamonds are planned for Cedar Rapids.

UPDATE: This Des Moines Register article has an image of the construction plan, where you can make a before/after comparison and see how the mainline is being moved.

Posted in Construction | Comments Off on Ankeny exit to open in stages
Sep 21

South Tama is running out of Internet

Posted on Monday, September 21, 2020, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Really. (Warning: WHO’s website autoplays video now. Additionally, the livestream now requires a reload every 20 minutes.)

I don’t understand how this hasn’t been a significant topic the past few months: For significant numbers of students and school districts, it is both technologically and financially impossible to have access to long-term live-video-capable home Internet. In the case of South Tama, whose middle school’s demise has been hastened by the derecho, it’s a double disaster.

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Sep 18

Mormon Trail signed in Lee County (again?)

Posted on Friday, September 18, 2020, at 10:04 AM by Jeff

The historic Mormon Trail of the 1840s, which Latter-day Saints followed across southern Iowa from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City, got new signs in Lee County, according to an article in the Keokuk Daily Gate City. That’s neat and good, but there’s one problem: The trail already had an official route, and this appears at least partially to deviate from it.

The official Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail in this area, according to the National Park Service*, starts at Navuoo and comes down IL 96, across the river on US 136 (because there’s no bridge between Nauvoo and Montrose), north on US 218, and west on IA 2. I have never seen signs, such as this marker on IA 2 east of Bloomfield, at the major intersections involved. The Great River Road and Lincoln Heritage Trail at the IL 96/US 136 intersection may have crowded it out there, but there’s nothing at the Donnellson exit — except, after looking at Google Maps, there is a marker on eastbound 2 past 218, which is off the NPS mapped trail.

The route in the Daily Gate City story starts at Montrose and goes west on 300th Street/J72. From there I can only speculate as to the path of the newly marked route. One possibility might be J72, IA 27, and J62 past Croton to join IA 2 from the southeast at Farmington, but J62 is gravel so I don’t know. Maybe it goes to IA 27 and north to rejoin the NPS mapped trail at IA 2.

We may need a full re-accounting of a follow-able route of the Mormon Pioneer Trail in Iowa, with a compilation of what signs exist and what signs need to exist. Unfortunately, that costs money, and Lee County’s new ones were covered by a foundation.

*The official NPS map misspells Lacey-Keosauqua State Park as Lacy-Keosagua. The g/q typo or transcription hiccup is a sneaky one and more common than you might think.

Posted in Highway Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Mormon Trail signed in Lee County (again?)
Sep 17

941

Posted on Thursday, September 17, 2020, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Humboldt County town of Pioneer has unincorporated. After reading the funeral announcement — aka the City Development Board minutes of August 12 — it died of loneliness and apathy. (The word “apathy” is actually in there. There were only three families inside city limits.)

The Mayor of Pioneer went into rehab at a care center and then COVID hit and his rehab did not happen, so she does not think he will ever come home. The City doesn’t have enough members to hold a City Council meeting the way it should be held.

The Fort Dodge Messenger reported in 2018 that the town was thinking of unincorporating. I haven’t seen a follow-up on last month’s state action.

Pioneer is halfway between Gilmore City and Clare on a Union Pacific Railroad line, five miles south of IA 3. In 2010 it had an official population of 23 and was the fourth-smallest incorporated community in Iowa.

See also: Pioneer Town History on IAGenWeb

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on 941
Sep 15

Some positive sports news

Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2020, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Carleton Effect: How Chatham, Ontario’s Bridget Carleton has helped turn the Minnesota Lynx offence around (via NBA Canada by way of Cyclone Fanatic)

Carleton has only played in 22 games, but she’s already the highest-scoring former Cyclone in WNBA history.

football what football there was no football what are you talking about
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Sep 14

Pizza Hut closed in Grundy Center, Vinton, other towns

Posted on Monday, September 14, 2020, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Benton County is out of Pizza Huts.

The restaurant in Vinton closed the day after Labor Day. It and 14 others in Iowa were shuttered as one of Pizza Hut’s largest franchisees filed for bankruptcy and announced it would close one-quarter of its properties. The Cedar Valley Daily Times reports this Pizza Hut, which opened in 1975, was among the most profitable in the chain.

The other locations meeting the same fate, according to KMCH Radio, were in Boone, Dyersville, Eldridge, Grundy Center, Independence, Iowa Falls, Le Claire, Manchester, Maquoketa, Newton, Oelwein, Tipton, Urbandale, and one of two in Dubuque.

Downtown Vinton has a Pizza Ranch, as does Manchester, so they’re not totally out of sit-down slice options. The bigger hit is in Grundy Center, which has two Casey’s but no longer has a spot for hungry fans of area sports teams on their way home. The Belle Plaine Pizza Hut has been gone for a few years, and the one in Toledo for longer.

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Sep 10

Football (still)(*)(?)(*)

Posted on Thursday, September 10, 2020, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

This weekend, the ISU football team is slated to play, a slate that is in easily erasable chalk this year. But instead of at the Fighting Ferentzes, it’s home vs. the don’t-call-them-ULaLa Louisiana (-Lafayette) Ragin’ Cajuns.

Like I did for North Tama, here’s the comparison on ISU’s schedule. It turns out not being able to distribute posters at the Iowa State Fair saved delivery of outdated info.

Notice that, somehow, again, there’s only one team from Texas scheduled to play in Ames after mid-October. The Riot Bowl is moved down a week, when it would have been much better weather-wise for both teams to have opponents farther south. On the other hand, for the second time in three years, ISU is playing at home on the first day of deer season, something Mountaineers would enjoy. (Well, if they applied for a non-resident tag in May.)

For historical purposes, ISU played three games in 1918, all in November, losing to Camp Dodge, at Iowa, and at Kansas State by a combined score of 40-0. The consecutive Kansas State streak dates to one year before that. Also, the next game against Kansas will be the 100th.

Obviously, if Iowa State ends up beating Oklahoma at home (LOL) for the first time in 60 years with no one there, it would have a rock-solid place in both Most 2020 Things Possible and Most Iowa State Things Possible.

Posted in Sports | Comments Off on Football (still)(*)(?)(*)
Sep 08

Yup, we’re getting another license plate variety

Posted on Tuesday, September 8, 2020, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Daily Nonpareil in Council Bluffs, citing a state representative and Pottawattamie County treasurer, reports that the “Flying Our Colors” license plate will be available to the public starting in the middle of this month. This is one of the two plates that lost in voting to the current design.

I ranted about this earlier in the year when it was proposed in the regularly scheduled part of the session. That specific bill did not pass. However, it reappeared in every lawmaker’s favorite place to stuff something, the end-of-session omnibus/standings bill. More specifically, it reappeared in the final two pages of the bill, House File 2461. (NOTE: Bills passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor are scanned in, but the PDF version is text-searchable.)

We’re up to JRA, by the way. The one I saw was a blackout plate.

Posted in License Plates | Comments Off on Yup, we’re getting another license plate variety