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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Sep 24

Covering Rob Sand in Marengo

Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

As a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, I had some assistance in getting to cover Rob Sand’s campaign stop in Marengo on Sept. 3.

There was a press gaggle — me and video streamers for the Des Moines Register and C-SPAN. The latter’s website has the full event as well.

If there’s a Zach Lahn appearance that gets publicized in time and works with my schedule, I’ll try to make one of those too.

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Sep 22

Jeopardy season starts with Iowa-related near-whiff

Posted on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The clue on the first Wednesday of “Jeopardy!” Season 43, $800: I’ve had fun in Correctionville, but it’s time to leave the Midwest; US-20 West starts us off to SUX, the airport serving this city

Writers (for which there was temporarily a staff vacancy but not now) should know that the style should be “U.S. 20” or “US 20”, certainly not a hyphen. That’s the type of thing that online mapping services do because they* don’t know better. (The Jeopardy Archive caught this too. Ha!)

The bigger issue is that this was nearly a Triple Stumper. The only reason it wasn’t, was that a wrong buzz near the end of time of “Sioux Falls” reset the clock for the returning champion to guess, “What is Sioux City?”

This airport code has a reputation! Sioux City tried to change it twice! There’s official merchandise now!

The Midwest remains a mysterious place on the Jeopardy board.

*This is a royal They, because there are interconnected issues with everything from local authorities to state DOTs to whoever’s in charge of coding that part that day.
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Sep 15

more school notes for 2026-27

Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

At the end of August I pulled a “break glass in case of no time to write” Substack piece — school timeline items. This time, it’s a lot about Mediapolis and Fremont-Mills, two schools four and a half hours apart.

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Sep 11

Traer Museum fundraiser Sunday

Posted on Friday, September 11, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Traer Historical Museum, in addition to owning the building the museum is in on Second Street, also owns the Star-Clipper/Canfield building down the block, home of the Winding Stairs.

The Canfield building needs a lot of work. A story in the North Tama Telegraph says repairing a hail-damaged roof will cost $24,000, with insurance covering only half that. Tuckpointing in the basement will cost $12,000, with the city providing $8,000 in local-option sales tax money.

This Sunday from 11 to 1, a porkburger dinner fundraiser will be held at the Traer Memorial Building. (The “tenderloins” are probably the pork loin sandwiches sold during summer events, rather than the breaded tenderloins seen at restaurants.) A silent auction will also be part of the fundraiser, with items listed in the NTT link above.

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Sep 09

New Lansing bridge to open early

Posted on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at 10:07 AM by Jeff

The Black Hawk Bridge’s replacement in Lansing is now expected to open in “early November,” rather than in 2027, according to a press release from the Iowa DOT.

The press release uses the phrase “Mississippi River Crossing at Lansing” instead of any other title. This makes me wonder if a new name has not been agreed upon.

Chief Black Hawk has extensive connections to Iowa and Wisconsin history, especially in that area, where the Black Hawk War was fought. There is no reason not to name the new structure “the new Black Hawk Bridge,” and it would provide continuity in the same way the construction evokes the original design.

The dedication of the original bridge in 1931 was a four-day festival. An article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on Monday quoted Lansing Mayor Michael Verdon as saying there will be “a relatively small celebration” in November, and “When the bridge is finally completed in the spring we will have a big celebration.”

Either way, I really need the date(s) ASAP, if I have any chance of attending.

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Sep 05

Football? I guess?

Posted on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

This is painfully, horribly accurate. I couldn’t name one if I tried.

The Athletic expects ISU to go 0-fer in conference and lose to Iowa.

[deep, exasperated sigh]

(I’m a bit disappointed in SEC Shorts’ embrace of AI for its graphics, but during the season, turnaround time is minimal to say the least.)

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