Author Archives: Jeff

Mar 19

Waterloo rebuilding part of San Marnan Drive

Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

One of the biggest construction projects on San Marnan Drive since the route was built as IA 412 is Waterloo’s big project this summer. The road is going to be rebuilt this year, and much of the underlying road likely … Continue reading →

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Mar 13

School enrollment map, 2000-25, and more

Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

This is the second part of my work on 2025 enrollment information. It’s a map of changes since 2000 for districts that haven’t substantially changed in size, and also the roundup of eye-popping Waukee statistics.

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Mar 11

School enrollment and ESAs for 2024-25

Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

My number crunching for school enrollment has a new dimension: education savings accounts, or vouchers, and where students using them are from, and how much money the state could have given to public schools instead of private schools. By the … Continue reading →

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Mar 07

Orient-Macksburg dissolution passes

Posted on Friday, March 7, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Orient-Macksburg school district will dissolve after the 2025-26 school year. The vote wasn’t close, 203-18, with 10 of the no’s coming from Madison County. Most of the district’s land and students will become part of Nodaway Valley. Orient-Macksburg’s speech … Continue reading →

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Mar 05

Some people will drink to this

Posted on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Tama County now has a (one, singular) Starbucks. It’s not a standalone site, it’s inside the casino, but it still counts … right? (Funny enough, it’s about equal distance from Traer to the casino as it is from Traer to … Continue reading →

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Feb 28

Dubuque wants roundabouts on University Avenue

Posted on Friday, February 28, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Four roundabouts are planned for central Dubuque on the University Avenue corridor. KCRG reports that drivers are using that street to get off US 20. (University is an ancient alignment of 20.) This plan would require buying houses at certain … Continue reading →

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Feb 25

Does it need a ‘SLOW’ triangle?

Posted on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

There’s going to be something big moving on the highways in Washington County today and tomorrow. (Too bad I already have something in the works for Substack this week.)

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Feb 24

Watching TV is so hard nowadays

Posted on Monday, February 24, 2025, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

About a month ago, Mediacom shut off its unencrypted cable signal. That means my favorite way to watch TV — on the computer — couldn’t work with cable anymore. Ironically, even as I write this now, the signal to my … Continue reading →

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Feb 20

Fixing West Fork’s ancestry

Posted on Thursday, February 20, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

A reader informed me that my school timeline page had the merger of Meservey-Thornton off by a year. I double-checked through the Mason City Globe Gazette archives, and the reader was right. M-T formed in 1962. The thing is, the … Continue reading →

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Feb 17

Headline goes here

Posted on Monday, February 17, 2025, at 11:16 AM by Jeff

January 8, 1883, was the last Monday that residents of Cedar Rapids didn’t have a hard-copy newspaper sold at stores or delivered to their doorsteps. Until today. Tuesday will be 600 days since I lost my job there.

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