May 08

Circumnavigation detour: State lines

Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

In my circumnavigation report I split off a story dedicated to oddities in Iowa’s state borders. Did I put “Day 5 1/2” on here? If not, despite being 11 months old, it’s new to you!

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May 06

Multiple IA 14 detours in Grundy County

Posted on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

It’s going to be hard to get from US 20 to US 30 in Grundy and Marshall counties this spring — and more is on the way.

As of Monday, the highway has a major closure between IA 175 and IA 96 to replace a bridge over Wolf Creek. There is also a minor closure north of Grundy Center.

During the 2025 construction season, this is how southbound IA 14 runs in the area: IA 14, D35, T37, IA 175, T29, IA 96, IA 14. Coming from the east on IA 175 to the west end of the IA 14 multiplex, eastbound 175 will be also signed as both “North 14” and “Detour South 14.” Through Grundy Center, westbound 175 will also be signed as “South 14” and “Detour North 14.”

Later this year (the contract was let in April), IA 330 will be closed north of US 30 to replace culverts north of the Iowa River bridge.* When that starts, the road through Albion will be closed and traffic detoured on US 30 and IA 14.

That means that instead of simply using IA 14 and IA 330 between US 20 and 30, a driver will have to go through Marshalltown and then follow two other detours.

Also, this post counts as both notification and my official complaint that the Iowa DOT’s website has been updated to the style used by other state websites, even though it might not necessarily make sense. Worse, a landing page dedicated to public meeting and construction PDFs has been decommissioned.

*It’s kind of odd to try to look something up and have multiple links on the first Google page BE STUFF I WROTE. This is not the first time this has happened!

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May 02

Who wants chili and cinnamon rolls?

Posted on Friday, May 2, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Iowa schoolkids, and former schoolkids, want chili and cinnamon rolls. I even looked up old lunch menus for a story about this Marion Historical Society fundraiser.

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Apr 30

An unusual problem in the news business

Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

There are times when newspapers aren’t delivered because of a blizzard, but at least we know where they are?

I admit loving that the description on Seymour Herald’s Facebook page is “A weekly OFFICIAL WAYNE COUNTY NEWSPAPER, with hometown local area news. Owned and operated by Karen.”

Karen, I’m sorry that you’re going through that.

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Apr 28

Really delayed spring cleaning

Posted on Monday, April 28, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

OK, so some of the info from this month-old post is outdated, but the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative additions list is important, and it’s another picture from Pi Day in Springville. (Me? A procrastinating mess? Never.)

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Apr 21

Swan to disincorporate

Posted on Monday, April 21, 2025, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

September 30, 2014: Swan, in far northwest Marion County, was bypassed by the state highway system when what today is IA 5 was realigned in 1928. The IA 316 bridge over the Des Moines River at Runnells was decades in the future.

The Iowa town of Swan, facing both a lawsuit and residents’ disinterest in serving in office, will disincorporate. KCCI was first to report the development. The state’s City Development Board will presumably take up the issue at its May or June meeting, but no agenda has been posted yet.

Swan has a website for City Council records, where (at the time of this blog post, at least) you can read the special meeting minutes from March 25.

Description from all regarding difficulty in finding enough people engaged in the community to continue the needed roles to keep the city going: Mayor, 3 council, clerk, water commissioner, IT, water testing. All also added personal comments on the desire to be done after this year as well as knowledge that those individuals in each of the mentioned roles will not continue after this year.

After Swan is gone, Iowa will have 939 incorporated places.

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Apr 14

Pi Day, delayed

Posted on Monday, April 14, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Pie is always in season, not just March 14! Pi Day in Springville is a local holiday.

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Apr 14

Colona-oscopy

Posted on Monday, April 14, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

In Sunday’s print Des Moines Register, on the “Around the State” page, there was this curious item:

In a page that is about stories from the state of Iowa, the Register ran a brief from a city in ILLINOIS — a suburb of the Quad Cities. The dateline on WQAD’s original April 2 story specifically says “Colona, Ill.”

Did someone mistake Colona for the identically pronounced eastern Iowa city of Kalona? The item came from a TV station that covers Iowa, after all. But the dateline said Illinois, and it can easily be double-checked on a map.

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Apr 10

Iowa, Louisiana

Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

I’m a bit behind on linking my Substack posts from here — long story. But many of them are not too time-specific. (And those that are, well, they’re still worth reading!)

Here is my travel story from Iowa, Louisiana, which I visited when I was doing training for my new job.

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Apr 08

Boyson Road ramps close

Posted on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Iowa DOT says in a press release that the southbound ramps on I-380 to/from Boyson Road close starting today and lasting until July 4. Center Point Road will be used for the connection.

This KCRG story from Sept. 29, 2022, outlines the proposal to convert the Boyson Road exit to a diverging diamond. There’s also a video that shows the interchange format, where the directions of traffic temporarily switch so drivers are on the opposite side of the road. The now-open Tower Terrace exit and the future Cedar Rapids airport exit also are designed as DDIs.

If you’ve been in the area you have already seen that all the trees are gone and part of the new bridge over I-380 is being built right beside the current one.

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