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 club has posted a video of a performance of “The Last Letter Jacket,” which I wrote about last month on Substack.

The (vertical) video is at this Facebook link, at least for now.

A bill to synchronize Iowa Code on reorganizations and dissolutions, to make them all effective the July 1 of the subsequent calendar year, was passed by the Legislature but remains to be signed by the governor.

Apparently the governor was extremely busy last week, if you know what I mean.

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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 the nearest Starbucks in Waterloo [Crossroads Mall], both about 24 miles.)

Posted in Tama County | Comments Off on Some people will drink to this
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 intersections for right of way. The city had a meeting Thursday night.

University Avenue is not a straight street, and the intersections where roundabouts are being proposed are not right-angle intersections. That means that I can kind of waggle my hand neutrally at them.

The roundabouts are part of a much larger plan to:

  • three-lane Asbury Road west into Asbury
  • add “enhanced crosswalks”
  • reconfigure at least one intersection
  • add/improve sidewalks along Asbury Road and Pennsylvania Avenue
  • make intersections on University Avenue between Asbury and Pennsylvania right-in-right-out

Thursday’s meeting was very early in the process. There is no dedicated funding or schedule.

Posted in Construction | Comments Off on Dubuque wants roundabouts on University Avenue
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.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Does it need a ‘SLOW’ triangle?
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 tube TV still works — but only for the networks, network subchannels, and C-SPANs.

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Watching TV is so hard nowadays
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 website for West Fork, the descendant of SCMT and Rockwell-Swaledale, also has the incorrect year, and doesn’t have any year for R-S. I hope, in a roundabout way, that wasn’t my fault.

R-S formed in 1959, based on articles also from the MCGG.

Posted in Schools | Comments Off on Fixing West Fork’s ancestry
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.

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Headline goes here
Feb 14

Remember January?

Posted on Friday, February 14, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Like I said, and say at the opening of the short-takes piece below, it’s been … yeah.

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Remember January?
Feb 11

License Plate Letters — PHX

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


January 31, 2012: Downtown Phoenix is pictured minutes after takeoff from Sky Harbor International Airport. PHX was the layover for a Southwest Airlines flight from Omaha to Austin. To date, it’s the last time I was in Arizona, but it only sort of counts.

It’s possible that Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is the airport that I’ve been to the most. I have flown to Phoenix from three different Iowa airports and through Phoenix from two more non-Iowa airports. Phoenix was the destination of my first airplane trip, when I was 10 months old.

Yes, I am extremely aware that blog posts have been minimal so far in 2025. Unfortunately, my job requires me to pay attention to the news, and that portion of my life is like this, without finding the marble first.

Posted in License Plates | Comments Off on License Plate Letters — PHX
Feb 04

US 30 construction starting next week

Posted on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

In a very rare move, a construction project is beginning in February. Three bridges on US 30 between Calamus and Wheatland, all turning 70 years old, are going to be replaced this year. The DOT press release says work will start Monday and go into December!

These bridges are original to the 1955-56 relocation of US 30 between Clarence and Calamus. They supplanted the 1931 bridges to straighten US 30 through the Wapsipinicon River area that themselves replaced 1922 Lincoln Highway-era bridges.

One-lane traffic will be controlled by stoplights. Detouring to old 30 is not an option because the 1931 bridge over the main channel of the Wapsi has been closed for some time, not even safe enough for one-lane traffic.

Posted in Construction | Comments Off on US 30 construction starting next week