Sep 13

Town vs. township, school edition

Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

If you’ve read my Substack post from Monday, don’t spoil the reveal for those who will only see it after seeing today’s post.

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Sep 11

Part of San Marnan Drive renamed

Posted on Monday, September 11, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The westernmost mile of San Marnan Drive in Waterloo has been renamed. As of Sept. 1, the segment from Ansborough Avenue west to West 4th Street is Van G. Miller Way.

Miller founded VGM Group, a company located on the street. The press release says Miller “was well-known for his commitment to the Waterloo community and generous support of local causes. That commitment and support continue to this day through the organizations that bear his name.”

San Marnan Drive was purposefully built by the Iowa Highway Commission. The land was originally intended to be part of a relocated US 20, but the freeway didn’t materialize until decades later and half a mile south. The road became IA 412 instead. Much of the renamed segment was rebuilt and shifted southward in the 2010s. The road’s history actually became a factor in a court saga in the 2010s. The case, alleging the city of Waterloo’s improper sale of right-of-way, repeatedly went to the Iowa Supreme Court. The issue was not finally resolved until 2019.

KWWL has a short video that shows the slight bend in the road.

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Sep 08

Montour celebrates 150th year of being Montour

Posted on Friday, September 8, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff


July 23, 2008: RAGBRAI riders stop outside Montour’s most famous institution, Rube’s Steakhouse. Rube’s turns 50 this year. RAGBRAI bounced off the corner of Montour in 2023 despite the locals’ best efforts to get riders to divert.

The southern Tama County town of Montour is older than it looks.

The railroad known for most of the 20th Century as the Chicago & North Western made its way across Tama County during the Civil War. There was a town in the area, Butlerville, but because it “was on such high ground and would necessitate a steep grade, the surveyors bypassed it and laid the track to the south about a mile,” says the 1987 History of Tama County, Iowa. This town was called Orford, after a town in New Hampshire, but mail kept getting sent to Oxford.

Butlerville, located at the intersection of present US 30 and T47 northwest of Montour, withered away. By the time the Lincoln Highway came through, it was too late.

On March 3, 1873, Orford residents voted to change the town’s name to Montour, the history book says. That makes 2023 the 150th anniversary of the name, and that’s how the town is celebrating. The Tama-Toledo News-Chronicle has a feature about the town and its plans for celebration Saturday. There’s a full schedule of events and a pulled pork lunch.

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Sep 06

Fast drivers create problems on I-80 in Dallas County

Posted on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Interstate 80 through Dallas County has always had a notable sound as you drive on the concrete, although it’s not quite as distinctive as the freeway west of Adair.

But there’s been a different kind of sound there this year, that of vehicles hitting each other.

KCCI has a story about drivers who are not going slow enough in the construction area west of the Jordan Creek Parkway (not Drive) exit in West Des Moines. There’s some good drone footage showing the construction area from the sky. The conversion of the interstate to six lanes here has shrunk the width of the travel lanes and shifted them to the outsides using the shoulders while work goes on in the median.

Construction will go on until 2025. Like with I-380 between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, it would’ve been better to have done it two decades ago, but expansion of the statewide four-lane network took priority.

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Sep 05

US 30 exit at IA 21 now open

Posted on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

Just in time for Labor Day weekend (hey, second post in a week starting like that), the DOT has completed a big part of a long-term project.

The US 30 exit at IA 21 opened last Wednesday, the DOT said in a press release. This includes a 2-mile segment of four-lane road from X Avenue in Tama County to about 11th Avenue in Benton County. (Benton’s names for north-south roads start with 10th Avenue on the Tama County line and increment by 1 for each mile, with “Avenue Drive” on the half-miles.) This completes four-lane 30 in Tama County.

Jim Magdefrau reported that at last week’s Benton County Supervisors meeting, the county engineer said the DOT told him that the other connection to Belle Plaine, V40/old IA 131, will close tomorrow.

About 12 miles of US 30 remain to be upgraded to four lanes in Benton County. Part of that remains on the original road, but the eastern part has been moved to the new pavement. There is a notable leveling of the ground that needs to be done for the other two lanes. A new two-lane might be completed between 21 and the Keystone corner by the end of the year. The five-year plan has nothing in FY24, but that likely means everything has been bid out already.

Speaking of four-lane upgrades, I updated the four-lane highway completion timeline to take the newest five-year plan into account. Some stuff on US 61 has been delayed, so the timetable for completing 30 in Benton County may be what determines if any new segments open in calendar 2024.

Posted in Construction | Comments Off on US 30 exit at IA 21 now open
Sep 04

Circumnavigation report begins

Posted on Monday, September 4, 2023, at 10:05 AM by Jeff

I’m finally beginning my trip report about my 2015 circumnavigation of the state of Iowa. Day 1 is up on Substack now.

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Sep 01

Final new I-80/380 exit ramps open

Posted on Friday, September 1, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Just in time for Labor Day, the Iowa DOT is opening the final new ramps for the I-80/I-380 interchange. This project is ending three months ahead of schedule, the DOT said in an e-mail Tuesday. KWWL reported it happened by noon Thursday.

The northbound US 218 to westbound 80 ramp and westbound 80 to southbound 218 ramps are the last ones, the DOT said. The latter is the lower-most ramp of the interchange, going under the mainlines, “and our engineering and construction teams have focused efforts on optimizing the drainage for this ramp, making it safe during rain events,” the DOT said. Minor work and cleanup will continue in the area.

A ribbon-cutting was held last Friday on the NB 218-to-WB-80 ramp. I was not there because no one told me. As far as I am able to tell, KCRG had a tiny blurb at 5:09 AM that day for the ribbon-cutting at 10 AM and that’s it. (I link, but there’s no video there because at the time of this post, “undefined is not an object” applies to every video image.) There was no announcement sent via the e-mail subscription that I got the ramp notice from. KCRG’s evening story is posted on YouTube.

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Aug 30

South Page sending high school students to Bedford

Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff


August 24, 2022: The backside of the South Page school faces the main road through town. This view does not show the clock tower.

The South Page school district won’t have a traditional high school this year, but it’s not a true whole-grade-sharing situation.

Last school year, South Page sent its students in grades 9-12 to Bedford for part of the day. On March 2, the school boards had a joint meeting March 2, from which the following is excerpted:

Both boards agreed to make the 9-12 grades sharing full time for next year, and allow the 7-8 grade students to continue to participate in activities if they were interested, but keep the 7-8 grade students in South Page for academics. They have an alternative school in South Page that includes 9-12 students, and will continue that program on their site as well.

This year, South Page students in grades 9-12 will go to Bedford for the entire school day under a tuition agreement. It is an expanded version of one approved by the Bedford district in May 2022 and South Page that June. The tuition deal was first reported by KMA Radio.

“It’ll be an interesting year,” South Page Principal Amy Bautista said when contacted for details about the agreement. Bautista is new to the district this year. High school students will be bused to and educated at Bedford, but the diplomas will say South Page, she said.

South Page was Iowa’s 13th-smallest school district in 2022-23, with a certified enrollment under 200. In 2019, it entered into a tuition sharing agreement with Clarinda. In March 2022, Clarinda cut off partial-day sharing, and South Page had a limited time to figure out what it was going to do.

Clarinda borders the district to the north, Shenandoah to the west, and Bedford to the east. Whole-grade sharing requires contiguous districts, meaning those three are South Page’s only options if it decides to take that step. South Page and Bedford did not touch each other until the New Market school district dissolved in 2008.

A last-minute tuition agreement is not unprecedented in the area. When the Iowa Department of Education forced the Farragut school district’s dissolution after the 2015-16 school year, the Hamburg school district, which had been in whole-grade sharing with Farragut, needed to find a partner. Hamburg tuitioned out its high school students to Sidney, and that arrangement continues for this school year. Hamburg also opened a charter school last year.

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Aug 28

Namesake’s descendant visits Waukon

Posted on Monday, August 28, 2023, at 9:50 AM by Jeff

The Waukon Standard has an interesting story about a connection to the town’s history. Prosper Waukon, the great-great-grandson of John Waukon, gave a presentation about his family’s history to the town in late July.

The Waukon lineage has a period of “Smith” as a last name because Native Americans were encouraged to change their names during implementation of the Dawes Act, the Standard reported.

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Namesake’s descendant visits Waukon
Aug 25

Southwest Iowa conferences set cashless admissions

Posted on Friday, August 25, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Are you interested in seeing a high school sporting event in southwest Iowa this year? Better prepare in advance — or have a credit card handy.

The Western Iowa Conference, following the lead of the Hawkeye Ten Conference, will not take cash at the door, KMA reports. Both conferences are selling their tickets through Bound (formerly Varsity Bound), the website that also keeps statistics and postseason brackets. As far as I can tell, you have to navigate to the conference’s homepage there, then click “tickets,” then look for the game you want. This is the WIC’s page. Bound is a difficult and occasionally slow website to navigate, and methods for boys’ and girls’ sports may be different. Bound charges a fee for boys’ games.

The ticket issue applies to all sports. Audubon Athletic Director Sean Birks told KMA, “The hope is everybody either buys tickets ahead of time, scans their card at the door or has a punch card. That will help things be smoother. There will not be cash for walk-up sales.” That KMA article also says ticket prices are going up to $7 for football.

What happened to “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”?

The options of a punch card or credit card mitigates the issue for those who don’t bring/have smart phones, at least. Maybe I’m just a stick in the mud, but going cashless in situations like this is annoying. It also rules out giving your kid(s) the cash to get in separately.

In a Facebook post, North Tama said that it is also switching to Bound for tickets. Cash will be accepted at North Tama, but “some schools may only accept credit/debit cards at the gate,” the post says. All sports will be $6 except for volleyball at $5.

The issue is worse in college sports, where large schools have ditched any option except a smart phone. Iowa State says printed tickets and screenshots will not be allowed. If multiple tickets are under the same name, each person must have their own ISU ticket account, and tickets must be transferred. This pretty much destroys the idea of going there and holding up tickets to sell or fingers to buy tickets, which I suppose is an intended consequence. There won’t be a ticket stub memento. And of course, there will be perfectly working, full-bars data access and Wi-Fi at the stadium on game day, right? Right?

The ticket guide page at hawkeyesports.com says “all tickets must be presented on your mobile device.” Commenters on MGoBlog say this is the last year Michigan will print football tickets at all, and they’ve only been available to season ticket holders. Last year, screenshots of tickets were not accepted at Texas games.

If Taylor Swift fans can take on Ticketmaster, who do we need to take on college football’s ticketing scheme? (Oh, right, no one’s in charge of college football. I volunteer.)

UPDATE: Iowa State will not take cash anywhere at athletic events, according to a post at Cyclone Fanatic.

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