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.

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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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Aug 24

We triple-did-it

Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The 99 I experienced in Albuquerque in 2019 was a dry heat.

This is not a dry heat. Glory to corn sweat.

Cedar Rapids’ last 100-degree day was a decade ago next week (August 30, 2013).

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Aug 23

Tama bridge’s future remains unclear

Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at 1:00 PM by Jeff

For the second week in a row, I went to a Tama City Council meeting. Once again, the Lincoln Highway bridge was the subject. My Substack is ideally about Iowa history and highways, and right now, this is the story where both of those are involved.

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Aug 21

Nevada interchange meeting this week

Posted on Monday, August 21, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

As part of the conversion of US 30 between Ames and Nevada to a full freeway, the Iowa DOT plans to build an interchange on the west side of Nevada near the airport. The exit would not be completed until 2028.

A press release says a virtual presentation will be available starting around noon tomorrow through next Wednesday. At the time this blog post was published, there were no PDFs online. There will be an in-person meeting Tuesday at Nevada City Hall from 5 to 6:30.

The exit is at 610th Avenue/Airport Road by the Van Wall farm implement dealership. East-west roads to the northwest and southeast would be paved. The press release says “all interchanges” between Ames and the east side of Nevada would be closed; that should be all intersections. For the time being, the Sixth Street intersection on the south side of Nevada is being kept open even as an overpass is being built to eliminate the intersection with S14.

This has been in the works for a decade. The Nevada Journal reported in mid-2015 that the exit was on the five-year plan with completion in 2020. Then it was off the plan after a public outcry over closing the Sixth Street intersection. In mid-2020, the Nevada City Council voted to support the Airport Road interchange.

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Aug 18

State Center intersection a trouble spot

Posted on Friday, August 18, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

October 27, 2011: This intersection on US 30, the north end of old IA 234, has had several non-fatal crashes in the past few years, KCCI reports.

The now-seeming tradition of trouble with at-grade intersections on roads upgraded to four lanes in Iowa continues, this time in State Center.

Left turns from US 30 into State Center have resulted in multiple crashes, KCCI reported last month. The median of US 30 is not wide enough for a stop sign in the middle. See also this Marshalltown Times-Republican story.

The KCCI story says advance intersection warning signs will be coming to the location. I expect them to be similar to the ones at the Springville intersection on US 151.

It’s taken Springville a decade just to get an interchange on the five-year plan. State Center likely has the room for one, at the cost of at least the Wolf Country Customs building. Since this is a very flat area, a bridge over 30 would have to be entirely built up. That’s what happened with US 218 at the Youngville corner, so it’s not impossible.

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Aug 16

Lincoln Highway bridge can’t be rehabilitated

Posted on Wednesday, August 16, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

See my story about Monday’s Tama City Council meeting on Substack.

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Aug 14

IA 906 decommissioned

Posted on Monday, August 14, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff


July 24, 2019: This oversized US 6 shield was how the DOT initially signed US 6’s reroute onto I-80 on the east end of Council Bluffs. Straight ahead was IA 906, aka Kanesville Boulevard in the city.

The Iowa Department of Transportation turned IA 906 over to the city of Council Bluffs at its meeting last week.

The unsigned route was what had been US 6 from downtown Council Bluffs to I-80. The state turned over US 6 west of downtown, aka West Broadway, in 2016, although the exact date became a bit fungible. (The official route description says May 16. My blog post three weeks before that thought it would be May 1. Signs changed later.) Around the same time, but not all at the same time, the state turned over the entirety of IA 192.

The Kanesville Boulevard section of US 6 became IA 906 as US 6 was rerouted onto I-29 and I-80 to bypass Council Bluffs. Technically, US 6 follows I-29 only from I-480 to the east I-29/80 split (in the local lanes), and then shifts onto I-80 heading northeast.

On the other side of Council Bluffs, a DOT press release says that new lanes on I-29 are opening, requiring lane closures. The restriping will be complete Tuesday morning. The interstate has been detoured onto the newly built north-south frontage roads that intersect West Broadway.

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Aug 11

Winding Stairs Festival marks Traer’s sesquicentennial

Posted on Friday, August 11, 2023, at 10:00 AM by Jeff


July 9, 2023: Happy birthday!

We’re celebrating Traer’s 150th birthday this weekend, although many of the activities were back in June.

The schedule is on the WSF committee’s Facebook page.

My parents are grand marshals for tomorrow’s parade, which starts at 4.

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