West Liberty, Iowa - Building Together
West Liberty, Iowa - Building Together
August 2023 - Recapping the Fair, Parade, RAGBRAI, and looking at what is next!
Ever wondered how a small community can transform into a bustling hub of development and celebration? We're here to bring you a closer look at the vibrant transformation of West Liberty with a whirlwind of new constructions, community events and school district updates. We've got a lot to cover from the Fair Parade and the adrenaline rush of skydiving and gymnastics adventures to discussions on the tornado that hit the north side of town and the rousing success of our Father’s Day Car Show.
We've had our hands full with numerous construction projects reshaping West Liberty. From the new Rainbow Drive housing development to the Prairie Street and Short Street projects, and the Meadows project as well. All these initiatives are not only expanding our infrastructure, but also our community spirit and potential. We also touch upon the jubilant events in July, the All-Class Reunion, Picnic in the Park, and our beloved Muscatine County Fair Parade, and of course...RAGBRAI.
In the latter half of our episode, we get into the meat of our school district updates, community events, and some exhilarating new ventures. We'll throw some light on the progression of the golf event, the elementary school ELC addition, the athletic complex and even the school board elections. Moreover, we've got some interesting news on the high school auditorium renovation, new LED lights for the athletic field, the renovation of historic buildings, and the riveting idea of 3D printing houses. Amidst all this, we did find ourselves in a bit of chaos following the election outcome, but hey, nothing that a good old blueberry muffin can't smooth out! So, come along and join this thrilling journey of transformation and development here in West Liberty.
Happy August and welcome to Building Together, a podcast about how people, businesses, organizations and local government are working together to make the West Liberty area a better place in which to live, work, learn, grow and play. I'm Ken Brooks. I have the privilege of serving as the executive director for Welead, the West Liberty Economic Area Development Corporation. I will introduce our panel in just a moment, but first the Building Together podcast is a service of Welead and is brought to you in part by West Liberty Auto Parts, the Goodfellas Club and listeners like you. For more information, visit wwwweleadiowaorg. Alright, are you ready? Let's go? Welcome to the Building Together podcast. Let's go around and meet our panelists.
Clifford McFerren:Hi, I'm Clifford McFerrin, the administrator at the Simpson Memorial Home, and I'm also on the board of directors at the Heritage Foundation. Happy to be here. Thanks, Ken.
Cara McFerren:I'm Kara Calvin McFerrin. I am a city council person with City of West Liberty, as well as Mayor Pro Tem.
Charles Brooke:I'm Charles Brooke. I'm the chief operating officer for the West Liberty Chamber of Commerce, Jake Burroughs school board president.
Xiomara Levsen:Xiomaramar Levsen, West Liberty Index editor.
Ken Brooks:And I'm Ken Brooks, executive director of Welead, the West Liberty Economic Area Development Corporation. Alright, let's dive into it, cliff, what's going on in your world?
Clifford McFerren:Well, I'm very, very proud of the gang at Simpson Memorial Home. They came out for the fair. We had a lot of participants, both staff and residents, and we had a float first time in a long time. Even before COVID we hadn't been doing it, and this year a lot of the residents wanted to get out. And boy, they had a really, really good time, and most of the ones that were on the float hadn't been participating in our extracurricular activities, which is good to allow them to get out and do something. The staff were just having a great time.
Ken Brooks:So this float was for the Fair Parade which, of course, is put on by West Liberty's Chamber of Commerce.
Clifford McFerren:They did a fine job this year, I tell you.
Ken Brooks:Oh, they certainly did an adequate job. Yep, just kidding, it was great.
Clifford McFerren:No, it was good.
Ken Brooks:Can you tell us more about the Simpson float?
Clifford McFerren:Yeah, we had a low-rise trailer. We had, I think, maybe 10, 15 of our residents and tenants from our assisted living and nursing home that all had chairs up on the float and really the emphasis was just on them waving and people recognizing them. It was done up with some nice banners and some balloons and such things and our staff were walking along with bright yellow, gold, yellow shirts. That just waving and having a good time, and the weather couldn't have been better. I think it was what. 62 and sunny no, it was 72 and sunny, maybe 82 and sunny For the first time. It wasn't really astronomically hot, so that was good. And I think they completed the fair in what? Almost 40 minutes? 45 minutes, so it was long.
Clifford McFerren:And there was another group that just came off of the skydiving that we had this year. We took a small group skydiving and I can tell you that 8 out of 10 landed successfully and next year we're gonna kind of maybe look at that again, see if we can increase the group a little bit more. That's 80%. That's a B right? Yeah, no, we're very proud of that statistic. So, coming off of the mixed martial arts that we did last month, that was more like a 70% martial arts.
Clifford McFerren:There were a few things that the throwing stars, like I mentioned before, that we have to be. We just won't talk of that one and I think we're just gonna focus on when we had the gymnastics. Gymnastics was great this year. We had the Palmer Horse incident, of course. I referred to that last time I was here when one resident hit the Palmer Horse and folded over like a lawn chair. That was rough. That was the only real incident that we had A couple of hips, but nothing really too bad.
Jake Burroughs:I actually I think that that's, in the running for America's Funniest Home Videos, the winning on that one.
Clifford McFerren:We hope so, because we were kind of hoping that we can maybe build a new nursing home with those winnings, yeah, or at least pay the insurance and the claims that are coming out of that.
Clifford McFerren:So, yes, very touche, that's about it for the nursing home, the Heritage Foundation.
Clifford McFerren:A few weeks back, a month or so ago, we had a tornado hit the north side of town, kind of go through, and it did move our barn that we have on the property. It moved it just enough, kind of a little off Caddy Wampus there that we were gonna have to have somebody come over and literally kind of re-squared up because we can't even open the doors on it right now. It's safe, it's not gonna fall down, but we can't get inside of it to give tours. So that that part and it needs to be painted, or painting working on getting the steam engine painted, getting that done, putting up signage on the trail, still doing some trail trimming, that type of thing. Car show that we had this year for Father's Day was just fabulous. It did rain a little bit, some of the spectators got a little wet, but it was a quick shower, nothing to worry about too much, but we had a lot of fun there. Yeah, I think overall we're going in a good direction.
Ken Brooks:Very cool Okay, Kara.
Cara McFerren:Hi. Well, some exciting things happen over the weekend, and pretty epic, I'd say, better than you know. One of the nights we had at the council chambers, we had Ragnbrey coming through the city, partnered with the West Liberty Chamber of Commerce, to welcome thousands of writers through our town, which we hadn't seen in probably over a hundred years. When we celebrated our last big hurrah with the opening of the sidewalks downtown.
Clifford McFerren:Yes, yes, the sidewalks Putting the bricks in the street.
Cara McFerren:Putting the bricks in the street, we had horses into the parking garage. I believe we had 12,000 in attendance at that point.
Clifford McFerren:Yep, and there were six guys.
Cara McFerren:So this time around is going to be a little bit more than that, but yeah, it was great.
Clifford McFerren:What did you guys do when the storm came through and the high winds picked up all the porta-potties and spun them around like dollocks in the air? How did you come out of that? I didn't pay any attention.
Cara McFerren:We fared pretty well. It wasn't nothing but a couple of guys on horseback with some lassos couldn't fix, but anyway, yeah, many things happen in, many things happen in here in town.
Ken Brooks:Kara. I wanted to give a shout out to all of these City of West Liberty employees.
Cara McFerren:Oh, absolutely, boy. In fact we have a devoted day. They took out a whole day to devote to the Ragh-Bri event and it's coming through town. It's, you know, it's their 50th season of this whole biking event across Iowa, and West Liberty is one of the towns that's lucky enough to have, you know, this grand event come through and boy, the city crew just went above and beyond to really equip the town that they needed to with all the accoutrements and everything that was needed, from porta-potties to water, to volunteers.
Clifford McFerren:They patched the roads I mean the puddles, and they got a lot of that stuff done. Oh my gosh, yeah Street cleaning Street sweepers were out.
Cara McFerren:And yeah, all the ADA fixes on the carbon gutters, yeah well, we reduced the squirrel population for them as well.
Clifford McFerren:Yeah, down six at least.
Cara McFerren:Yeah, that's still work in progress.
Ken Brooks:Has anybody let them out of the street? Sweeper? That was my question.
Cara McFerren:No, they just kind of run in that cage, in that little turbine cage.
Ken Brooks:It was very apparent to me that the city staff was working really hard in the month or so leading up to the event Like I said, patching the streets, getting everything ready. But I was very impressed by how hard city staff was working on Saturday itself during the event, Making sure the trash was staying picked up, and then, right after it ended it was like you know they swept through like a storm and cleaned up everything so quickly.
Cara McFerren:Oh, absolutely by the middle of the afternoon. You wouldn't have known anything would have happened. You would not believe that two o'clock in the afternoon you'd have struggled through town doing your regular shopping and you wouldn't have known that, you know, 50 or 30 or 40 or 50,000 people had just swept through town.
Ken Brooks:I think the only thing more impressive than that was the showing of all of the volunteers in the community that came out to help do some of that same stuff, to help keep everything clean, to help move all of the reg bri participants through through town and into the vendor stands and out of town. It was a really good showing from service organizations, from school groups and just from, you know, all of our West libertarians in general. Very impressive.
Jake Burroughs:I think it was great there was even one that had a Christmas in July. I thought that was that was amazing to come up with that idea to really kind of bring some of that joy to the heat that we had that day.
Clifford McFerren:Tell us a little bit about what's going on in the city If you don't mind. Well, fact, let me just start this off. I've got a complaint in my neighborhood and I know you're on council. You probably don't want to hear this, but there's two barking dogs in our neighborhood. Small ones make a lot of noise.
Ken Brooks:Do they live at your?
Clifford McFerren:house. What's their squirrel count? They're now. They are squirrelers that I do get. They are squirrelers.
Jake Burroughs:I understand that Ethan was handing out passes to any dog that was willing to take down at least one or two population.
Ken Brooks:They're getting at least one hour. Wave the license fee yes, get out of jail card type.
Clifford McFerren:Exactly so, kara, can you tell us a little bit about when you've got an annoyance, either a dog or a neighbor, spouse, spouse, child? Could you tell us how and who at the city takes care of those things?
Cara McFerren:Well, anybody can take a complaint or concern or question at the city and normally the procedure is, you know, you bring it before either council during public comments, or you're welcome to speak with the city manager or city clerk and they can put you in touch with our nuisance officer. We have a nuisance officer designated to help with ordinance and ordinances through town and going through and making sure that everything is in order and helping to resolve problems between either neighbors or developments. So that would be Eddie Ortiz. He's the city's nuisance officer, but you're welcome to talk to any of us, yeah.
Clifford McFerren:So if I have a problem at night, do I just call city hall? Do I call you? Wake you up? What do I do?
Cara McFerren:Well, of course there's a degree there of priority on how bad your problem is. For instance, if your problem is, say, you lost power, then there is an after hours phone number that you can call for utility usage. That's out and they will alert the necessarities so that they can come and resolve that. Or if it's some sort of like barking dog issue, or Barking dog playing the stereo really loud. Or stereo really loud.
Clifford McFerren:Spiked collars and their rock and roll music.
Cara McFerren:You know something that's late at night? You're welcome to call the.
Clifford McFerren:The mayor, and his address is.
Cara McFerren:The PD and the PD will route you to dispatch and then dispatch in the non-emergency number, will put you in touch with the city officer and they will come and address your issue. Of course, any emergency, naturally you would dial 911. But that would be a non-emergency. After hours would be the after hours phone number or calling for an officer.
Jake Burroughs:So also one of the things that the city is great at is their communication with the community and presenting themselves in such a way that they can have a touch base with the community. One such instance was with the Rotary Club in July. They actually came out. Mayor Anderson came out, brought a few of his folks, including Eddie Ortiz, and they discussed kind of what they do, how they do it, how the city works, Answered some questions and went from there too. So that was a really great opportunity that the Rotary Club put on at the Country Club and look for more opportunities like that. That's my shameless plug.
Clifford McFerren:Yeah, no, I think the city's actually, from my experience, been make quite a few strides on both improving communications and putting the right people in the right places at City Hall. Questions get answered, things get back to you in a timely fashion, so I think they're becoming much more professional and community minded.
Ken Brooks:Yeah, Carol, we've talked about a few things that the city has done, has participated in, culminating with the Farron Regg right here recently. Are there any things coming up that the city's gonna be involved in that you'd like to share?
Cara McFerren:Oh, let's see what are we going to be doing. Well, the next city event that's happening is going to be where some organizations in town are gonna be celebrating right downtown, in the middle of the street. That's gonna be in September for Fiesta Latina and West Liberty Children's Festival. A lot of people come out, there's music, there's games, there's entertainment, there's puppet shows, all kinds of things. Absolutely, it's a great day. I believe it's the middle of September.
Clifford McFerren:Yep, whole day, whole street, glad to find.
Cara McFerren:On top of that, we're just trying to finish up our event or not events but our construction projects that we have going on right now. We currently have a big street project on Rainbow Drive and it is just a flurry of activity on Rainbow Drive. It's fabulous.
Xiomara Levsen:I mean just broke down the ground.
Clifford McFerren:Broke down the ground.
Cara McFerren:On a new housing development actually yes. So yeah, we've got a new housing development going on right there, and oh, nice to talk about the one down by the Farragrands.
Clifford McFerren:There's a whole bunch of poop sticking out of the ground.
Cara McFerren:There's going to be another housing development down there, right next to the cemetery. There's going to be oh and Farragrands, it'll be I hear people are dying to buy lots there. There's going to be plenty of activity down by the Farragrands. You forgot one.
Xiomara Levsen:Oh, for the Prairie Street too. There's cranes over there getting oh yes, well, that is Short street project that is.
Cara McFerren:That's actually been an ongoing project that was approved many years ago. They're just now getting around to finishing that first phase.
Clifford McFerren:Phase two no, the phase.
Cara McFerren:The first phase of it, where they're adding on two more units of buildings. So that's just a continuation, but yeah.
Ken Brooks:So Cara, there wrote construction there on Rainbow and Maxson. We anticipate that to be done before the end of the year, right, that is the hope.
Cara McFerren:Of course, there's always the possibility of a few glitches, but it wouldn't be in construction, it would just be making sure that we get our materials and supplies that we need. Yeah, so we're moving along.
Ken Brooks:So the summer seems like it's been kind of the summer of housing development. We've been talking about all of the different projects that are coming up and underway and we are finally able to see some action on these developments. Right, so they're across from some ways the largest development going in the Bicy Dutton development. What is that? 54, 55 different homes going in there.
Cara McFerren:Yes, and it's going to be a combination of multi-residential and single-family homes.
Ken Brooks:So I think there's gonna be kind of a larger complex in the middle that you kind of think of, about apartments, right, and then we're going to see some what they call zero lot, zero entry, so kind of duplex.
Cara McFerren:Right, yeah, it's called like a zero lot line. You see them a lot in the Iowa City Corvill area and it's just a one structure that's divided, kind of like a duplex, and they're individual houses but they're still connected through one wall but they're their own units.
Ken Brooks:Yep, and then I think we're gonna see seven or eight single-family homes, right?
Cara McFerren:Yep, absolutely so a little bit of everything in there. Everything, yep.
Ken Brooks:It's really good.
Cara McFerren:And then the development to the south of us is the Meadows. The Meadows, yep, that is going to be manufactured homes, so they're gonna be made and brought here and set down. So there's gonna be really nice homes, from what I've seen in the illustrations.
Ken Brooks:I think the plan is to have eight or 10 of those set here still this season, right, and then that would be phase one, and then there would be a couple more phases.
Cara McFerren:Of development there, yeah, of development there. Absolutely yep, so with eight or 10.
Ken Brooks:And then, yeah, as you mentioned, out there on Short Street, where the existing apartment complex is out to the west side of town, we're building a whole bunch more apartments out there and I think you'll see the cranes out there right now getting those built.
Cara McFerren:Yeah, that's just southwest of town and that's just in addition to the current units that are out there right now.
Ken Brooks:Yeah, exciting stuff and more on the way.
Cara McFerren:Yes, yes, our plan is to really encourage development and then broaden the horizons and get West Liberty to be booming so that we could spread out a little bit more and really increase the economy and the tax base of the town.
Ken Brooks:Yeah, I love that.
Cara McFerren:Turnles happy.
Charles Brooke:August happy August. You made it Absolutely dead. Here we are. July is definitely our busiest, busiest month out of the entire year with all of our events, and we started with the all-class reunion that only happens every five years, but this year it was a great success all through West Liberty, from meeting up at the county fair. They had some things going down there there was a car show, there was a tractorcade, there was a great exhibit at the theater, great presentation on the whole Past, present and future of West Liberty. It was very cool to see some really old photos of what this building that we're doing this podcast in was, you know 80 years ago and so on.
Charles Brooke:But that same weekend was also picnic in the park and the muscatine county fair parade which, just like Cliff was talking about, we had some great Floats. We had actually a very large number of floats this year and I was quite pleasantly surprised and very pleased with many businesses. There's definitely some excitement around that with businesses bringing in new floats and returning, so it was great to see. But our picnic in the park was a great success. We had 11 vendors, we had a great acoustic guitar player, carl Beatty, and on top of that he's already been booked for Liberty Public House, I believe in September. So he'll be back to listen to. We had great turnout, the pool was packed, it's a great day. And then, yes, right, right.
Jake Burroughs:Also great day also great day.
Ken Brooks:I think picnic in the park, in the parade were amazing, and Because of your leadership, for sure. But it also couldn't be done without all of the, the volunteer hours, right? Yes your chamber board members, your business leaders. I had the opportunity to help with the parade and, while I don't remember exactly how many floats we had last year and maybe you have that number it felt to me like we had significantly more this year. You're absolutely correct. Looking back on the registration, forms.
Charles Brooke:We had a lot more cars last year, but this year we definitely increased our floats by at least 10 or 20. Yeah, the parade was amazing.
Ken Brooks:All the kids out there, I think, took home more candy Just after the parade and they did probably the last two Halloween's come by at least, maybe even 10 Halloween's it was amazing Kids were walking in the streets.
Cara McFerren:They were walking out with bags and bags.
Clifford McFerren:That's a man, honestly folks. That's amazing, that you have a parade starting out going all the way through town and what's the? What is the course? A mile and a half, it's less than two Yep. The front end hits the back end.
Charles Brooke:We also ended a great fair week.
Clifford McFerren:I know a lot of our vendors from.
Charles Brooke:Picnic in the park were also vendors of the the county fair and I know Kelsey. Speaking with Kelsey at the fair already, she was very pleased with numbers this year and with the increase on the entertainment and New things that she tried compared to the previous years. She was very pleased with numbers and community coming out from.
Cara McFerren:From my perspective as an elected official, it really looks like there's a lot of younger People being more involved this year really adds a nice like Take on city events that have been occurring, you know, historically through town, you know, just kind of freshen it up a bit. So that's kind of nice, I will say to add on to that, like at picnic in the park and the county fair.
Charles Brooke:I don't know if it's like. What Ken and I and a lot of people in the community have been doing is like getting involved with the youth, getting involved in the schools and Students are on, you know, summer break and they're coming up and saying, hey, this was a great event. You know you've done this and how did you make all this happen?
Cara McFerren:So that is now triggering younger minds on community and small towns, big towns and so on, absolutely because they're eager to want to be involved but yet they don't Want to appear like they want to be involved. So there's a certain like type of you know, looker, you know I want to be cool, but like I really want to get involved, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know.
Charles Brooke:They got to keep that persona.
Cara McFerren:Yeah, you know, I think Kelsey and the Fair Board did a phenomenal job this year.
Ken Brooks:They always do a good job, but this year was very organized everything was very well put together and I love the Muscatine County Fair. It just it has a different vibe than other fairs do and it is a really neat experience to be able to be there as a bystander watching people. I had the opportunity to to volunteer at a local nonprofit booth that was set up there and just watch how people act differently at the fair. Then they might otherwise Ordinarily act, and it's a very positive thing. You know, you look at the booth and Kids are buying each other snacks. Like where else does that happen? Where you're, so, I guess, generous with with your money, right, especially when you're a teenager, that's a very limited number. Before all of the grandstand events, when they do the national anthem and everybody in the fair, not just those in the grandstand, just stops and and they face the flag and they have a patriotic moment, right oh absolutely.
Cara McFerren:In fact, one of our Spanish it teachers from Spain that's here on a on a program, was just absolutely Taken back by it because she was volunteering to work in the booth to to for food, and then the anthem came on and everybody, even those that were ordering, stopped what they did, turn around and then put their hand on their chest and, you know, listened to the national anthem. So it was. It was quite remarkable to see that. And then they put their hand on their chest, and so it was. It was quite remarkable to see that it's a special moment, for sure.
Ken Brooks:You know there are a lot of really popular things, a lot of popular vendors at the fair, but there are a lot of lines, right, that's part of it. You gotta, you know, wait your turn. And other places you see there people that are not happy to be waiting in lines, that things get tense, emotions get high. But I didn't see any of that. Everybody was very patient, everybody was very respectful, everybody was having a great time Rag Bride.
Charles Brooke:It was a really cool experience. If you've never experienced rag Bride, road in rag Bride or even, you know, been a vendor or volunteer or anything, it's, it's quite a Spectacle, one putting it together and then just experiencing it. And on top of that this year was the 50th anniversary. So not just you know a few thousand bikers, we're talking 30 plus thousand bike riders and Like just the numbers were just out of out of this world. And I know not just ourselves, but Ames and Des Moines and Tema, toledo and Corville. We all saw the same numbers and it was just it's cool to see that in our state.
Cara McFerren:It's. It's a big party.
Charles Brooke:Yeah, I would like to thank the City of West Liberty for being our partner.
Charles Brooke:Through all of this and they brought the Porta Potties that was on their schedule. But every everyone else I was truly pleased with. And on top of that, not just our volunteers but I had 10 West Liberty organizations as vendors, which, when we started this back in February, we we weren't really sure where everybody was, who's gonna be on vacation and who's even gonna be around to feed thousands of people. So Just really happy that the the 10 organizations that we did have representing West Liberty really came and showed themselves.
Ken Brooks:Yeah, well done. What's Liberty, Charles? Don't we have a golf event coming up?
Charles Brooke:We do Thursday, august 24th. If you're listening, then you have your business or organization that wants to join us. Come on out to the West Liberty Golf and Country Club. We will start checking at 1 o'clock and TF starts at 1.45, again on Thursday, august 24th.
Ken Brooks:Is it too late for a business to sign up as a sponsor?
Charles Brooke:No, absolutely not. We will take sponsors raffle prizes all the way up until check-in on the 24th. It happened last year. I'm going to prepare for it this year, so I will do that.
Ken Brooks:Well, it's always a lot of fun, it is, so make sure you get signed up now. All right, thanks, charles. Thank you.
Jake Burroughs:Jake, how are you? I'm doing well, thanks, ken. Schools are out for the summer, as they say, right, so not a lot going on inside the schools but outside the schools. The ELC addition to the elementary, as we know it is near completion. It will be nearly ready for the start of the year. I think they're probably going to try to hold classes in those rooms at that time. It'll be just be finishing up some items. The athletic complex, as I always report. Press boxes in Bleachers are in, lights are in. We're going to get the turf in the next couple of weeks, so we're going to really see it taking shape, as Sean likes to say. And then we're also hopeful still that the football season can occur on set field, so pretty excited about that.
Jake Burroughs:The only other major thing going on in the district is that elections are coming up in November 7. So candidates that are interested in filling one of the three vacancies that will come up would need to get their paperwork from Abbey or Tees at the administrative office. You can start turning those in as of August 28, all the way up to September 21. It's a little bit of a short window, but at the same time it's a pretty good amount of time You've got to get about 50 signatures. Basically, people, they're not saying they're going to vote for you, but they said sure, I guess you can run. That's a vote of confidence that you're competent enough to run and it's not too hard to get, so that, like I said, november 7 is the election.
Jake Burroughs:So sometime between September 21 and November 7, we're going to hold a candidate forum actually at the Westerie High School, if there are enough candidates to warrant this. So this is something that they did when I ran many years ago back eons ago, it feels like, and I think it went well. It gives a place for people to ask questions of their candidates, but also it gives an opportunity for the candidates to present who they are and what they're interested in, and you can vet them out from that rather than just being a popularity contest, which these things can often be. This will likely be at the high school auditorium, where we've been in the works of doing some renovations to that with Brian Rantz and also with the help of Nick Heath with the city, because we identified this a couple years ago that there was no standard way for doing this for either the city elections or the school board elections and we felt like it was important to provide that to the community.
Cara McFerren:Yeah, very cool Are you? Is your seat up?
Jake Burroughs:It is.
Cara McFerren:So are you rerunning?
Jake Burroughs:We'll see Nice answer.
Clifford McFerren:Well, also the seats are up.
Jake Burroughs:Jeff Loefflin is also up for reelection and Carla Shield up for reelection. That would leave Ed Moreno and Becky Vargas on the board.
Clifford McFerren:OK, do you have any feedback on whether they're going to run again?
Jake Burroughs:or I will not speculate to whether or not they're going to run, but I believe that there will be vacancy.
Jake Burroughs:They haven't said one word, yet Correct as of now. I'm not aware They've not made public statements, my knowledge. However, it is a chore sometimes, but it is very, very rewarding. So I encourage anybody who's interested to reach out and ask what it involves, what it takes. It is a four-year commitment. So if you're interested in one thing, don't run. Just show up to the board meetings and communicate your needs and wants. Running for the board is much more than a one-item task.
Clifford McFerren:A lot of people don't understand that, both in the city council and the school board. Can you just tell one rumor, though, that people often think about, and that's that you need to have kids in the school system to be on the school board.
Jake Burroughs:Right, yeah, you don't have to have kids in the school system, you just have to have a vested interest in the community bettering the district for the students and staff and the administrators. That's all I have. Thanks, ken.
Ken Brooks:Jamara.
Xiomara Levsen:I'm taking a deep breath. July is done, thankfully, and now we get to go right into August, which is going to be calm but getting busier as the month ends because school starts, so there'll be celebrating the opening of school, hopefully, and stuff like that, and it's not every day. I'm sitting in my office and I can hear the construction going on over the athletic field moving dirt around or jack hammering something around, and they have the lights up too, so it'll be nice to see how bright the lights are when they turn those on.
Clifford McFerren:Are those new lights or are they the ones? They moved from the old field, from the old baseball field?
Cara McFerren:or softball field. You mean behind the middle school.
Clifford McFerren:Yeah, I've seen them moving some lights the other day Take them down.
Jake Burroughs:All the lights that we have are new.
Clifford McFerren:Yeah, yeah that's OK.
Xiomara Levsen:I think they're in their high-efficiency LED lights, which is great. Cousin actually works at Musco, so it is in charge of projects. That's cool Going around and being vice president of that.
Jake Burroughs:Thanks for getting us that discount.
Cara McFerren:LEDs are the way to go. You started that before I came in the picture there. Actually, we just had a changeover this year and all of our city utility lights are now LED.
Xiomara Levsen:And the lights are also up at the park too. I noticed Nick put that up as well. W guys Wapsie Park. Oh yeah, the court.
Clifford McFerren:Yep, well, it's our senior pickleball league too. Play all night.
Xiomara Levsen:Yep. And so the first thing you know, august will have the Cedar County Fair results in.
Xiomara Levsen:Then, a second week of August, there will be the Muscovine County Fair results, in which everybody looks forward to who was the fair queen, kylie Langley from Wilton Wilton sure, yep and Rebecca Emoff, or Rebecca Becky Emoff, was runner up in one Miss Congeniality so great show. They do a very job, the girls do, and the program is really nice. And I've also been volunteering with a couple organizations in town. But I also got pulled in by Ed Moreno to volunteer for Global Ties, which is a national organization by here in Iowa. They connect groups from all over the world to the heartland. So I've talked to people from Kosovo about human rights issues and gender violence. And then we had a group from Central and South America here last week in Kenya to see some of them. But there was like 16 people in the group. Before I talked it was eight and we had two journalists and then there was somebody from the State Department and Dominican Republic. They had a bunch of police officers there and lawyers and stuff like that. So it's really awesome.
Xiomara Levsen:And we had a good conversation. It's cool. So I think I'm here at the West Celebrity See me, I don't have to go anywhere, which is nice. So we just used the conference room and brings more ties to West Celebrity.
Clifford McFerren:Wouldn't it be nice to go someplace?
Xiomara Levsen:Out country? Yeah, but the group. They start over in South Carolina and North Carolina on the East Coast, then they come to Iowa and then they go over to California.
Clifford McFerren:Wouldn't it be nice to have a sister city somewhere?
Xiomara Levsen:I know right. I did hear that the sister city program is actually starting to move along.
Cara McFerren:Actually, we are in the midst of choosing our sister city. Yes, is that correct, ken?
Ken Brooks:We are definitely in the midst of it. Yeah, we had a great just last week great committee meeting there and we have whittled down our selection to just a couple options. And I think there is a forerunner there, somebody that we're really interested in, and so we just have a couple more steps to get that all verified and then we'll bring it to city council to get their approval and as soon as that happens then we can make a big announcement about it. So we're really excited for that opportunity.
Cara McFerren:Really excited to have a sister city possibly, yeah that's nice.
Xiomara Levsen:It'll be awesome to read about. And also we have the elections coming up. We have our lovely presidential candidates coming through too. So, it's going to be interesting to see who decides to stop in the area and talk to us.
Clifford McFerren:So, ken, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you've got going on? I mean, you've asked all of us questions.
Xiomara Levsen:Yeah, yeah, I can Tell us what's going on in your life. Yeah, we talk about sister cities.
Clifford McFerren:So yeah.
Ken Brooks:July was a really fun month. We had all of these awesome community events going on, but in addition to those, all the cooler weather months were spent planning and now that it's warm outside, everybody is out doing so. I had the really neat opportunity to be out in the literal field checking on these projects that we've got going. On all these housing projects that we discussed, we have a couple. We have renovation projects going on downtown where we have developers taking historic buildings and fixing them up, converting them and repurposing them to bring both more commercial space and more housing here to West Liberty. So I've had the opportunity to go and tour all of those projects. So it's really neat to get out there and see all that going on. We have projects that are going to be complete here in the month of August and a couple more that will be done in September. So it's fun to see all of that hard work that goes on the planning side of things get turned into the actual building. So it's not just pictures and renderings anymore but real brick and mortar things that are up, and that's really exciting.
Ken Brooks:Everything that we have built here in West Liberty so far has been using traditional construction. I know a few months ago we were talking about some developing technologies, including 3D printing, and really happy to say that we have four houses that we're going to be building, four single family homes here this fall in West Liberty that are going to be 3D printed. Those are going to be built up there in the wild prairie subdivision, the very north side of town, and we are teaming up with Alquist, which is the technology provider, the actual 3D printers out of Iowa City and the Muscatine Community Foundation, Community Foundation and Greater Muscatine to get those done. They've been working in Muscatine. They've got their first house almost completely built there and then they're going to be building a few more out there this year. Then they're bringing the whole operation out here to West Liberty.
Clifford McFerren:When people think of 3D printing, they think of plastic. They do think of plastic usually and very small, so are these going to be small plastic houses?
Ken Brooks:No, although every one of these homes will be outfitted with one of those 3D printers built in. So if, for example, they need to replace a cabinet pole knob or something like that, it will be preloaded and they can just print one and replace it. Really, really, yep, that is crazy, really neat. So if you think about your desktop 3D printer and then you multiply that by about 30, that's. Ken's number here, just a rough estimate. There, that's what we're doing, and instead of polymer or plastic, we're printing with concrete.
Clifford McFerren:So that machine is going to stay on site after the house is done and that's what they'll use to fix their knobs.
Ken Brooks:No, no, but they will give you a normal sized desktop, a normal size.
Clifford McFerren:Okay, all right, printed to go in there Now will they print a car for you, a concrete car, a concrete car, that could be interesting. Well, you know, hail was be no, no issue for that.
Jake Burroughs:So it's funny you bring that up because I believe August 3rd, a couple days from now, so be quick. There's actually going to be a presentation at the community or at the West Liberty Country Club by the Rotary Club of West Liberty about this topic.
Ken Brooks:Yep Weleap is partnering with the Community Foundation. Ron Monahan is the housing initiatives manager out there and we're going to be talking about 3D printing. Ron will be kind of giving a 30,000 foot view overview of the science involved Nothing too deep, but he does a much better job explaining how the actual 3D printing works than I do. And we're going to be talking about the process of building these homes and what that looks like. But we're expecting each one of these houses to take about two weeks to build. As far as the actual framing of it goes, the roof will be a traditional roof and then the inside will be traditionally finished, kind of stick built, if you will. But the actual framing of the house is all done with this 3D printer, which is just truly remarkable technology. So, jake, you're exactly right here in just a couple days. We invite you to come out August 3rd, starting at 5.30. Dinner's included out at the Country Club. Just let us know that you're coming so we can have dinner for you. But come learn more about it.
Cara McFerren:I'll go have dinner.
Ken Brooks:Yeah, you're welcome, kara, okay.
Jake Burroughs:How you dinner every day, but not 3D. But not 3D. Are they going to 3D print the dinner?
Clifford McFerren:I don't know Should be Star Trek, does it?
Ken Brooks:I do have one more announcement Weleap is excited to share that one of the grant applications that we've submitted to the Iowa Economic Development Authority was approved.
Ken Brooks:So weleap worked with the city of Adelisa to write a grant for the old corner tap building most recently Mama's Alibi right there downtown across from the fire station. So we received $100,000 from the state of Iowa that's going to go into refurbishing that building that has been vacant since before COVID. We're going to get the restaurant portion downstairs in a usable shape. It's going to look really nice. Get a restaurant back in there. And we're going to take the upstairs, which has been abandoned for years, and create two apartments up there Nice. So we are super excited about that, thrilled that Adelisa is going to have a restaurant again, looking at making it more of a family restaurant, kind of a nice barn grill there, and then just to be able to add some housing in that community is great too. So Adelisa is one of the three communities that Weleap serves. Of course we talk a lot about West Liberty, but Adelisa and Nichols are in our service area too, so we're glad to be able to share the love.
Clifford McFerren:That's exciting. I'm glad that they're sharing in that, which is part of your mission. So, nichols, look out, here we come yeah next year for sure, 100%.
Ken Brooks:Thank you all for joining us for the Building Together podcast. It has been a pleasure. We look forward to seeing you next month. The Building Together podcast is a service of Welead, the West Liberty Economic Area Development Corporation, and is brought to you by West Liberty Auto Parts and the Goodfellas Club and from generous support from listeners like you. Thanks for spending time with us. We'll see you next month. Building Together Dream it, plan it, build it.
Charles Brooke:So many things are happening this week UFOs.
Cara McFerren:Yeah. Artificial meat yeah. What about Mr Sanders?
Jake Burroughs:Colonel.
Cara McFerren:Oh, bernie, no, Bernie, bernie is not running. Sorry, bernie is not running.
Clifford McFerren:Okay, everything's named Perk. I got my way behind it in time.
Cara McFerren:Well, I mean, Ken, let me ask you is this podcast live? Yes, Wow, Hello, live listeners? Yeah. Chamber of City of West Liberty Horrors.
Clifford McFerren:Chamber of Horrors.
Ken Brooks:Yeah, a lot of exciting development that we can see now happening with these housing developments.
Cara McFerren:Oops, sorry, that's what happens when you use the broken arm to try and pour.
Clifford McFerren:That only is in audio.
Cara McFerren:It's physical Get her the rose I heard there's chicken that you could make from air.
Ken Brooks:Itabletals are a multi-tool here. Yes, you can use them to clean up spills, wipe your bum or dry your tears. They're really desperate. Yes, but it's, but you have to be pretty damn desperate, you don't have to dry your tears.
Cara McFerren:No to wipe your bum, because this is hard stuff.
Jake Burroughs:Some say hard, some say efficient. I don't know.
Cara McFerren:And Sweet.
Clifford McFerren:Calling the yak.
Cara McFerren:Yep calling the yak.
Clifford McFerren:Come on. Yeah, is that coming? You were, so we will enjoy it. Here's your dinosaur arm One more time. Here's your dinosaur arm One more time.
Jake Burroughs:Okay, I'm gonna vote that we put Charles first next night. This isn't fair. He advanced one location. It didn't help. He's trying to work his way around the barn. He's not making it there. We really just need to put him in the cash-in seat.
Cara McFerren:Poor Chaz, chaz, we'll get you up, we'll put you in the. We'll put you in the first slot. Wait a minute. Now I'm getting this All right.
Clifford McFerren:Your vote just come in.
Jake Burroughs:Now I'm on to you. Is this a joke?
Charles Brooke:Y'all have lost control no we no.
Jake Burroughs:Ken has lost control.
Ken Brooks:You're assuming I'm?
Jake Burroughs:This is Ken's podcast.
Clifford McFerren:Thank you for tuning in. Yeah, I don't know. Thank you, it's been great.
Jake Burroughs:Sorry, this is our last area we're all gonna be fired.
Cara McFerren:I'm just an elected official.
Clifford McFerren:I have no idea what's going on, I'm not gonna get elected again.
Jake Burroughs:It's just right. Wait what the KPI we're going for what?
Xiomara Levsen:Okay, what.
Cara McFerren:Excuse me, mr McFerrin, again, that is wrong.
Xiomara Levsen:You be careful, this is gonna kick you out.
Cara McFerren:You. That is wrong. She's gonna, she's gonna. Oh my god.
Charles Brooke:Non-human biologics, biologics. Yeah yeah, this is gonna suck for Ken. He's not gonna get anything.
Jake Burroughs:He keeps inviting us back.
Clifford McFerren:Okay, anybody want a blueberry muffin? Okay, thanks, bye.
