Exercisers take advantage of an uncrowded gym to get through workouts
FEELING THE BURN
M
ark Erickson knows the difference 12 hours makes. On a typical weekday at Anytime Fitness, the gym is crowded with people at 4 p.m. Sometimes there are even lines to wait for certain machines or equipment to use. He’s witnessed it. But at 4 a.m., Erickson has his run of the place. A Kalona resident, working out while the moon glows suits him. He starts his workday at 6:30 a.m., so being at the gym at odd hours is a part of his routine. “I want to stay in shape, so this is how I start my day,” Erickson said. “You get used to the schedule.” A nurse, Stephanie Zermeno is found at the gym right at 4 a.m. Usually working nights, Zermeno is comforted by the availability of Anytime Fitness, a workout center that is open 24 hours nationwide to members with the swipe of an electronic key. “I sleep a weird schedule,” Zermeno said. “Plus, I can’t come in the morning or during the day. Might as well use the gym membership since I have it.” Brandon Vande Brake, the general manager of Anytime Fitness on 785 Mormon Trek Blvd. in Iowa City, said it’s important for people to choose the time they work out. As of last month, Anytime Fitness had more than 2 million members. “You can’t beat it,” Vande Brake said. “This is the most convenient and versatile system to work with. … A lot of times when people start working out they can possibly see it as a burden, but it’s great to see those people change over and think of it is as a lifestyle.” The world is a different place in the wee hours of the morning. But Anytime Fitness is open, the dedicated customers are there to work out. “I’m so glad there’s a place to go at this time of day,” Erickson said. “It’s crazy here at four or five in the afternoon. It’s just a different place early in the morning.”
Mark Erickson begins his workout about 4 a.m. at Anytime Fitness. “I want to stay in shape, so this is how I start my day,” Erickson said. DAVID SCRIVNER / PRESS-CITIZEN
VIDEO: Watch a video interview with Brandon Vande Brake, the general manager of Anytime Fitness, at www.press-citizen.com. WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
Anytime Fitness, 785 Mormon Trek Blvd. in Iowa City.
People working out in the early morning hours to either cap off or start their day.
4:45 A.M. The gym heats up as a sixth customer starts to work out.
— Matt Cozzi
DESIGN BY LIV ANDERSON
Iowa City Press-Citizen
K1Thursday, March 27, 2014
3
Bakers hit the Bread Garden bakery’s kitchen early to whip up the day’s treats
FROM SCRATCH
T
ucked behind Hot House Yoga, the entrance to the Bread Garden Market’s bakery is nondescript, just like any one of the metal doors lining the alley. But walking in, the aroma of yeast, baking bread and sweet pastry fillings fills the nostrils. Fresh fruit tarts bearing strawberries, blueberries and kiwi line the shelves of carts, joined by flaky croissants, artfully decorated doughnuts and muffins of every variety, including vegan, poppyseed and zucchini. These sweet and savory treats do not materialize into our shopping baskets on their own. Pastry chef Jessica Dunn joins a team of about eight other bakers each morning at 4 a.m. to prep and bake hundreds of breads and pastries. At 6 a.m., a group of delivery boys arrive to wheel the freshly baked goods down the street to sell to hungry customers at the Bread Garden Market. Dunn said the bakery also supplies buns and pastries to restaurants including Formosa, Joseph’s, Givanni’s, Mondo’s Drafthouse and Micky’s, and large custom orders for employees at businesses such as University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. Twelve deck ovens and a convection oven pump out from-scratch foods including biscotti and scones, sometimes spitting out more than 300 doughnuts in a day. Dunn said spending hours around alluring delicacies can prove tempting. “Sometimes we’ll try out new things and do a taste test, but otherwise we try not to eat them,” Dunn said, laughing. Christian Prochaska, executive chef at Bread Garden Market, spends his morning proofing, prepping and scoring the market’s namesake: breads. Prochaska said he bakes about 100 loaves each morning, including French bread, Pain au Levain, buns and focaccia topped with onions and walnuts, olives, or jalapenos and cheddar cheese. Prochaska said he doesn’t mind the early morning shift; he even looks forward to mixing, kneading and carefully baking our breakfast while most of us are sound asleep in bed. “It’s nice to come in early and bake,” he said. “It’s nice and relaxing.”
— Aly Brown
WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
Bread Garden Market’s bakery, 224 S. Clinton St.
A team of bread bakers and pastry chefs prep and bake hundreds of delicacies for customers at Bread Garden Market and local restaurants.
6 A.M.
4 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
A team of delivery boys picks up trolleys of hundreds of muffins, doughnuts, biscotti, scones, croissants and breads to wheel down the alley to the market.
Left: Christian Prochaska, executive chef at Bread Garden Market, unloads fresh loaves of bread between 5 and 6 a.m. at the Bread Garden bakery. He spends his morning proofing, prepping and scoring the market’s namesake: breads. Bottom left: Bread diagrams hang on the wall at the Bread Garden bakery. Workers bake about 100 loaves each morning, including French bread, Pain au Levain, buns and focaccia. Bottom right: Jessica Dunn pulls out a fresh batch of muffins to sort for an order at the Bread Garden bakery. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
VIDEO Watch pastry chefs and bakers prepare hundreds of pastries and loaves at Bread Garden Market’s bakery at www.presscitizen.com.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
5
Farmer mixes technology, tradition to ensure healthier hogs for farm and fork
PIG GIG
M
att Daufeldt bumps down a dirt road, the headlights of his Chevy truck dancing off the side of a long metal building coming into focus. A half-moon still dangles in the early morning sky as the 44-yearold West Liberty farmer steps down from the truck and bounds toward the building, plumes of steam rising with his breath. Daufeldt has never wanted to do anything but farm. As he swings open the door to the hog confinement building, the smell welcomes him like the aroma of an expensive perfume. Daufeldt flashes a wide smile. “Now, some people don’t like the smell,” he said. “But it doesn’t bother me.” A tall man with hands big enough to palm a basketball, Daufeldt looks the part in navy blue coveralls, seed cap and knee-high rubber boots. For him, tending hogs at the break of dawn is little price to pay for living his dream. “It would drive me crazy to be in an office,” he said. “I’m an outdoors person. Farming has been my passion since I was a little boy growing up. It doesn’t matter if it’s 30 below like it’s been this year; I’m right here with the animals because this is what I do.” Daufeldt walks the 21st century barn with the sureness of a man who grew up tending livestock. He pays no heed to the high-pitched squeals and grunting. His eyes dart across the drove of pigs, taking mental note of their haunches and their health. Are their ears droop-
6 Thursday, March 27, 2014
ing? Are they standing listless and alone? “I’m looking for sick pigs,” he said. “If the pigs are healthy when I get them, they generally stay healthy. They really like this environment.” Daufeldt put up the 50-by-400-foot hog confinement building to diversify his 550-acre farm. But raising hogs these days is a whole lot different than it was when Daufeldt was a farm boy. Back then, his family raised 75 pigs at a time in open pens. Chores were tough, especially in winter when the pigs required straw to stay warm. “It was survival of the fittest,” Daufeldt said. “The pigs would pile on each other under the straw, but sometimes the smaller ones wouldn’t make it.” Today, Daufeldt can raise about 5,000 hogs a year in his temperaturecontrolled building that requires no straw — even the water and food is automated. Twice a year, 2,500 piglets — each weighing between 40 and 50 pounds — arrive on the farm. By the time they leave five months later, each pig has reached the ideal market size: between 280 and 300 pounds. Despite the high-tech features — Daufeldt can check the temperature of the building with his phone — Daufeldt still checks his pigs every morning. Nothing can replace time spent with the animals, no matter how newfangled the barn. He prefers stepping into their pens and walking among them. “I spend about an hour to an hour and a half with them,” Daufeldt said. “I like to get a sense of the temperature and the air quality. If I feel good, then I figure the pigs do, too.” — Sara Agnew
Iowa City Press-Citizen
WHERE
Hog farm in rural West Liberty. WHAT HAPPENS?
Farmer Matt Daufeldt checks on his hogs, making sure the temperature in the building is correct, the animals have food and water, and that the animals are healthy. MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
The moment Daufeldt throws open the door and is welcomed by the squeals of hundreds of pigs.
Above: Matt Daufeldt smiles as he checks on the pigs at his family’s farm in West Liberty. “I’m looking for sick pigs,” he said. “If the pigs are healthy when I get them, they generally stay healthy. They really like this environment.” Left: Pigs nip at Daufeldt as they begin to wake up. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
VIDEO To watch how farmer Matt Daufeldt starts his day with 2,500 pigs, go to www.presscitizen.com.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
7
Getting four daughters and two parents out the door is a team effort
RISE AND SHINE
T
hree-year-old Lyla Brewer is going through a tantrum-throwing phase. Allison Brewer, Lyla’s mother, says helping Lila get ready for school tends to be a challenge in the morning. “For some reason lately she just doesn’t want to go to school,” Allison Brewer said. Coaxing Lyla to behave is one of many tasks the Brewers complete between 7 and 8 a.m. to prepare for work and school. On a typical weekday morning, Allison and her husband, Heath Brewer, help daughters Ava Brewer, 8, and Nora Brewer, 5, get ready for school at Hoover Elementary and help Lyla get ready for preschool at The Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Clinic. They also keep an eye on 1-year-old Celia Brewer and prepare themselves for work — Heath has a job at Habitat for Humanity and Allison works at South East Junior High. Recently, the Brewers temporarily moved in with Allison’s parents while their new house is under construction in Iowa City. While he made pancakes and toast for his daughters on a morning in March, Heath said the move has simplified the process of getting ready. “It’s actually a little bit easier because we have an extra set of hands,” he said. Cathy Crosby, Allison’s mom, said her routine hasn’t changed much since the Brewers moved in. She said the biggest change is that there’s less space now. “It disrupts the pets more than it disrupts me,” Crosby said. She said that since the move, the cats have taken to hiding in closets and the dog eats more table scraps. On the same morning in March, Allison braided the older girls’ hair and put Lyla’s hair in pigtails. After Celia touched her own hair with sticky fingers, she also gave Celia a bath. In the kitchen, Heath prepared “green juice” filled with kale, celery and ginger for Allison, who left for work about 7:45 a.m. The four girls played with blocks and a cardboard box together during spare minutes before 7:50 a.m. Then their dad helped them put on coats, hats and gloves before they walked out the door. Allison said she finds it rewarding to see her daughters happy in the morning, especially Celia, who she said seems to be at her happiest first thing in the morning. “She always greets me with a smile out of her bed,” Allison said. — Holly Hines
VIDEO: Watch video of the Brewer family getting ready for school and work at www.press-citizen.com.
8 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Above: Allison Brewer helps her 3-year-old daughter, Lyla, with her hair before school. Left: Ava Brewer, 8, left, eats breakfast with her sisters, 5-year-old Nora, 3-year-old Lyla and 1-year-old Celia (not pictured). DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
WHERE
At the Crosbys’ home, where the Brewer family is staying. WHAT HAPPENS?
The Brewer family gets ready for school and work. MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
7:28 A.M. One-year-old Celia Brewer puts her syrup-covered fingers in her hair, which leads to an emergency bath.
Heath Brewer takes his daughters, Lyla, front, Ava and Nora (not pictured) to school.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
9
Hamburg Inn points to history, hard work for its decades-long success
LOCAL FLAVOR
T
he breakfast rush has hit the Hamburg Inn No. 2 diner. Servers are rushing around, weaving between the diners while expertly balancing platters of eggs, bacon and pancakes. Hosts call out names while assigning tables, and short order cooks holler for pickup. General manager Seth Dudley said that from 8 to 9 a.m. the Hamburg Inn sees its peak breakfast rush. Dudley said the restaurant is packed with regulars, townies, families and students looking for a quick American breakfast. In the kitchen, Dudley said cooks are prepping vegetables, slicing cheese and forming between 100 and 200 hamburgers. Most of the kitchen’s inventory is emptied during the morning rush. Dudley said the restaurant cracks anywhere between 500 and 1,000 eggs per day. Nikolai Qual said he’s waited tables at the diner for six years and working during the rush feels like “going into automatic robot mode.” Qual said a steel-trap memory is key to keeping track of which table arrived first and who asked for that coffee refill. “A really good memory really helps, and just being able to keep track of everyone as far as who arrived chronologically,” he said. “Sometimes, a table will want to order before another one, but they didn’t get there first, so I have to tell them to wait and put them in my mental list.” Mary McCarthy, a Coralville resident and employee at Mercy Hospital, said she has eaten breakfast at the Hamburg nearly every Sunday morning for the last 30 years. “When I come in, they ask me, ‘Do you want your usual?’ ” which McCarthy said is her own custom omelet: Egg Beaters, cheese, green peppers, onions, rye toast and coffee. McCarthy said she comes to the Hamburg Inn for the people and a relaxing Sunday morning. “You can just read the paper, talk to people if you want to, see people you know,” she said. “There is history here.” Dudley said that aside from a tasty morning meal, throngs of patrons travel to Hamburg Inn for its history and oldfashioned diner atmosphere. “We’ve been doing this for 65 years, we’ve gotta be doing something right,” he said.
— Aly Brown
10 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Victoria Watson brings out an order at the Hamburg Inn during the morning breakfast rush. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
Hamburg Inn No. 2, 214 N. Linn St.
Townies, students and families gather at the Hamburg Inn for the breakfast rush.
8:21 A.M. A sudden wave of customers slams the restaurant, immediately filling every table in the diner.
VIDEO: Watch the busy breakfast rush hit the Hamburg Inn No. 2 at www.press-citizen.com.
Maneuvering robotic garbage trucks is a daily adventure in Iowa City
TRASH TUTORIAL
O
n any weekday in Iowa City, trash and recycling may wait at about 3,500 curbsides for collection by one of the city’s 17 solid waste employees, said Rodney Walls, Iowa City’s superintendent of solid waste. Between 9 and 10 a.m. on weekdays, trash collectors in Iowa City can be seen using the claws on their automatic garbage trucks to grip trash bins and dump trash
into the trucks. Walls said trash collection begins at 7 a.m. Monday on the far western side of the city and trash collectors work their way to the east throughout the week. He said the solid waste division began switching its trucks from semi-automatic models to the fully automatic models with claws in 2006. “We’re letting the truck do the work,” he said. Walls said three of the division’s four trucks are fully automatic and one is semi-automatic. While collecting trash about 9:30 a.m., Tim Burns said the switch to automatic trucks has been helpful for him on the job. “We go right along and we can move at a pretty good pace with these here, versus manual picking,” he said. Burns said the automatic trucks allow him to pick up most curbside trash from the driver’s seat of his truck using a joystick, which helps him stay safe and avoid being pelted by spilling debris. “You know, I’ve had oil spill on me and paint splatter on me and stuff like that,” he said. Burns said he also uses cameras and mirrors that allow him to keep an eye on the claw and the trash he’s picking up. He said that on most days, the trash collecting goes well, but he sometimes run into snags such as overstacked or improperly placed garbage bins. Burns said overfilled bins can leave a mess, requiring trash collectors to get out of their trucks and clean up. He said a tell-tale sign of a too-full bin is a lid that won’t close because of overflowing trash. “The lids should be shut is what they should be,” he said. Burns said that when people place their trash bins too close to mailboxes or recycling bins it also can be hard to maneuver the garbage truck claw around the bin. As superintendent of solid waste, Walls said he’s responsible for overseeing the division’s budget and routing and for managing the division’s employees. He said that one of the joys of his job is interacting with and helping members of the public, in part by requiring trash collectors to gather trash at the door from some elderly and disabled residents. “That’s always rewarding, helping the public out,” Walls said.
Tim Burns throws a bag of trash into his truck. He said the automatic trucks allow him to pick up most trash from the driver’s seat. DAVID SCRIVNER / P-C WHERE
Inside a fully automatic garbage truck in eastern Iowa City.
WHAT HAPPENS?
A trash collector picks up curbside garbage.
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
ABOUT 9:40 A.M. Trash collector Tim Burns demonstrates how he uses the truck’s lever, cameras and mirrors to pick up garbage.
VIDEO: From inside Tim Burns’ truck, watch how trash is collected in Iowa City at www.press-citizen.com.
— Holly Hines
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
11
Church members study Bible, discuss its teachings and sing each week
SUNDAY SCHOOL
E
very Sunday, members of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church gather at 9:45 a.m. at the sanctuary on Governor Street for Sunday School. Adults and children spend the hour studying the Bible and applying its lessons to current events. The Rev. Orlando Dial said that nearly every face of the congregation attends, including about 23 adults, nine children and four teenagers. “That’s one thing that we try to push here,” Dial said. “There should be not one kid in Sunday School who doesn’t have a parent here.” Dial said he’s led the church for 18 years, including 12 years of commuting from Waterloo. Dial said the weekly program helps to strengthen the church’s community, giving a time for parents to exchange babysitting duties for weekend date nights and for children to see their teachers outside of school and as “the whole person.” Sunday School at Bethel begins with a song and quiet prayer before members split off into their groups in the basement and the old sanctuary. Dr. Michael Hill, an associate professor specializing in African-American literature at the University of Iowa, leads the adult class. The class includes students from a variety of backgrounds, including teachers, professors, attorneys and two former NBA basketball players. On one Sunday, the teen group focused on altruism for their own benefit versus helping others because it’s right while the adult class discussed heeding God’s call, even if it’s difficult. Hill grows animated before the group, shouting, pacing and waving as he tells the story of Nehemiah and the walls of Jerusalem. The other adults raise their hands for a question or comment, or simply nod or respond “Amen” on a strong point. The adult group is scholarly and focused, and Dial said the teenagers are the “more difficult group.” “They’re the more difficult group because parents first have to get them to come,” he said. “Getting them out of bed is half the battle. They also have to be comfortable with their instructor.” Dial said youth teaching duties cycle among parents, who he said “find out that it’s not as easy as it looks.” “Parents count on Sunday School as a chance for others to teach their children about Jesus, but for some parents it’s almost as difficult to do as having the birds and the bees talk,” he said. — Aly Brown
VIDEO: Watch scenes from Sunday School at Bethel AME Church at www.press-citizen.com.
12 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Above: Michael Hill leads an adult discussion at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Left: The Rev. Orlando Dial chats with congregants at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Dial said he’s led the church for 18 years. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
WHERE
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 411 S. Governor St. WHAT HAPPENS?
More than 30 congregation members meet at the church before service for Sunday School study and children’s choir practice. MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
10:03 A.M. Congregation members and the Rev. Orlando Dial gather to sing a hymnal and hold a brief prayer before breaking up into adult, teenager and children’s groups.
Adzovi Toko and her husband, John, read from their Bibles.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
13
Seniors share meal, conversation, company at Solon church
SOCIAL DINING
I
t’s 11 a.m. and the Old Gold Diner inside the Solon United Methodist Church is bustling with activity and conversation, a sign that lunch is about to be served. The menu on this sunny March day is barbecue beef, au gratin potatoes and peas. A staff of four volunteers box together about 20 meals to be delivered to senior citizens from the Solon area. The meals were prepared at the Solon Retirement Village earlier that morning and brought to the church. The volunteers prepare each meal in assembly-line fashion, placing each menu item one-by-one in Styrofoam containers that are sitting on a large counter in the middle of the kitchen. By 11:25 a.m., the meals are ready to be delivered. A bell inside the dining hall rings at 11:28 a.m., meaning that lunch is about to be served to 15 senior citizens who have gathered as part of the Solon Senior Dining Program. A prayer is said by a woman who just minutes earlier had been calling out the numbers for a bingo game that was being played at a table in the back of the diner. The food is put on plates and given to each person at a counter in the front of the kitchen. Several people comment on how good the food is, while the smell helps to confirm that opinion. The people eating lunch, which on this day include 12 women and three men, share friendly conversation in between bites of food. Several of them speak proudly of their grandchildren and tell stories about key moments in their lives. Meanwhile, 76-year-old Duane McAtee and his three female volunteers grab a quick bite to eat before starting to clean up in the kitchen. McAtee has been retired for three years and now helps to oversee the Senior Dining Program, arriving each weekday at 9 a.m. to start setting up. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s well worth it,” McAtee said of the program, which has been serving meals to senior citizens from the Solon area since 1980. Some of the senior citizens arrived before 11 a.m. to play bingo or just to socialize. By noon, lunch was mostly finished, but not the conversation. All but a few of the people there for lunch stayed past noon just to be with each other. “What’s neat is when they get done eating, they’ll stay and socialize,” McAtee said. “And that’s really the idea of it.” Tim Evans has been attending the Senior Dining Program for about three years. He lived most of his life in Cedar Rapids, but now lives in Solon to be closer to family. Evans was invited by a neighbor to attend the Senior Dining Program and is now a regular. “This is why this is such a great thing, with a small community you need to open up,” Evans said. — Pat Harty
VIDEO: Tim Evans talks about why he enjoys attending the Solon Senior Dining Program at www.press-citizen.com.
14 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
A staff of four volunteers box together about 20 meals to be delivered to senior citizens from the Solon area. WHERE
Solon United Methodist Church, 122 N. West St. WHAT HAPPENS?
Lunch is served to senior citizens from the Solon area. Four volunteers spend the first 30 minutes preparing meals for delivery. The next 30 minutes are spent serving the 15 senior citizens who have gathered at the church for lunch. MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
11:28 A.M. A bell rings to signify that lunch is being served and then is followed by a brief prayer.
Above: Guests enjoy lunch together at Solon United Methodist Church. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s well worth it,” volunteer Duane McAtee, 76, said of the program, which has been serving meals to senior citizens from the Solon area since 1980. Left: Bev Noska, right, and Irene Steinbrech prepare to-go meals at Solon United Methodist Church. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
15
ACT provides massages, exercise and more to boost ‘total worker health’
HAPPY HOUR
S
ome companies clear out over the lunch hour. At ACT’s headquarters in Iowa City, there’s no reason to leave. On a given day, you might find employees taking a tai chi class, in line for lunch served up by a guest chef or plugging their vehicle into an electric car charging station. Others may be getting a massage, having their dry cleaning picked up or meeting with a career coach. In the warmer months, you’ll find many outside enjoying the expansive northeast Iowa City campus itself — eating lunch by a courtyard pond or strolling the wooded trails. “We’ve set a goal to become one of the great places to work in the nation,” spokeswoman Katie Wacker says on a noon-hour tour of the campus. The company, known for its college readiness exams, was founded in 1959 in Iowa City and today has offices around the world. About 1,400 employees work at the nonprofit company’s Iowa City headquarters, largely on this main campus, which includes four buildings in a leafy, preservelike setting. The company owns nearly 400 acres in Iowa City, much of which is undeveloped woodland habitat, Wacker says. Inside the Lindquist Building, the campus’ original facility built in 1968, Wellness Manager Sandy Stewart is leading a first-aid class for employees. Nearby, there’s a massage chair and table where workers can receive one complementary 10-minute session a month or pay for longer sessions. In the exercise area, a couple of employees are getting in a quick workout while on break. “It’s about improving quality of life,” Stewart says. “When you have health goals, you shouldn’t have to leave them at the door when you come to work. So providing the resources where people can exercise, get out and get a walk, have healthy food over at the dining center, come over here and get a workout in, if they’re stressed have that massage available to them — it’s about total worker health.” Elsewhere on campus, employees are walking at treadmill work stations, catching up on company news on flat-screen monitors in the corridors and huddling up in high-tech meeting rooms. The company’s career coach, Lew Montgomery, is meeting with an employee for a career counseling session. Montgomery, a former University of Iowa football player, helps workers map out their career goals and ensures they have the resources they need to get there. “This is the first company I’ve been with where we have a dedicated resource for something like this,” Montgomery says. Through its wellness programing and career assistance, ACT’s leaders say the company does everything it can to help its workers succeed. “Overall, we want our employees to be happy,” Montgomery says. “We feel like we have a great culture here.”
Julie Pfeiffer, left, and Shari Newland exercise during their lunch break at the ACT campus. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
ACT employees order lunch. “It’s about improving quality of life,” Wellness Manager Sandy Stewart says. WHERE
ACT’s Iowa City northeast campus. WHAT HAPPENS?
Although plenty of workers flock to the dining center over the lunch hour, others take part in a number of wellness and enrichment activities offered by the company. MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
— Josh O’Leary
NOON VIDEO: Take a look inside ACT’s northeast Iowa City campus at www.press-citizen.com.
16 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Wellness Manager Sandy Stewart teaches a CPR class to about 45 employees.
Coralville Public Library volunteers keep shelves in shape and more
BY THE BOOK
D
ebbie Hatz has logged thousands of hours at the Coralville Public Library. As a volunteer. “It’s a great way to give back to the community,” Hatz said. “I’m an avid reader, have been since I was little. … I love the library; I think it’s the heart of our community. It’s a great pastime for any age.” Hatz, along with many other volunteers, has become the lifeblood of the library. The volunteers work events, contribute during regular daytime hours and more. Library director Alison Ames Galstad noted the importance of volunteer help. “It’s fabulous,” Ames Galstad. “We have a wonderful team of volunteers. It means the world to us.” Now a high school senior, Devin Hedlund has volunteered at the library for a couple of years. An avid reader, Hedlund aspired to be a librarian at a young age. That goal has changed but not enough to stop recording volunteer hours. “I’ve been coming to this library forever,” Hedlund said. “I wanted to be able to do something, so I thought this would be a great thing for me to help with.” Some volunteers’ motivation to help out doesn’t even come with the propensity to read or write. Rather, the draw of giving his or her own time. Joshua Schubert — a CPL volunteer since 2004 — is one of those people. “I like giving back,” Schubert said. “I started at the hospital for many years and then was asked to be a part of the Teen Advisory Board here, so that got me started. I haven’t stopped since. “Seeing all the people at an event is great. It brings a smile to your face and makes you feel good.”
Volunteer Devin Hedlund helps guests at a photo booth at the Coralville Public Library. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN
— Matt Cozzi
WHERE
Coralville Public Library, 1401 Fifth St.
WHAT HAPPENS?
Volunteers assist the library at a variety of hours during the week.
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
1:30 P.M. Library director Alison Ames Galstad notes the contributions of her staff.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
17
City Hall has a hand in everything as it keeps the municipal machine running
MAKING THE CITY TICK
L
ongtime Iowa City employee Roxanne Gustaveson has been helping residents with their utilities and billing issues for years, and she takes pride in being a problem solver. That doesn’t make afternoons like this any easier, however. “At the moment, we are working with delinquent utility accounts. We are in shutoff mode today,” says Gustaveson, a customer service representative for the city of Iowa City’s finance department. “So we are working with the service department to shut off water and collect payments for those accounts.” Gustaveson is one of the many important cogs keeping the municipal machine humming on this day inside City Hall, which houses about 325 of the city’s 615 permanent employees. Upstairs, the city’s public works leaders are looking at long-term weather forecasts and how that could affect city services. In the public safety wing, firefighters are hosing off the winter sludge from their trucks. In the planning department, division heads are being briefed on the previous night’s City Council meeting. In some ways, City Hall hasn’t changed much in the nearly 50 years since it first opened in downtown Iowa City. You can still walk in and write a check for your water bill. Construction permits can be filed in person at the front desk of Housing and Inspections Services. There’s still a pole in the firehouse. But at the same time, City Hall is evolving. Today you can report a pothole with a smartphone app. Building permits can be filed electronically. Fire department leaders from around the city videoconference every morning. On this afternoon, Jeff Davidson, the city’s planning and community development director, and his planning staff are catching up with the nearly 100 projects in the works around the city after spending the previous day prepping for a City Council meeting. Elsewhere in the building, Public Works Director Rick Fosse is leading a meeting in which the big news is that the city’s north wastewater treatment plant is being taken offline for good, six years after it flooded. In the city manager’s offices, Assistant to the City Manager Geoff Fruin is drafting a letter to local politicians about a Statehouse bill regarding housing regulations. In the Housing and Inspection Services Department, Senior Building Inspector Tim Hennes and Senior Housing Inspector Stan Laverman are manning a quiet office while their inspection staff is out in the field. Meanwhile, over in the firehouse, new Fire Chief John Grier has just wrapped up his first six-month performance review with City Manager Tom Markus. It’s been an uneventful afternoon, so far, for the seven firefighters on duty at Station 1. But that can change in a minute, Grier says. “Some days it’s pretty quiet. Some days you run a lot,” he says. “There’s no typical day.” — Josh O’Leary
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Iowa City Press-Citizen
Scott Sweetalla cleans a fire truck at Iowa City Hall. Fire department leaders from around the city videoconference every morning. DAVID SCRIVNER / P-C
VIDEO: Hear from the people who make Iowa City Hall tick at www.press-citizen.com. WHERE
Iowa City Hall, 410 E. Washington St. WHAT HAPPENS?
Public works and planning leaders host separate meetings, while City Manager Tom Markus leads a six-month performance review with new Fire Chief John Grier. For customer service representative Roxanne Gustaveson and city utilities workers, it’s water shutoff day for residents with delinquent accounts. MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
2:25 P.M. Wastewater plant supervisor Dave Elias announces in a public works meeting that the city’s north plant, which flooded in 2008, is officially offline, and all connections have been made to route water solely to the south plant.
Buses, cars, jobs and extracurriculars beckon CCA students at the end of the day
SCHOOL’S OUT
F
rom the fall play to speech to track, afterschool activities at Clear Creek Amana change with the seasons. “There’s something for everybody throughout the year,” Principal Mark Moody said. Between the hours of 3 and 4 p.m. on a typical day, students at Clear Creek Amana High School in Tiffin finish school with an academic advisory class ending at 3:20 p.m. and then make their way to buses, cars and extracurricular activities. Clear Creek Amana is the only high school in the Clear Creek Amana District, serving about 560 students from cities including Tiffin, Oxford, North Liberty, Coralville and Amana. At CCA, which doesn’t offer study halls, students attend academic advisory periods during the last hour of most days, where they work on homework, receive extra help from teachers or participate in activities planned by CCA teachers. Principal Mark Moody said school officials extended the advisory period by about a half hour this year to give students more time to be productive. “By the time you read some announcements and did some housekeeping, there wasn’t a lot of constructive time for a kid to really sit down and dig in, and say, ‘I’m going to really get something done,’ ” he said. Noel Dalmasso, a Spanish teacher at CCA, said the extended advisory periods take pressure off students to come in before and after school for help. She said the extension also takes pressure off teachers by giving them more time outside class to reach students needing help. “When we got this built-in time, we were really excited about it,” she said. Dalmasso said that during the advisory time, teachers rotate between offering help and scheduling activities. She helps students review language basics and retake quizzes. She also recently planned a trip to a Mexican restaurant with students to practice restaurant-related vocabulary. CCA junior Chloe Keith said she appreciates having extra time to do class work at the end of the school day. “I’d say it’s really helpful, just because I can focus better at school,” Keith said. She said the extension allows students leaving school early for sports to leave during academic advisory rather than class, which is helpful because they miss less class time. Keith said her after-school activities include cross country, track and working at The Depot, a general store in Tiffin.
Students run drills during track practice at Clear Creek Amana High School. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
Students make their way through the hallway at the end of the school day at Clear Creek Amana High School. WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
Clear Creek Amana High School in Tiffin.
Students finish the school day and head to extracurricular activities and jobs.
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
3:20 P.M. School lets out.
— Holly Hines
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
19
UI’s steam whistle helps community mark the day and special occasions
UNDER PRESSURE
W
orkers know it’s time to wrap up for the day when they hear it. Some residents rely on it as a reminder to take their medication. Parents tell their kids to come in for dinner when it blows. But inside the University of Iowa’s Power Plant, the sounding of the steam whistle, which has marked Iowa City’s workdays and lunch breaks for the better part of a century, is hardly a big production. Shortly before 5 p.m., a cellphone alarm goes off inside the plant’s control room. Soon, assistant chief operator Don Wells, who happens to be closest to the button on this afternoon, turns away from his bank of computer screens, where he’s monitoring boilers and turbines across campus, and watches a ticking clock on the wall. When the hour strikes, he pushes the red button on the wall, opening up a steam line valve and blasts the whistle on the plant’s roof. The tea kettle-like wail can be heard throughout Iowa City and Coralville, and as far away some days as the Coralville Reservoir, depending on the weather. “What that does when you push that button is there’s a valve downstairs on one of the steam lines that opens up, and it automatically holds for several seconds, then closes,” explains Wells after sounding the fourth and final whistle of the day. Plant workers manually push the button at 8 a.m., noon, 1 and 5 p.m. every day except Sundays and holidays. When exactly the whistle first sounded is a hazy thing to pin down. Some sources say it was when the plant opened in the late 1920s; other sources say early 1930s. Whatever its exact age, The Whistle, as it’s officially known, has been more or less a constant for decades. “It’s a good tradition that we’ve kept over the years,” says Ben Anderson, Power Plant maintenance and engineering manager Anderson says there has been talk over the years about automating the whistle — a vestige of an era when Iowa City’s factory or plant workers relied on it for when to punch in, out or take their lunch break — or doing away with it altogether. But that’s yet to happen. After the flood of 2008 shut down the plant for several months, President Sally Mason sounded the whistle when the facility reopened. UI employees have requested to blow the whistle upon their retirement, and students have occasionally marked their graduation by pushing the button. Wells and co-worker Brook Rogers, a boiler operator whose father worked at the plant in the 1960s and 1970s, admit they’ve been late with a whistle or missed one entirely, on a rare occasion, if they’re too busy. But they say residents take notice when they do. “We used to get a call once in a while,” Wells said. “The former plant manager used to be a stickler about it, and they’d call him, and we’d hear about it.” — Josh O’Leary
VIDEO: Go inside the University of Iowa’s Power Plant and watch as the 5 p.m. whistle is blown at www.press-citizen.com.
20 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Above: Assistant chief operator Don Wells sits in the control room of the University of Iowa’s Power Plant monitoring boilers and turbines across campus. Left: Ben Fish, assistant director of utilities and energy management, walks through the University of Iowa’s Power Plant. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
University of Iowa’s Power Plant, 207 W. Burlington St.
Plant workers sound a steam whistle — a decades-old tradition in Iowa City — at 8 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.
5 P.M.
The steam whistle’s activation button is seen at the University of Iowa Power Plant.
on the nose, when Don Wells pushes a red button on the wall of the plant’s control room to manually sound the whistle.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
K1Thursday, March 27, 2014
21
UI researchers help kids use the correct tense when speaking
LANGUAGE LEARNERS
N
ine-year-old Shawna Bailey is enjoying a puppet show at the Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center on the University of Iowa campus. Seated in a tiny chair, Shawna cheers as Diane Buffo dances the characters across a tabletop stage. Buffo is telling a story. When she is finished, Shawna will repeat the story, hopefully using past tense verbs. “I’m going to imagine,” Buffo said, beginning a story. But Shawna knows the drill and jumps in before Buffo can finish the sentence. “Imagined! Imagined!” Shawna shouted. On the other side of an observation window, her mom, Meg Bailey of Iowa City, smiles, her eyes welling up with tears. “She is doing so much better,” Bailey said. “Even her speech teacher at school has noticed the improvement.” Shawna is part of a “Past Tense Intervention Study” being conducted at UI’s Grammar Acquisition Lab and funded by a grant from the American Speech and Hearing Foundation. Researchers are comparing two interventions that can be used to help children with language impairment learn the past tense. These are children who say things such as, “Him jump yesterday?” or “I just fall down?” “They are often likely to leave (out) words such as am, is and are,” said Amanda Van Horne, principal investigator in UI’s Grammar Acquisition Laboratory. “They use shorter sentence than their peers and seem to struggle to find words to express themselves.” Although there are therapies that can help children learn past tense, they often take a long time. This study hopes to identify ways to help children between the ages of 4 and 9 learn more quickly while still retaining the information. For eight weeks, Shawna spent an hour in the lab two or three times a week, working to improve her past tense. She learned verbs in groups of five, moving on to the next group once she had mastered the last. Therapy sessions involve a bit of drilling followed by listening to a story and having the child repeat the story. “We use the time of them telling the stories back as an opportunity to provide good models of the verbs in past tense and to give feedback,” said Van Horne, adding that the techniques used are called “recasting and expansion,” considered best practices in the field of speech pathology. Today, Shawna has arrived at 5 p.m. for an hour-long “outcomes visit.” It’s been six weeks since she completed therapy. Now, researchers want to know if she remembers the 30 past tense words she learned. It appears she has. “She’s doing great,” Van Horne said. Shawna is among the seven in 100 children who have a language impairment that cannot be explained by experts. These are the children Van Horne’s study is designed to help. “Our goal is to help children move more quickly through their language goals so they can get back to doing fun kid things,” she said. “So they aren’t spending all their time in therapy.” — Sara Agnew
22 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Lab coordinator Diane Buffo works with Shawna Bailey at the Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN
VIDEO: Watch video of University of Iowa researchers studying ways to help children with language disabilities at www.press-citizen.com. WHERE
WHAT HAPPENED?
Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center at the University of Iowa.
Language specialists are trying to develop a speech therapy that will help children with speech language impairments more quickly learn how to use past tense verbs and retain the information.
MOST INTERESTING MOMENT
When 9-year-old Shawna Bailey nailed one of her past verbs and shouted, “Imagined!”
A full restaurant, ringing phones keep Sam’s Pizza employees on their toes
SLICE OF THE ACTION
F
or the workers at Sam’s Pizza in downtown Iowa City, the hour from 6 to 7 p.m. usually starts with two phones ringing in the kitchen. The hour usually ends that way, too. “We use somebody who just answers the phone for delivery orders,” said Ryan Foster, who works as the kitchen manager at Sam’s Pizza. Deliveries make up about 30 percent of Sam’s business, with this hour being one of the busiest times, especially on Friday and Saturday. The challenge is handling the deliveries without adversely affecting the customers who are eating in the restaurant. “We like to take care of the customers that are in the store first and get that out as quickly as possible,” Sam’s owner Terry French said. French tries to have at least four drivers and five cooks — including himself — working between 6 and 7 p.m. on a busy night. The average time for a delivery is about 45 minutes depending on the weather. The evening shift at Sam’s Pizza starts at 5 p.m., but workers arrive several minutes early to prepare for the transition from day to night. “We want them in a little bit beforehand because you don’t want to just walk into the storm,” Foster said. Delivery orders start to pick up between 4:30 and 5 p.m. as people get off work, Foster said. “By six or seven, we’re busy,” Foster said. “So by that time, we’re all over the place on the road. We’ve got drivers all over Iowa City.” Foster said the key to running a successful delivery operation besides offering quality food is having everybody work together. And though Sam’s is known mostly for its pizzas and calzones, its menu also includes hamburgers, sandwiches and chicken wings among other items. “It’s a real timing thing,” Foster said. “If we’re back there, we’re talking to each other and letting each other know what’s going on. “Everybody coordinates and works together, and by the time everything comes together, which should be at the same time, the guy who is running the oven is going to box it up, put it in a delivery bag and off they go.”
— Pat Harty
WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
Sam’s Pizza, 441 S. Gilbert St.
This is a busy hour for delivery orders with customers getting off work and making dinner plans. The phones ring nonstop with customers placing orders.
6:30 p.m.
24 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
It marks the halfway point to one of the busiest hours of the day.
Above: Jack Kehres adds toppings to a pizza at Sam’s Pizza. Left: Sam’s Pizza kitchen manager Ryan Dawson slices a hot pizza. Sam’s owner Terry French said he tries to have at least four drivers and five cooks — including himself — working between 6 and 7 p.m. on a busy night. Below: Sam’s Pizza employee Kevin Huber delivers a pizza. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
VIDEO: Watch Sam’s kitchen manager Ryan Foster talk about how they handle delivery orders and the teamwork that’s required at www.press-citizen.com.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
25
Police officers take proactive approach to safety, handle calls for service
RIDING ALONG
Y
ou can never really anticipate what will happen on any given night serving on the Iowa City police force. With the mid-afternoon hours often busy with traffic stops and calls for service and the late-night hours typically filled with alcoholrelated arrests and additional traffic stops, the hour between 7 and 8 p.m. often is a moment of calm. Lucas Erickson, who has been with the department about 11⁄2 years, works the evening shift. Despite typically receiving fewer calls for service in the early evening hours, Erickson said that can change at any moment. “Every call is going to be kind of an unknown situation,” he said. About 7:20 p.m., Erickson stopped a silver car with a missing headlight on North Governor Street. A short chat with the driver and a run of their license and Erickson issued a verbal warning. The hour was fairly slow going at first, but as with any moment on the job, things can change in an instant. Just like that, dispatch alerted Erickson to a possible domestic assault on Westwinds Drive. With his Crown Victoria on the east side of town, Erickson flipped on the red and blue flashers, engaged the siren and the squad car was off like a bullet. It took less than 10 minutes to cross the city, but with dispatch updating Erickson with details on the potential assault during the drive, it felt like an hour. Fortunately, upon arrival, Erickson indicated that the call was not a domestic assault and there were no injuries. But as with every call, officers take each report seriously. With everything sorted out and the situation under control on Westwinds Drive, Erickson took the car back through Iowa City and to his assigned region, where he was busy again as he kept an eye out for suspicious activity and ran license plate information on nearby vehicles in search of suspended or barred drivers. “That’s the whole point of being proactive, I guess, is not just sitting there waiting for your calls for service to come in,” Erickson said.
— Mitchell Schmidt
26 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Iowa City Police Officer Lucas Erickson pulls a car over with a missing headlight. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN
VIDEO: Ride shotgun with Iowa City Police Officer Lucas Erickson at www.press-citizen.com. WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
Iowa City.
Officers with the Iowa City Police Department patrol the neighborhood and respond to calls for service.
7:33 P.M. Officer Lucas Erickson responds to a call for a possible domestic disturbance, prompting a high-speed drive across Iowa City.
Cambus gives students a lift, protects them from the elements
SHUTTLE SERVICE
A
crowd gathers at the corner of Clinton and Jefferson streets, mostly college students weighed down with backpacks and heavy winter coats, stomping their feet against the cold. Night has fallen and most of the students are eager to get home. When they aren’t looking at their phones, they peer north, hoping for a glimpse of headlights coming their way. The Cambus is due any minute. Whitney Szeliga and Marissa Hurt huddle close together, their backs against the wind. The young women are members of the University of Iowa women’s soccer team, where they met and became fast friends. They’ve just walked two blocks from their favorite dinner spot, the Hamburg Inn No. 2. Tonight, it was breakfast for dinner. “We go there once a week,” said Szeliga, a freshman from Colorado. “I think it’s the best food in Iowa City.” Hurt, a senior from Ankeny, said that when it isn’t cold outside, she drives her moped. But with recent temperatures well below freezing, her favorite mode of transportation won’t start. Both women are grateful UI has a shuttle system as reliable as Cambus. “It keeps you warm,” Szeliga said. A buzz rises up from the crowd as a black and gold bus rumbles down the road and up to the curb. The doors slide open. Cold students pour in one end of the vehicle while warm students drain out the other, an orderly exchange of passengers. On a typical winter day, UI officials say about 28,000 people ride the Cambus, of which 22,000 are students. Bus driver David Petersen, a UI senior majoring in political science and education, watches the students take their places through his rear view mirror. There appears to be a traffic jam in the aisle. “Please fill in the back,” he shouts. “Thank you.” The knot of students unravels, and Petersen steers onto the roadway. The bus is packed, but no one complains. They squeeze into seats and line the aisle, gripping seat backs, rails and ceiling handles to steady themselves. Once arranged, most students return to studying their phones. Others stare out the windows or talk quietly. It will be three years this summer since Petersen became a bus driver. He works 16 to 20 hours a week. He learned about the job while riding a Cambus. “It was written on one of those posters you see on the bus,” he said. “The starting pay was good, so I applied and got it.” Petersen has experienced few problems with his passengers. Often on late shifts, the students break into a hearty rendition of the national anthem. “You’d be surprised how popular it is,” Petersen said.
University of Iowa freshman Whitney Szeliga, left, chats with soccer teammate senior Marissa Hurt as they ride the Cambus. DAVID SCRIVNER / P-C
VIDEO: Watch University of Iowa students take advantage of the Cambus on a cold winter night at www.press-citizen.com. WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
Cambus.
University of Iowa students ride the Cambus, a shuttle service provided by the university.
The moment the bus pulled up to the curb and the crowd of shivering students poured into the warm vehicle.
— Sara Agnew
Iowa City Press-Citizen
K1Thursday, March 27, 2014
27
Fans scatter after cheering on the Hawks while crews clean, maintain safety
CLEARING CARVER
O
n this frigid night in February, the hour from 9 to 10 p.m. saw a significant change occur inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The hour started with Hawkeye fans cheering wildly in the final key moments of an Iowa men’s basketball game and ended with the arena being almost empty. By 10 p.m., the only people still left in the arena were those responsible for cleaning up in the stands and members of the media. The capacity crowd of 15,400 had dispersed without incident. “Obviously, the safety of people as they’re entering crosswalks and sidewalks, that’s paramount, just making sure that nothing inappropriate or nothing out of the ordinary happens on the concourse,” said Josh Berka, who works for the University of Iowa Athletics Department event management staff. Both teams exchanged handshakes when the game ended and then headed through a tunnel to their respective locker rooms. Many of the fans also exited through that same tunnel, while others walked up the steps and left the arena through the concourse. It took about 45 minutes after the game ended to clear the arena and the surrounding parking lots. Meanwhile, as fans exited the arena, members of the media gathered in a cramped press room on the basement floor for the post-game news conference. The visiting coach spoke first, answering questions for about 10 minutes before turning the stage over to Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. McCaffery’s postgame news conference lasted about 20 minutes. He then left the room and met up with his family, while the reporters covering the game returned to their seats in press row to continue writing. By now, the arena mostly was quiet with the exception of those responsible for cleaning it chattering among themselves. The parking lots outside the arena also were mostly empty. In just an hour, Carver-Hawkeye Arena went from being packed with screaming fans in an electric environment to being mostly empty and silent.
— Pat Harty
VIDEO: Watch video of fans leaving Carver-Hawkeye Arena at www.press-citizen.com.
28 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
WHERE
Carver-Hawkeye Arena. WHAT HAPPENED?
A news conference, thousands of fans scattering in different directions, multiple media members doing their thing and a staff of about 100 overseeing the whole thing. The hour immediately after an Iowa basketball game. The end of an Iowa basketball game is just the beginning of a hectic post-game routine. MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
Above: Crew members lower a hoop and remove the shot clock at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Left: Jake Vander Schel cleans up Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It took about 45 minutes after the game ended to clear the arena and the surrounding parking lots.
9:21 P.M. The game ends and the process of shutting down the arena begins.
DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
29
Quiet, efficient evenings attract men to Iowa City laundromat
LATE-NIGHT LAUNDERING
L
aundromats are like airports — no one comes to stay. People arrive with their dirty clothes, towels and bedding. They come to get clean. On this bitterly cold winter night, two University of Iowa students and a 62year-old ex-con are washing clothes at Laundromania on Bloomington Street. The college boys separate their whites and colors, and David Harriman does not. Harriman — who served 30 years for second-degree murder in Louisiana — lumps his laundry together and splits it down the middle. Two loads, real simple. “It’s a guy thing,” he said. Harriman prefers to wash his clothes at night. Laundromania usually is quiet at 10 p.m., like it is tonight. He works on a crossword puzzle as he waits. Harriman was a 29-year-old truck driver when he killed a man in a convenience store in Louisiana. He says he was drunk at the time and hasn’t touched a drop since. A Vietnam veteran, Harriman originally was sentenced to life but got that sentenced dropped to 60 years. He was released after 30 years on good behavior. Now he’s back in his home state, living with relatives and looking for a second chance. There are laundry facilities where he lives, but he prefers to take care of himself when he can. Harriman said he’s looking for a job but finding an employer willing to take a chance on him is tough. “I need a break to get my feet back on the ground,” he said. UI junior Trevor Kinzie, 21, is studying journalism. He’s put laundry off for two weeks until faced with two out-of-town lacrosse games and no clean clothes. Besides that, he’s been busy with midterms and writing papers. Laundromania is a pit stop. Kinzie learned how to do laundry from his dad. When he was a little boy, his parents would set him up on the washer and let him scoop the detergent. Conor Cooney, a junior majoring in business at UI, usually washes his clothes at a laundromat or the dorms, where his little sister is a freshman. Most nights, one of his roommates joins him. But tonight, Cooney is alone because he needs to study. “My mom taught me how to do laundry before I came to college,” he said. Harriman stuffs dirty laundry into two washers. Kinzie tosses clean clothes in a dryer. Cooney folds shirts. On the laundromat television, professional wrestlers twist and turn across a ring. Outside, the wind picks up, and the temperature drops. — Sara Agnew
VIDEO: Meet three men at the laundromat: two are focused on the future and the third aims to leave his past behind at www.press-citizen.com.
30 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Above: Three cars park in front of Laundromania on Bloomington Street. Left: Conor Cooney, a junior majoring in business at the University of Iowa, sorts his laundry at Laundromania on Bloomington Street in Iowa City. “My mom taught me how to do laundry before I came to college,” he said. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
Laundromania, 316 E. Bloomington St.
Two college students and an excon do laundry.
10:32 P.M.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Conor Cooney finishes his laundry and carries it to his car.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
31
Gabe’s highlights variety of artists from a variety of eras
MIX OF MUSIC
W
ith vinyl records playing downstairs and electronic, hip-hop or country shows upstairs, Devin Stainbrook says nights at Gabe’s are “eclectic.” Stainbrook, a manager at Gabe’s working the door between 11p.m. and midnight on a Thursday night in February, said he tends to see the same crowd frequenting Gabe’s. “There’s a little bit of everybody that likes that music and camaraderie,” he said. Gabe’s general manager Pete McCarthy said that on Thursdays, Fridays and some Saturdays, Gabe’s ownership invites DJs to spin vinyl records downstairs during a regular event called Soul Shake Vinyl. He said Soul Shake Vinyl started about three years ago as a way to differentiate Gabe’s from other Iowa City bars. “We just wanted to have something different,” McCarthy said. He said about eight DJs take turns spinning vinyl records from their own extensive collections during Soul Shake Vinyl, and the music is typically funk and soul from the ’60s through the ’80s. Shawn Haigwood of Iowa City, who was at Gabe’s the same Thursday night as Stainbrook, said he’s been coming to Gabe’s several times a week for about 20 years. Haigwood said Soul Shake Vinyl is a draw for him and he likes seeing young people discovering and dancing to music on vinyl. He said that although Gabe’s ownership has changed the place a bit over the years to stay current, the changes haven’t been drastic. “The bar itself hasn’t really changed,” he said. However, Jeffrey Pierce, who also was at the bar that night, said he recalls a former “new old school” era at Gabe’s during the late ’80s and early ’90s. Pierce said he’s been visiting Gabe’s since 1987 and remembers listening to bands such as High and Lonesome during this time, when the atmosphere was free, non-judgmental and integrated. “Tuesday night used to be packed to the gill,” he said. Barrington Vaxter of Iowa City performed as an opening act that Thursday night under the name “Shakes.” Vaxter said he thinks of Gabe’s as among the best places in Iowa City to perform because of the venue’s high quality sound system and its method of running shows. “They’re very professional,” Vaxter said. Vaxter said he would describe the atmosphere at Gabe’s as “real” because audience members tend to offer authentic reactions to the music they’re hearing. Stainbrook said part of what makes Gabe’s unique is that bar staff treat people nicely, give them a good show and don’t rip them off. “We’re a hell of a lot more laid back than everyone else,” Stainbrook said.
— Holly Hines
32 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Doug Roberson checks his phone at Gabe’s. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN
VIDEO: Watch video of a show at Gabe’s at www.press-citizen.com. WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. in Iowa City.
Soul Shake Vinyl downstairs and shows upstairs.
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
11:25 P.M. The band Futuristic performs an energetic hiphop track.
Hy-Vee workers prep inventory, refill shelves ahead of prime shopping hours
STOCKING UP
A
s Lori Green begins to stock cans of Spaghetti-Os just past midnight, Luke Bryan’s “That’s My Kind of Night” blares over the loudspeaker. Loaves of bread create a smell so strong it spans the walk-in beer cooler to the flowers section and back again. The aisles are filled with pallets of products so high a college student wouldn’t have to shop again until the fall. There are only a couple handfuls of people here, and most of them are workers. But the shelves need to be stocked. And this is prime time. At Hy-Vee on 1720 Waterfront Drive in Iowa City, the 24-hour grocery store takes advantage of refilling shelves during late-night hours. “This is the only time you can really do it because during the day it’s so crowded,” Green said. “We have so much we have to get done before 6. We just get in and do it, and as we go along we help customers.” Hy-Vee gets trucks full of products four days a week, so there’s quite a bit that needs to be attended to. Even on no-truck days. “It’s stocking what we have in our back stock area,” fellow stocker Chad Welander said. “We don’t get trucks every day, so on the days we don’t, we go through the back stock and pull out all of our pallets. If we see a spot that is empty on the shelf, we go get more. It needs to be ready for the customers.” Pallet by pallet, the shelves get full again. More importantly, it’s completed before the hustle and bustle of the workday when thousands of shoppers could stop in. “It’s a whole different atmosphere actually,” Green said about working nights. “It reminds me more of a small-town grocery store. Like now, you can actually hear the music. You can’t during the day.”
Chad Welander stocks shelves at Hy-Vee on Waterfront Drive. Hy-Vee gets trucks full of products four days a week. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN WHAT HAPPENS?
— Matt Cozzi
WHERE
VIDEO: Watch video of how the shelves are stocked
Hy-Vee, 1720 Waterfront Drive in Iowa City.
at the Waterfront Hy-Vee in the late-night hours at
Workers stock the shelves in preparation for the next day’s wave of customers.
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
12:10 A.M. when employees call out to each other across the store.
www.press-citizen.com.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Thursday, March 27, 2014
33
After-party at Pancheros rivals restaurant’s lunch and dinner rushes
CHOWING DOWN
I
t’s an unsung staple of late-night downtown Iowa City culture: joining the long line of hungry customers for an early morning burrito at Pancheros. After more than 20 years in business, employees with Pancheros Mexican Grill on the corner of Washington and Clinton streets are accustomed to the spike in traffic they see between 1 and 2 a.m. “There’s a whole other kind of event to the night that is the line at Pancheros, waiting to get your burrito,” Pancheros Marketing Director Reid Travis said. “There’s definitely something to be said for that after-hours kind of after party that happens at Pancheros, getting your burrito before the ride home.” Although weekends often are the busiest nights, foot traffic really cranks up with the presence of good weather, downtown events and University of Iowa sports games, Travis said. To handle that many customers in such a short period of time — early morning traffic can rival the lunch and dinner hours — employees need to be ready to handle the fast pace and demand that comes with a hectic rush, Travis said. “We obviously train heavy for our rushes and those noon rushes, those dinner rushes. Those are places where you don’t want a brand new employee on the line during those times because it has to be a well-oiled machine. And in this restaurant between 1-2 a.m., it’s that same thing,” Travis said. “You’re going to want somebody who is clearly a veteran and knows how to push people through the line at a good pace and not hold anybody up.” And the staff at the chain’s first restaurant does just that, with orders taken, tortillas pressed and ingredients mixed in rapid succession to keep the growing line of hungry customers happy and moving. With many patrons of the 1 to 2 a.m. hour coming from a night of bar-hopping, Travis said that once in a while an intoxicated customer shows up but added that it comes with the territory and the benefits of being a part of the night scene more than make up for it. “This time of night is never without an incident here or there, that’s kind of a given, but it definitely doesn’t deter us,” Travis said. “We still willingly stay open until 3 a.m. and we absolutely love the environment of late-night downtown Iowa City.” — Mitchell Schmidt
WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
Pancheros Mexican Grill, 32 S. Clinton St.
Staff furiously prepares burritos for the growing line of latenight customers.
1:45 A.M.
34 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
When many bars close and hungry customers start to line up for a burrito.
VIDEO: Watch a video with Pancheros Marketing Director Reid Travis as he describes the late-night rush at www.presscitizen.com.
Above: Patrons order food at Pancheros. Left: Howie Gilman enjoys a burrito at Panchero’s. “We obviously train heavy for our rushes. ... Those are places where you don’t want a brand new employee on the line during those times because it has to be a well-oiled machine,” Pancheros Marketing Director Reid Travis said. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN PHOTOS
A woman leaves Pancheros in the early morning.
Iowa City Press-Citizen
K1Thursday, March 27, 2014
35
Micky’s employees go to work cleaning and prepping after last call
CLOSING TIME
I
t’s two words any bar patron knows all too well. “Bar close!” Micky’s Irish Pub and Grill co-owner David Stein declares at 2 a.m. to the somber-looking faces still mingling in the popular downtown well. The music ended and customers squinted as the dimly lit bar was suddenly filled with a yellow glow as the lights flickered on. But as barflies and University of Iowa students wandered out into the snow to go to their warm beds, grab a late-night snack or stop at an after party, the staff at Micky’s was still on the clock. “Everybody knows what they’re doing. Everybody knows what they have to do,” said Stein, who has owned Micky’s with co-owner Aaron Jennings since last summer. “It’s gotta be done right, but everybody does get it done.” It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, but all in all, cleanup is a well-oiled machine as Micky’s employees swap their bottles for brooms and the smell of fresh-poured Guinness is replaced by the aroma of cleaning supplies as staff joke about the night’s events, stack chairs and count the evening’s revenue. “On a normal evening, we just start cleaning, just make sure that we get everything stocked up. Basically, just get everything ready for the next day,” Stein said. “I respect the fact that when people come out they’re not drinking in their living rooms, if they make a mess they make a mess.” As with most bars, weekend nights often are the busiest and nothing compares to the crowd that shows up whenever the Hawkeyes are playing. But unlike some other downtown wells that boast a dance floor, live music or giant crowds, Micky’s tends to draw a more relaxed and casual clientele. “We don’t have pool tables. We don’t have dart boards. We don’t have a dance floor. We offer a place for people to hang out and have some drinks, talk and listen to music,” Stein said. Although Stein said most Micky’s clients are a casual bunch, he did offer a word of advice to anyone seeking a well-mixed drink or cold beer. “I guess if I was going to say anything to anybody, I’d say if you’re respectful to the bar staff, they’re going to be much more respectful to you, too,” he said. — Mitchell Schmidt
36 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
WHERE
Micky’s Irish Pub, 11 S. Dubuque St. WHAT HAPPENS?
Bar patrons leave while staff cleans up, counts money and shuts down the bar. MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
2 A.M. When the bar closes and the lights come on.
VIDEO: Watch a video with Micky’s co-owner David Stein as he describes a typical night at the bar after the drinks stop flowing at www.presscitizen.com.
Above: Neil Jennings sweeps the floor at Micky’s after closing the bar. Left: Micky’s co-owner David Stein sorts cash and receipts after closing for the night. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, but all in all, cleanup is a well-oiled machine as Micky’s employees swap their bottles for brooms. DAVID SCRIVNER / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN
Patrons order their last drinks at Micky’s ahead of closing time.
PHOTOS
Iowa City Press-Citizen
K1Thursday, March 27, 2014
37
UIHC staff treat all ailments at all hours of the day
RUSHING TO THE ER
J
ohn Kinney said he wasn’t expecting to visit the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Emergency Room around 3 a.m., but he’s glad he did. Kinney, a 68-year-old Cedar Rapids resident, said he was treated at UIHC last summer after he visited a dentist for local partials. Kinney said the dentist pulled two teeth and noticed a growth. Shortly after, he said he endured a 7½-hour surgery during which UI surgeons removed teeth, a part of his tongue and a portion of his jaw, which was replaced with bone grafted from his forearm. Kinney said he never smoked a day in his life and isn’t sure how he developed cancer. Kinney said it was smooth sailing after the surgery, until his jaw swelled to double in size and didn’t respond to medication. “This morning, I got up, my wife went to work and I laid back down in bed, and my tissue was just open,” he said. “It popped open, just like a blister. All over my T-shirt, my shoulder. I didn’t wake up at first, but my 2-year-old Maltese came over to my side here, and it started licking at me and barking. (It) knew something was wrong.” Kinney said he visited his family doctor right away, who transferred him to St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, where he waited to be transferred to the university to work with his specialists. Kinney said the university staff is “amazing,” and he feels “blessed” by their care. Dana Collaguazo said she has worked night shifts as an emergency medicine doctor at the UIHC ER for the past five years. Collaguazo said she treats about 30 patients in a 12-hour shift. Collaguazo said that from 3 to 4 a.m., she primarily treats intoxicated college students, sexual assault victims and psychiatric patients. Collaguazo said she also treats patients suffering from motor vehicle accidents, surgical emergencies, asthma attacks, fever and patients transferred from area hospitals who require a higher level of critical care. “It can be from as minor as a scratch to very critically ill,” Collaguazo said. “We see everything.” Collaguazo said patients are admitted to the emergency room, placed in one of 35 beds, tested, treated, and released or admitted to the main hospital. The emergency room is staffed by about 35 people in a given hour, including nurses, residents, specialists, clerks, security guards, janitors and AirCare pilots. Collaguazo said the emergency room sets itself apart from others in the area because it is a trauma center with specialized care centers such as a heated trauma room, secure psychiatric ward, eye and dental care rooms, and a private space for sexual assault victims. “I feel like we have much better coverage for testing and things that would need to happen in the middle of the night as well,” she said. — Aly Brown
38 Thursday, March 27, 2014
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Emily Bech helps John Kinney of Cedar Rapids at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Emergency Room. DAVID SCRIVNER / P-C
VIDEO: Watch a video tour of the trauma room at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics Emergency Room at www.press-citizen.com. WHERE
WHAT HAPPENS?
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 200 Hawkins Drive.
Patients from around the community and across the state receive treatment for illness and trauma.
MOST INTERESTING MINUTE
3:14 A.M. Emergency medicine doctor Dana Collaguazo says that at one point during the hour, 10 of 18 patients in the waiting room were seeking treatment for intoxication.