Progress Community 2022 by TimesRepublican

2022

A special supplement to the Times-Republican • Friday, July 29, 2022 • C1

PROGRESS COMMUNITY A stabilizing force New IVH commandant brings innovative ideas, energy to position By ROBERT MAHARRY

hen Matthew Peterson was approached about taking a new job as the commandant at the Iowa Veterans Home and uprooting from his life with his wife and kids in the Austin, Texas, area, he chose to think of it in military terms. It’s just another deployment, after all. Peterson, who retired from the Marine Corps as a Major in 2019, has earned rave reviews in his first year at IVH with his willingness to go the extra mile and for a series of innovative ideas he has proposed. Gov. Kim Reynolds, Peterson’s boss, has taken notice: in May, it was announced that he would be appointed as the director of Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs while the VA and IVH were combined into one agency, and Reynolds praised Peterson’s “extraordinary leadership” during his first 10 months on the job then. In a recent statement, Reynolds reiterated previous sentiments of support for her commandant. “As Governor of the State of Iowa, it is important to me that our veterans receive the highquality care they deserve for selflessly serving our country and fighting to protect our freedoms. Thanks to two decades of leadership in the Marines, and an impressive post-retirement career, Major Peterson’s unique set of qualifications has greatly benefited the lowa Veterans Home,” she said. “He also brings deep appreciation for the military service of the veterans whose care he oversees. His experience and dedication has paid dividends for the home, its staff, and its residents.” It’s been quite a journey from what Peterson described as “being a cowboy” and teaching in Texas to overseeing Iowa’s largest nursing home, but he’s done his best to take it all in stride. “Those were not things that I was necessarily called to, and I didn’t know, necessarily, what I was called to, just that those were things I was interested in. But I didn’t feel like they were the next career for me,” Peterson said of his prior jobs. “(IVH) just felt like something I was called to. It felt like that thing that I wasn’t just interested in, but it felt like a true calling.” An important connection Although he grew up all over the country as the son of a career military man, both of Peterson’s parents’ roots are in Iowa — his father, who now works at IVH, is from Red Oak, and his mother is from Spencer. Because of that, he came into the orbit of veteran turned U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst — herself a Red Oak native — during his final duty station in Washington, D.C., and the two kept in touch periodically afterward. Last summer, as Peterson was preparing to head back for another year of teaching in Texas, Ernst reached out to him and asked if he would be interested in the commandant role at IVH. In May, Gov. Reynolds had removed his predecessor, Timon Oujiri, and an eventual investigation by State Auditor Rob Sand revealed over $100,000 in improper payments to Oujiri. A difficult decision faced Peterson for several reasons beyond the aforementioned controversy surrounding his predecessor. For one, he would be entering a com-

T-R PHOTO BY SUSANNA MEYER

Iowa Veterans Home Commandant Matthew Peterson, left, poses for a photo with Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, right, during Gregg’s recent stop at the facility to observe a teacher externship. Since taking over his position last summer, Peterson has introduced several bold proposals and navigated the continually complicated waters of the COVID-19 pandemic.

pletely new industry and a huge organization full of new people, and secondly — and even more important to him — his two children, a 16-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son, had spent most of their lives moving every two to three years due to his career in the military. It led Peterson and his wife to make a tough choice: she and the kids would stay in Texas, and he would fly back to Texas to spend time with them every other weekend. They talk on the phone or Facetime almost every day, and the family visits Marshalltown on holidays. “The decision to take this job had to be balanced against what was in their best interest, so it was my wife who said ‘Let’s just treat it like a deployment,’ which is certainly nothing new for us… So that’s what we do,” Peterson said. “They love Iowa, but Texas is where they planted some roots at a pretty delicate time in their lives, and that’s what we’re trying to facilitate. It’s a burden a little bit, but the truth is, honestly, as much as I work, even if they did live here, I wouldn’t see them much more than I already do… There’s some struggles, but it works out.” Penny Cutler-Bermudez, the division administrator and licensed nursing home administrator at IVH, saw stability as paramount in making a hiring decision, and she appreciated Peterson’s willingness to stay long term and turn the job into a career. “Matt’s joined the Chamber of Commerce, the 13th Street District, the Kiwanis (and) military organizations. Everyone knows Matt in our community in such a short time, and it makes a difference,” Cutler-Bermudez said. “People are coming out and excited to be part of this, and we needed that as a facility. We also needed someone who had a history of leadership that was strong and wanted to build a team that could be encouraged to be autonomous in their leadership but also collaborative.” Peterson said he has received an outpouring of support — from the governor, the Marshalltown community and the residents and staff at IVH — since

taking the job, and once he felt it, he knew he was in the right place. From the very beginning, he has operated under the mindset of “We’re not going to fail.” The leadership team may make mistakes along the way, but they’re not going to fail. A fresh set of ideas Early in his tenure, Peterson identified what he considers the three fundamental issues facing IVH — recruiting, retention and admissions. “They all overlap each other, and I knew that in order to affect those things, we had to affect the community,” he said. “So community involvement became kind of a tertiary supporting priority of those three primary priorities.” He hasn’t been afraid to share ambitious ideas and long-term goals, whether they fall into the category of community engagement or solving the labor shortage: one of Peterson’s first major proposals was to launch a large child care facility on the IVH campus, and he’s also brought in low-risk inmates from the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville to perform foodservice labor. He has successfully recruited Marshalltown Community Theater (MCT) to perform at the Whitehill Assembly Hall, and with some help from the Quaker Oats Valor group, he recently oversaw a massive renovation of the IVH baseball field with the intention to host little league games again in the future. On top of those initiatives, Peterson has led the charge to establish a new American Legion post comprised exclusively of IVH residents and staff members who are veterans. Last fall, he obtained his CNA certificate so he could help out on the floor as a result of staffing shortages. He has implemented various recruitment bonuses and raises to attract more employees, and the northside cottages are currently in the process of being remodeled, which he hopes will bring in workers from as far away as the Twin Cities and Chicago. “If you’re tired of working in these big metropolitan areas where

traffic is horrible and people are just kind of stacked on top of each other and cost of living is outrageous, come to Marshalltown for three days out of the week,” he said. “Work 12 (hours) on, 12 off, and while you’re here, I’ll pay for your lodging. You can live right across the street from where you work, and then you can go back to wherever you live for the other four days out of the week.” In his interim VA director position, he’s already started an outreach line and is working to communicate with veterans wherever he can find them, whether it’s via the radio or social media. Not every idea can be implemented overnight, and Peterson is still consistently facing down more immediate threats like COVID-19 at a facility whose residents are almost all at a higher risk due to other health factors. Even on that front, however, he’s seen major progress: last month, 17 residents out of the almost 400 who live at IVH tested positive for the virus, and only five were symptomatic at all. Of those five, four experienced mild symptoms, and only one faced serious illness (she has since made a full recovery). Through it all, he’s kept his nose in the data and done his best to protect residents and keep the spread of the virus under control, pointing to an infection rate five percent lower than the rate among the general public in Iowa. “This is literally the most vulnerable population demographic that there is for COVID, and we’re pretty concentrated,” Peterson said. “So for us to have beaten the rest of the state in terms of infection rate is just a testament to the diligence of the staff that on a day-to-day basis are showing up, putting on their masks, putting on their goggles, sanitizing (and) testing.” Cutler-Bermudez noted Peterson has launched a resident council to ensure they are involved in decision making, and she expressed optimism that he’ll be the longest tenured commandant since the late Jack Dack, who served in his post for 33 years. Before Dack, there were 11 commandants between 1887 and 1969, and since he retired, there

have been 10 more between 2002 and the present. “Frankly, he’s the gold standard,” Peterson said. “Whether it’s 33 years or whatever it ends up being, the key that I think Penny hit on is just stability… It’s not so much about one person’s tendencies or style over another, it’s just about what the entire organization can expect.” Looking over the horizon Despite all of the challenges Peterson, his residents and his staff have faced over the last year, he feels IVH is well-positioned for the future with plenty more excitement to come. Marshalltown has weathered storms both literal and metaphorical over the last four years, and the commandant is proud to be a part of the recovery process. Peterson keeps a literal map of his short and long term objectives at his desk in the commandant’s office, and he refers to an old but still useful adage — your goals should be so big that they scare you. “It’s ambitious, and some of those things sometimes feel out of reach, but your goals should scare you a little bit. Those are some ambitious, intimidating goals that are on there, and they do scare me a little bit,” he said. “And they do scare me a little bit, and sometimes I think ‘Man, I’m fooling myself. We’ve bitten off way too much here.’ But then you see things like the baseball field coming together.” In those moments, all of the hard work, toil, trouble and nights spent mulling over life-changing decisions seem worth it for Peterson, and so far, the Marshalltown community has embraced him with open arms. “It’s been a difficult couple years for us, and to have Matt come in and acknowledge how hard it’s been but (also) where we can move in the future and look at ways to bring people in through or housing or whatever we haven’t thought about with fresh eyes, there is an excitement,” Cutler-Bermudez said. “We’re seeing change in our whole openness to looking at things differently, and I think it’s exciting.”

C2 | Friday, July 29, 2022 | Times-Republican | Marshalltown, Iowa

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Built on Integrity

Hellberg’s Jewelers We opened our doors in 1898 Over the past 123 years, 57 jewelers have come and gone as our family has continuously enjoyed helping your family create jewelry memories for all your special moments. Thank you for letting us be a part of that.

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Marshalltown, Iowa | Times-Republican | Friday, July 29, 2022 | C3

MPACT finding its ‘secret sauce’

T-R PHOTO BY JOE FISHER

MPACT Community Advocates Autumn Drewelow and Darcy Andersen, YSS Director David Hicks, Police Chief Mike Tupper and Program Director Ryan Keller receive the Program of the Year Award.

Program seeks growth in second year By JOE FISHER

he Marshalltown Police and Community Team has built a solid reputation in less than two years since its launch. Communities around the state have taken notice of what is happening in Marshalltown: a unique pairing between social workers and the police department. The result is social workers, known as community advocates, meeting people where they are in their time of need, providing a path forward and directing people and families to resources which can help them with whatever they are facing including therapy, assistance programs and much more. Another product of the program is allowing police officers to return to the field and respond to other calls. According to David Hicks, Director of Community Engagement for YSS of Marshall County, officers leave the site of an MPACT call after initial contact about 84 percent of the time. After the initial response from the community advocates, people can contact them directly for follow ups. Between January and May of this year, community advocates have held 182 follow-up visits with 359 people. About 94 percent of callers have been willing to speak with the advocates when they first arrive. “We realized probably halfway through last year that follow-up services were really going to be the secret sauce to this whole thing,” Hicks said. “Those are preventing calls to the police, going to the ER and it’s just providing services to the right people at the right time.” MPACT launched as a pilot program with advocates Autumn Drewelow and Darcy Andersen going on-call in February 2021. There was not a framework or prototype in place. It was built from scratch with the backing of the city and the vocal support of YSS and Police Chief Mike Tupper, and from there, it has been a learning experience for all involved. Drewelow, a Marshalltown native, learned a lot about the place where she grew up since returning to serve as a community advocate. “Marshalltown is blessed in a way that not a lot of places are in terms of the community’s willingness to band together and try to support each other,” she said. “Community involvement is really emphasized, and it extends to helping people.” To provide that help, Drewelow and MPACT have built or reignited a network of local agencies geared toward

T-R PHOTO BY JOE FISHER

YSS Director David Hicks said the MPACT program is continuing to find better ways to serve as well as track its data in its second year of operation.

MPACT Program Director Ryan Keller delivers a quarterly update to the city council during a meeting in the spring.

T-R PHOTO BY JOE FISHER

Community Advocate Autumn Drewelow shares a story of what she sees on the job with the city council during a quarterly update.

Autumn Drewelow, MPACT Community Advocate, prepares for her shift in her office at the Marshalltown Police Department.

providing a variety of services to people in need. As those connections have strengthened, she has figured out how to get people connected to the services they need as quickly as possible. “If I’m going out to a certain type of call, that contact in my phone might get a call sooner rather than later to expedite that process,” she said. “Even that is evolving. “We have revived different groups within the community that hadn’t been there prior or existed prior and went away. These agencies I’ve come to know through my childhood and upbringing had so much more to offer than what I thought.” MPACT was named Program of the Year by the Iowa City/ County Management Association just six months after kicking off as a pilot program in 2021. The strong impression it has made on the community has gone beyond city limits, turning heads at the Capitol building and securing a $200,000 federal grant from the COPS Office —

Department of Justice Crisis Intervention Team Grant program. The city also pledged $400,000 to keep the program funded through 2026. Still, MPACT needs more help if it is going to grow in the future. Currently, MPACT includes two community advocates who respond to calls with the police department between 2 p.m. and midnight. One of the founding advocates, Darcy Andersen, relocated out of state, leaving her position vacant, so a new hire is expected to come onboard soon. Hicks, Tupper and Drewelow all agree, however, that a third and possible fourth advocate are needed. “My next goal with the program is to find a way to expand the hours,” Tupper said. “We would like to expand to cover our peak call times. Peak hours are noon to 2 or 3 a.m.” To hire more advocates, the program needs more funding. Otherwise, the date where current funding runs out draws closer and closer.

More funding could do more than pay for additional advocates and expand hours, according to Hicks. Mental health issues comprise about half of MPACT’s calls, but another large issue facing Marshalltown is homelessness. MPACT is currently unable to provide temporary stays in local hotels for people who find themselves without shelter, even for one cold winter’s evening. “If we encounter a family living in their car and the weather is terrible, we don’t have the funding to put them in a hotel overnight,” Hicks said. “Some of

those immediate funding needs like shelter, food and consumables — again, this is certainly an opportunity for the public to help us.” Drewelow agrees homelessnes is the most difficult situation to address right now. “It’s disheartening when you don’t have an answer for these people who deserve some semblance of peace,” she said. “We’ll need extra support and extra resources to meet those needs as much as we should be meeting them.”

MPACT by the numbers (This year since December 2021) • 175 percent increase in clients being served with psychiatric help and medications via telehealth • 18 percent increase in behavioral/mental health clients seen per month

C4 | Friday, July 29, 2022 | Times-Republican | Marshalltown, Iowa

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Return of the MACC

Iconic Marshalltown facility wraps up renovations ahead of reopening

T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY

Marshalltown Arts and Civic Center Executive Director Nancy Vellinga Burke, left, and Board of Trustees President Karn Gregoire, right, pose for a photo next to a section of the old wall inside of the historic local building.

By ROBERT MAHARRY

ecause of its location south of the downtown area, the Marshalltown Arts and Civic Center (MACC) — which had long previously been known as the Fisher Community Center — avoided the worst of the 2018 tornado that ripped through the heart of the city. The 2020 derecho, however, was a whole different animal. Less than two years after that once in a lifetime straight line windstorm, the MACC is prepared to welcome the general public back to the new and improved facility with an open house on Sept. 18, and the first ever full time executive director, Marshalltown native Nancy Vellinga Burke, is preparing to move into a state of the art office alongside the Marshall County Arts and Culture Alliance, the Marshalltown Area United Way and the MarthaEllen Tye Foundation. Karn Gregoire, who serves as the president of the MACC’s board of trustees, has been intimately involved throughout the rebuilding process and overseen the entire project, but plans to make the iconic building first constructed in 1958 — and its legendary art collection — even better predate the derecho by several years. In 2014, a small group that included Gregoire began to engage in discussions about how to preserve and promote longtime building namesake Bill Fisher’s art, and it was determined that the pieces and their frames needed to be shipped out, cleaned and restored and the entire collection needed to be professionally appraised. The cost, as it turned out, was going to run north of $200,000, and at the time, they didn’t have a cent on hand. “We’re starting this whole project with a zero budget, zero money. The Fisher-Governor (Foundation) owned the art and owned the building, but there was no money in this foundation,” Gregoire said. “So we’re starting all of this from ground zero.” One of the first big breaks was a $100,000 grant from the Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation (named after Bill Fisher’s sister), and Martha Gervich and Jane Bauer led a “deliberate campaign” to privately fundraise the other $100,000. Everything was falling into place, but then the tornado hit. Although, as previously mentioned, the storm did the lion’s share of its damage to the north in the downtown area, Gregoire and the board didn’t feel right continuing to ask for donations to restore art as so much of the community sat in shambles. That pushed things back another year to 2019, but once again, the money began to flow in fairly quickly.

By the end of 2019, the funds were secured, but the COVID pandemic threw another roadblock in front of the effort. Eventually, it proceeded again, and the Conservation Center sent environmentally controlled vehicles to package the collection and transport it to where it would be restored. A month later, the derecho wiped out the building, but luckily, the art wasn’t inside of it. During conversations about restoring the art, Gregoire also formed a separate ad hoc committee specifically focused on devising a plan to renovate and modernize the building, and they worked with an architectural firm on designs and announced intentions to fundraise for that project. But they couldn’t have possibly imagined that it would become an outright necessity almost overnight. Removing asbestos alone cost north of $500,000, and the total adjusted price tag on the renovation and reconstruction of the building is now estimated at $8.5 million. The entire roof needed to be replaced, and in all, insurance has only covered about $2.5 million of the total expense. “There are so many things that the insurance company wasn’t going to pay us unless we started renovating, unless we started righting the wrongs,” Gregoire said. “So our hands were tied. We had to move forward if we were going to gain these millions of dollars from the insurance company.” The Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation came through with another $1 million grant, and other corporate partners like Emerson — the company Bill once ran — have made major contributions to the renovation, which has now seen about $6 million raise in total. Nonetheless, if the committee’s vision is to be fully realized, they will still need to bring in approximately $2.5 million more, $2 million of which would go to new carpet, handicap accessible bathrooms and a new reception area at the Martha-Ellen Tye Playhouse. “There are things in that theater that have got to be upgraded, and in order to do that, we have to raise the funds,” Gregoire said. “We have intentionally made this building to be state of the art so that the community can use this and have full access to the internet, to conferencing and to everything about it.” Some of the work will require the fundraising committee to collect pledge cards from additional donors, and some will involve finding entirely new contributors who care about creating a state of the art hub for entertainment, art and culture in Marshalltown. Other than all of the improvements inside of the facility and the freshly restored art collection,

T-R PHOTO BY SUSANNA MEYER

The new and improved MACC, formerly known as the Fisher Community Center, will officially reopen to the public on Sept. 18 with an open house after a two-year reconstruction and renovation process due to derecho damage.

T-R FILE PHOTO

ServiceMaster of Marshalltown staff moved items out of the Senior Citizens Center in the Fisher Community Center due to damage caused by the derecho on Aug. 10, 2020.

the most notable change for those who enter the MACC come September may be its name and signage. Because Bill Fisher played such a crucial and instrumental role in building the center and making it nationally renowned with the art he purchased — which includes a Monet painting that made headlines in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune when a would-be thief attempted to steal it in 1987 — the decision to change the name wasn’t an easy one. Ultimately, Gregoire explained, it boiled down to a desire to get a simple message across: the MACC is for everyone, and it belongs to all of Marshalltown. “This is a huge opportunity for Marshalltown to be very prideful and say ‘We are Marshalltown,’ and this is a significant thing that you can do or see when you come to Marshalltown,” she said. “And so we wanted Marshalltown in the name. That was really important to us.” Fisher’s family understood the thought process behind the

proposed change and gave their wholehearted blessing. If it would benefit the community and the local economy, they were all for it. For Burke, who had a personal friendship with members of the Fisher family as a youngster, coming onboard during such an exciting period of transition in the MACC’s history was like a dream come true. Looking into the future, she envisions it as a “beehive of activity” for visitors of all ages. “It has always been a very unique and interesting and beautiful building, and one of the first things I mentioned to Karn during the first tour I got of the building was just that they had done a really good job of maintaining the integrity — very mid century modern,” she said. “It kind of speaks to Bill Fisher and Dorothy Fisher. They had excellent taste, and that translated into this beautiful community center.” The entire process has seen its share of starts, stops, delays and hurdles to jump, but it has also provided the opportunity to build a dream facility with one of the best art displays and muse-

ums in the nation that everyone who calls Marshalltown home or even just visits can be proud of, no matter what it’s called. Plans for future expansions are already in the works, and the board of trustees — Gregoire, her husband Paul, Heidi Peglow, Carol Hibbs, Mike Mason, Heidi Dalal, Amber Danielson, Jessica Kinser, Sharon Greer, David Clark, Cynthia Ragland and John Hall — almost certainly isn’t done yet. “There have been continuous blessings. I’m a very faith-based person, very spiritual, and I just absolutely believe that the timing and everything that has happened, this is God’s doing,” Gregoire said. “I don’t have the wherewithal to pull something like this off, and so the credit has got to go to God.” The grand reopening of the MACC will be held on Sept. 18, and anyone interested in renting the facility after that date can contact Burke at director@maccia. org.

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Marshalltown, Iowa | Times-Republican | Friday, July 29, 2022 | C5

A commitment to nature Multiple Marshall County Conservation projects completed in last year By SUSANNA MEYER

romoting and preserving nature is the name of the game for the Marshall County Conservation Board (MCCB) and the Friends of Marshall County Conservation (FMCC). Whether it’s promoting Grimes Farm and the Conservation Center or repairing park landmarks, they work hard to meet their goals year after year. Carrie Grimes Barr, who is the daughter of the original owners of Grimes Farm, Leonard and Mildred Grimes, as well as the former president of FMCC, is passionate about the land her parents left behind, and one of the ways she has been promoting the nature preserve is through her book “Leonard and Mildred Play Hide-and-Seek at the Grimes Farm.” The book, modeled after “Mudgy and Millie” by Susan Nipp, follows Leonard the white-tailed deer and Mildred the deer mouse, who play hide and seek at Grimes Farm. It is designed to be read while visiting the property, and it acts as a kind of guide for readers since the characters visit different Grimes Farm landmarks during their adventure. The book was published late last year, and Grimes Barr has been promoting it since then to encourage the Marshalltown Community to visit Grimes Farm. She said she has noticed an increase in foot traffic since the book was published, especially since the Leonard and Mildred Day event in June. “We had such a fun kind of grand opening,” Grimes Barr said. “Lots of people came out, and I still get calls. People send me pictures of their kids with the little stuffed animals out there walking along the trails, so yes, it has been really fun and it really drew attention to a couple of the sites at the Grimes Farm that people didn’t realize were there.” The book highlighted the Deer Trail and the Wild Black Raspberry Trail, and those trails were previously less well known to visitors. The book hasn’t been the only strategy to draw visitors to Grimes Farm, though, as the FMCC is also presenting a summer concert series called Live and Local all summer. Each month, from June to October, they have invited a different band to play a concert for the community at the Leonard Grimes Memorial Amphitheater. Grimes Barr said the events hosted at Grimes Farm by the conservation board and the FMCC really align with the overarching goal of the two organizations as a whole. “One of the goals of conservation boards is to involve people in nature so that they learn to love it, and all the different activities that they do educate and involve people, and make them love nature, and that’s really the goal for everybody,” she said. In addition to their various events and promotions, the conservation board and the FMCC are also working on other projects to better parks and nature in Marshall County. Conservation Director Mike Stegmann said numerous small projects are in progress throughout Marshall County, and some of the most recent physical improvements include an upgrade to the available playground equipment in Grammer Grove

T-R PHOTO BY SUSANNA MEYER

The Marshall County Conservation Board recently acquired an open-air shelter, and it was installed beside Sand Lake for visitors’ use.

T-R PHOTO BY SUSANNA MEYER

CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

Carrie Grimes Barr holds stuffed plushies of Leonard and Mildred, the characters in her book “Leonard and Mildred Play Hide-and-Seek at the Grimes Farm.” Grimes Barr wrote the book to draw attention to Grimes Farm and it was published late last year.

Carrie Grimes Barr wrote “Leonard and Mildred Play Hide-and-Seek at the Grimes Farm” to highlight the Grimes Farm nature preserve. The book follows a deer mouse and a white tailed deer as they play hide and seek, and throughout their adventure, they visit different Grimes Farm landmarks.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The suspension bridge at the Three Bridges County Park is pictured prior to the 2020 derecho, when it was destroyed.

The suspension bridge at the Three Bridges County Park is buried under debris after the 2020 derecho, however repairs to the bridge are currently underway and will most likely be completed later this year.

Wildlife Area and the installation of an open-air shelter house at Sand Lake. Those facilities are being used on an almost daily basis, according to Stegmann, and while they are small improvements, he said they are still notable. Fundraising for the installation of a shower house at the Timmons Grove campground and the construction of a campground at the Green Castle Recreation Area is also well under way. Stegmann said they are waiting to hear back about a Destination Iowa Grant to determine how they will go forward with bid letting for those projects. Stegmann felt Marshall County has been lacking in public camping facilities, and he believed it was important to provide those outdoor recreation facilities to both residents and visitors because it makes spending time in nature all the more appealing. “The upgraded amenities are an obvious attraction,” Stegmann said. “The more attractions that we can make,

able for a range of uses including educational opportunities, the preservation of the habitat for both game and non-game animals, and it will also be used as a public hunting area. “We’re the only agency that offers public hunting areas in the county, and they get heavily used. Marietta Sand Prairie, the Iowa Wildlife Area, Klauenberg Prairie, all those areas get heavily utilized by the hunting community, and again, there are no state areas or federal areas in the county that offer those amenities for that user group,” Stegmann said. The conservation board didn’t work alone to make these projects a reality though. Tom Swartz, the president of the FMCC, said they helped with fundraising for the property acquisition as well as the Three Bridges Suspension Bridge project and numerous other projects since last July. They also sponsor Grimes Farm events like the Live and Local concert series. “That’s the purpose of (the Friends of Marshall County

the more people we’re going to have utilizing those types of facilities.” The conservation board were also able to OK the reconstruction of a historic suspension bridge at Three Bridges Park that was destroyed during the 2020 derecho. Three Bridges is one of the oldest parks in Marshall County, and the project, which is currently in progress, is slated for completion sometime this fall. The list doesn’t end there. The MCCB was also able to acquire additional wetlands property near Timmons Grove, and they expanded the boundaries of the wildlife habitat already in the area. To make it happen, they worked through the Iowa Heritage Foundation to secure the property from the private landowners, and now, the conservation board is in the process of raising money to repay the Heritage Foundation for the acquisition. It didn’t happen overnight, and it took roughly three years for it to be official. This property will be avail-

Conservation). You know, it was created to carry on the appreciation of the outdoors and to assist and utilize (Grimes Farm) and also the other county parks, and the generosity and the commitment to generosity of the Grimes family,” Swartz said. Looking back at the progress the MCCB has made in the last year, Stegmann is excited to continue the work they have been doing to better the parks and nature areas in Marshall County and to instill a love for nature in the community through events at Grimes Farm. “If we can get people out to the Grimes Farm and the Conservation Center and try to reintroduce them to the outdoors and all the activities that we sponsor and support, then they can visit the outlying parks too,” Stegmann said. Grimes Farm and Marshall County parks have seen a lot of progress in the last year, but there are still many other projects on the horizon for the conservation board and the FMCC in the near future.

Painting the town

C6 | Friday, July 29, 2022 | Times-Republican | Marshalltown, Iowa

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Arts & Culture Alliance celebrates progress, new master plan

By AUSTIN CHADDERDON

here’s more to see in Marshalltown than there was a year ago. Many residents and visitors who haven’t been here in a while might balk at that statement because a tornado and derecho erased a staggering percentage of the town’s trees and reduced buildings to piles of bricks. But driving down State, Main, Center, 13th and West Linn streets, vibrant colors fill the spaces that those trees and buildings took with them. The Marshall County Arts & Culture Alliance has sourced and overseen the completion of over 20 public works of art in the past two years. Under the leadership of Executive Director Amber Danielson, the Alliance has left its fingerprints in brushstrokes across the town — and it’s hard to miss. “Marshalltown has faced an immense number of challenges over the past four years with the tornado, derecho and pandemic,” Danielson said. “It didn’t take long for the murals to provide hope and joy in a time we needed it most.” The Marshalltown mural project was just an idea two years ago, and there was pushback at times. People didn’t want to spend the money on it or use the time and resources they thought could be better allocated elsewhere. Some would say to Danielson, “I’m not an artist,” implying they don’t see the value. Many didn’t think Marshalltown was ready for this type of program. “The truth is, we are all artists, and we all interact with arts and culture on a daily basis — oftentimes without even knowing it,” she said. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the movies and shows we watch, the music we listen to, the decorations with our homes and our traditions are all prime examples. Two years and 20 murals later, Danielson can breathe a sigh of relief and inhale gratitude and pride. It turned out to be a good idea. Her team proved that not only was Marshalltown ready — it was due. One of Danielson’s mottos borrowed from Grace Hopper is, “the most dangerous phrase in the language (is) ‘We’ve always done it this way.’” “Watching the program take off and soar has been one of the most rewarding journeys of my career,” she said. “We’ve heard from so many who are filled with pride because of the murals and how much it has impacted the joy they experience on a daily basis.” Some notable murals include “Marshalltown’s Postcard Mural” on Thompson True Value’s south wall, “The Starry Night of Marshalltown” at Finley Interstate Bank, the 13th Street District/ Chop Shop, and murals on the Tremont Building and Downtown Pocket Park. These projects often go up in what can seem like the blink of an eye. One day on the commute to work, there’s suddenly something that wasn’t there before. Between the meetings, pre-meetings, calls to artists, funding and approval, there are collaborations that Danielson has nurtured which make it all possible. “We are proud to have so many great partnerships around the community and in many cases, our role is facilitating, connecting and bridge building,” she said. The most recent addition to the Alliance’s portfolio was the ‘Scherzo’ sculpture installed at the Marshalltown Performing Arts Center. The project had been in the works for years in a partnership between the Alliance and the Auditorium Foundation, and it resulted in a 17-foot-tall structure composed of colorful musical notes and shapes intertwined together. “It was an honor to partner with them to help make their vision become a reality,” Danielson

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Amber Danielson is a 2008 MHS graduate. After completing degrees at MCC and UNI, she returned to Marshalltown where she has been the Executive Director of the Marshall County Arts & Culture Alliance since 2016. Danielson has orchestrated the completion of over 20 works of public art including murals and sculptures.

Ames artist Lauren Gifford painted murals for the Marshalltown Sidewalk Safety Project at nine schools in the Marshalltown: Franklin, Fisher, Woodbury, Rogers, Anson, Hoglan, Lenihan, Miller, MHS, Marshalltown Christian School and St. Francis. The murals were completed between the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Des Moines artist Jimmy Navarro was responsible for the the mural located on the south wall of Thompson True Value at 106 S. Center St., which was completed in Nov. 2021.

T-R PHOTO BY AUSTIN CHADDERDON

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Kansas artist Stephen Johnson, pictured, designed the “Scherzo” sculpture that now stands in front of the Marshalltown Performing Arts Center. Johnson has a large art portfolio and has designed public art pieces from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

The large paper airplane painted on the wall of the YSS of Marshall County in the Downtown Pocket Park was the work of Baltimore artist Nether410. Nether410 was in Marshalltown to complete the Tremot mural and did this bonus mural which is a classic design of his. The mural was done in Sept. 2021.

said. “It’s only been installed for a few weeks, and it feels as though the piece has always been there.” ‘Scherzo’ is adjacent to another large piece of public art, the ‘Drills’ sculpture which stands outside the Roundhouse at Marshalltown High School. Danielson graduated from MHS in 2008. She studied marketing, with an emphasis on distribution and logistics, as well as international business at UNI. After gaining experience in manufacturing, she made the jump into the Arts and Culture Alliance. She admitted the pivot was slightly intimidating, but looking back, she can’t imagine doing anything else. With an initial focus on global business, she now concentrates on building up art that makes a world of difference around a small city. “It was completely outside of anything I have ever done, but it was an exciting opportunity,” she said. “It was life changing and one of the best decisions I have made in my career path.” Gauging the approval of the community through social media responses, it seems that decision and her ability to follow through have been embraced as part of the path forward for her hometown. Danielson was also recently named the Chair of the Iowa Arts Council board, providing an opportunity to expand her public art efforts even further. There are a number of public arts projects slated to appear this year and in 2023, including addi-

tions to the mural project at the Orpheum Theater, Sports Plus, VFW Post 389 and La Carreta. In the next year, the Alliance’s offices will move to the Marshalltown Arts & Civic Center (formerly the Fisher Community Center). Prior to that relocation, in the next few months, the Alliance will launch a new Master Plan that was the result of facilitating focus groups and gathering input from the community. Danielson also connected with the city of Marion. “They have a 10-year master plan that has led the way for a complete transformation of their art scene throughout their entire community, but specifically focused on the downtown,” she said. There are community and art leaders across the state and country that Danielson said have been eager to share their experience and offer advice. The Alliance has been inspired by other similar sized communities like Dubuque, a city that Danielson sees as having one of the most successful mural programs in the state. “We knew very early on that we were aspiring to have a program like theirs,” she said. “Thanks to a great partnership with the art leaders in Dubuque, we received amazing support and guidance along the way.” Through research, mentorship and gathering of data and opinion, the Alliance is focused on building up art and programs in response to the needs, gaps and desires of the people who live in

Marshalltown. “In all the things we do, our mission at the core remains to connect our community to arts and culture by supporting, promoting and enriching existing communities, and also by seeking new possibilities,” she said. Ultimately, Danielson believes the people of Marshalltown are the Alliance’s greatest asset. She simply asks them to show up and speak in support of arts and culture. Few get the opportunity to see the results of their work on the walls of their town as they drive to work in the morning or pick up their kids in the afternoon — maybe an artist, architect or civil engineer. Danielson does a little of each job in her own right by catalyzing a vibrant future filled with art. Art is subjective. What one sees in abstract and geometric shapes will be a different experience to some varying degree to the person standing next to them. It might pull forward a seemingly unrelated memory and leave them waxing nostalgic, or it could inspire them to uncover the artist within yourself. “Arts and culture are essential to our lives, on a personal, professional and community level,” Danielson said. “Arts and culture in community development are critical to making a place feel special and authentic to the people that live in that place.”

The Arts & Culture Alliance Planning Steering Committee includes: John Hall (Co-Chair) — Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce, Deb Borton (Co-Chair) — Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation and Alliance Board Member, Mike Tupper — Marshalltown Police Chief and Alliance Board Member, Kim Hanken — Local artist and Marshalltown Public Art Committee Member, Wendy Soltero — Marshalltown YMCA/ YWCA and Alliance Experience Committee Member, Gabe Isom — Marshalltown City Council, 2nd Ward/Emerson, Aly Wenner — REM Iowa, Neil Dalal — MARSHALLTOWN Company, Michelle Spohnheimer — City of Marshalltown, Jesus Rios — Emerson, Plu Meh — Child Abuse and Prevention Services, Esmeralda Armas — City of Marshalltown, Julie Thede — Marshalltown Community School District, Aaron Buzbee — Local Business Owner, Gary Thompson — Marshalltown City Council, at Large

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Marshalltown, Iowa | Times-Republican | Friday, July 29, 2022 | C7

Marshalltown hitting its stride with new housing By JOE FISHER

ore than 200 new housing units are either under construction or newly opened in Marshalltown as city leaders begin to make headway on their goals for growth. The new opportunities coming to town cover a broad array of needs from single-family homes to apartments and downtown living spaces to spec homes. City leadership has discussed its desire to see population growth, with long-term hopes of reaching 50,000 residents. The latest U.S. Census Bureau data reports a population of 26,957 as of 2020. To reach its lofty goals, housing has to come first. City Administrator Jessica Kinser sees the new developments as a great step in the right direction. “Marshalltown has a history of slow growth,” she said. “I feel like what we’ve seen so far is a little bit of an anomaly. I feel like we’re hitting our stride right now.” One of the largest projects currently underway is Bloomfield Acres on Washington Street. Construction began late in the season in 2021 by Kading Properties. It will bring 78 duplex units and one single-family home to the west side of town. Construction is expected to conclude by the end of this year, and the units will be market-rate rentals. The downtown area is getting an influx of living space with the addition of Marshalltown Lofts on East State Street. Construction on the $9 million apartment complex began in 2020, and leasing is currently underway. The complex includes 45 income-restricted units and five market-rate units. Along with the Marshalltown Lofts, several historic buildings are getting new upper-story housing right on Main Street. The Gildner building on 26 E. Main Street will have three apartments coming next year, and the Willard and Hopkins buildings are being restored with a total of 13 units between them. “Housing has been booming,” said Michelle Spohnheimer, the city’s Director of Housing and Community Development. “We’re really excited about the downtown upper-story rental opportunities. It’s surprising. People don’t realize how much housing is downtown.” Ground has been broken and leveled for the new Creekside Estates subdivision on S. Sixth Street, north of Wayward Social. Con-Struct is preparing to build a new street which will feed into the culde-sac, and infrastructure will also be

T-R PHOTOS BY JOE FISHER

Jeff Simms, owner of Simms Construction, expects to complete construction on the old Gildner building at 26 E. Main Street sometime in 2023. The project will bring three upper-story housing units downtown as well as commercial property at street level.

T-R PHOTOS BY JOE FISHER

Con-Struct continues installing infrastructure for the Creekside Estates subdivision on South Sixth Street, north of Wayward Social. Some of Marshalltown’s newest housing is already located just south of Wayward Social at the Crosby Park development.

T-R PHOTO BY JOE FISHER

A construction crew begins building vertically on a new home near Glenwood Park.

The Hopkins building is being renovated to include upper-story housing. Crew members could be seen atop the scaffolding and on the top floor on July 6.

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C8 | Friday, July 29, 2022 | Times-Republican | Marshalltown, Iowa

Housing CONTINUED | FROM C7

be built into the area. The subdivision will include 16 duplex units and 22 townhomes. John Hall, who has been President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce for nearly a year now, has noticed one thing the most during his time in Marshalltown. “There is a high desire for growth and interest in thinking outside the box to achieve those goals,” Hall said. “Our leadership here is not comfortable settling for the status quo. Replicating what has been done in other communities is not good enough for Marshalltown. We want to be the gold standard when it comes to growth.” The chamber’s new housing incentive program is one of the ‘outside the box’ ideas meant to draw people toward making Marshalltown their home. It offers $10,000 cash at closing for the construction of new homes. The program was launched a year ago, but the first crop of eligible homes are just now becoming available. Unlike tax abatement programs seen in other communities, this housing incentive gives

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new homeowners more flexibility on how they can use the cash to help make their purchase, including down-payment assistance and covering closing costs. The homebuyer does not have to be part of the homebuilding process from the ground up, either. If they are purchasing a newly-built home, such as a spec home, they are eligible for the incentive as long as it is valued at more than $180,000. “This program comes into a stacking effect when we are trying to recruit housing developers,” Hall said. “It’s a great tool to be able to advertise housing in Marshalltown.” With so much forward progress on housing this year, Kinser is optimistic about the opportunities to come in the next year. Marshall County is one of three counties in Iowa eligible for the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Community Block Grant funding for derecho recovery. Those funds are to be awarded by the end of the year. “A majority of it is focused on

housing. We’re trying to find the best projects, multiple projects, to bring forward for that funding,” she said. “It’s a small pool we’re participating in, and we hope to bring in most of those dollars.”

T-R PHOTO BY JOE FISHER

Bloomfield Acres features 78 duplex units and one single-family home on Washington Street. All units are market rate rentals, and construction is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.

T-R PHOTO BY JOE FISHER

The Glenwood Park 7th addition will total 42 lots and will include a connection north to Knollway Drive, as well as the construction of Woodside Drive.

The grounds are leveled off for Creekside Estates, a new residential subdivision being built on South Sixth Street.

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