The Last Couple Cascade Weekends

The last couple weekends have been very interesting. 

Last weekend the Cornerstone Church held its Fall Fest, which was noteworthy on a couple scores--first, no money changed. Kids just ran willy-nilly between the  football toss, fishing, a petting zoo, etc.--sometimes accompanied by their parents, sometimes ignored by them, in all cases everybody seemed to be having a high old time.

I really don't know why the human race is so interested in splat and smash, but we are. All in attendance gathered to watch a large crane pick up a pumpkin no person could lift, hoist into the air and drop it so that smashed and splattered all over the parking lot. We were all riveted!

Less riveting was Saturday morning. I dressed for the weather and headed east into the wind on the bike path, turned south to the Bent Rim to deliver the Cascade Free Press the previous day. Just as I wheeled into the parking lot my phone rang: my Denver brother trying to explain to a way to go about figuring out definitively if I will be flooded now that we are back in the El Nino and getting rain. I am dim--it took him 15 min. plus to explain. While I was pacing the parking lot and listening, I noticed a 4 x 4 running. When I went in the bar, I announced, "Somebody forgot to turn off their..." I didn't forget a man said, "It's got too much gas in it."

"Well, it's polluting the air outside." The woman with him, gave me nosy-old-broad-look and said, "What, you walked here?" 

"No, I rode my bike." Somebody at another table said, "Yeah, she did."

The Halloween Parade was a hoot. The first time I ever saw a night parade was X-mas 2015 in Las Cruces, NM and I am really glad they have become a regular thing here, especially since we can get snow on All Hallows Eve. Not to mention X-mas. It was great fun, bit a demoralizing for me because I did not bring enough copies of the Cascade Free Press, which people should definitely read before they vote. If you can't find one in town, stop by 209 Tyler; I'll give you one.

 

 Good Evening – 

Thank you for your email. Attached is the Downtown Assessment Report for Cascade from our visit earlier this year. Our process included multiple in-person stakeholder focus groups, a public meeting, and a pre-meeting survey. During many of those discussions, community members indicated their interest in a dog park, among other quality of life projects. As you can see in our report, we provided a potential funding resource for community projects such as a dog park, streetscaping, wayfinding, or public park. All of these were brought to us as ideas from the community. 

Please let me know if you have any questions,

LIESL SEABERT​​​​ | Rural Community Revitalization Program Manager

IOWA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

1963 Bell Avenue, Suite 200  |  Des Moines ,  Iowa    50315

 

Well Honey, 

EX-cuse me for expecting our highly paid public servants to open their eyes and exhibit a little critical intelligence when they come into a town. You might have seen the five potholes in the street due west of our new $135,000-gazebo that I hit every time I come around that corner on my bike. What is said in focus groups is not accurate assessment of the quality of life in a town. Neither are streetscapes, dog parks, banners, or murals, of which we have an excess. In fact, I am beginning to suspect they are a cover-up for the very real lack thereof.  

Shame on you, 

S. Keyron McDermott 

P.S. I notice you carefully avoided commenting on the shabby, undemocratic way this dog park ended up in Oak Hill. That's part of quality of life too, and you've certainly done your part to compromise ours. 

 

Deep State Dog Park Doo-Doo

Dear Liesl:

I am a local journalist running for a council seat in this town, and pre-election I have inaugurated a little broadsheet called the Cascade Free Press. In reporting for it, I attended a Park Board Meeting here, and heard that in a meeting with people from your office the idea of a dog park was endorsed and then moved to a different location--Oak Hill, a neighborhood of $200,000+ houses. The previous location was at least central, in the middle of town but a flood-plain policy precluded locating it there. Rather than going back to the drawing board, looking for another central location, as it seems democracy would demand, the powers-that-be gleefully moved it to Oak Hill, put up a big sign and we now are saddled with it on the far east side of town. 

Advocating a dog park in a town of 2,200 people where no house is more than 3 or 4 blocks from an open field or park where you can run an animal is questionable policy to begin with, but to have the state come to our community and undermine democracy in such a fashion is pretty horrific. You carry weight and we lose when it is ill-applied. I also contacted your media people, when trying to discover the reasons, but heard nothing from them either, so I do appreciate your response to my query. 

Many, many thanks, 

S. Keyron McDermott

Should City Aid Citizens with Tree Removal?

             In 2017, sly as a virus, the Cascade City Council killed off the Sidewalk Committee and passed an ordinance to make citizens responsible for their own sidewalks without ever making an announcement. As it stands now, the city can order you to repair your sidewalk and incidentally you, dear citizen, are responsible if somebody falls on it.

Recently it was noted there are a large number of dead and dying trees around town, casualties of both our 3-year drought, an emerald ash borer infestation and derechos two Julys running. At the 28 July 2023 meeting Council passed a Tree Ordinance with some dissention about the time-frames citizens should be granted to hire a service and have the tree removed.

Councilwoman Megan Oliphant argued that “removing a tree costs $1,000, and nobody has that kind of money lying around.” Councilman Andy Kelchen, who apparently does, argued for shortening the deadlines saying, “People have known about it (their dead trees) for years, so….” He might be right about ash trees dying from emerald ash borer, but I will personally invite Mr. Kelchen to come here and see a tree I myself planted 25 or 30 years ago—a willow, which has succumbed to the drought in the last three weeks.

No one on council suggested any financial help for any citizen—no matter how much trouble they might have paying for the removal of a couple trees—as in one case, a family has more than one dead tree. There was only a short discussion of trying to make an arrangement with a tree removal firm to make it worth his while to come to town for tree removal several days/weeks running. Under three separate programs—TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Rebates, Façade Reimbursement and Business Incentives for the most recent fiscal year 2021-2022, the city has paid out some enviable sums of money to some of the most well-off people and businesses in and around the town:

            Premium Plant Services --$19,239.25

           McDermott Industries--$14,099.06

            Callahan Construction--$38,690.20

Under the Façade Program, $24,000 was paid to Centro for fixing up the outside of its buildings. The new Brewery Owners got $600,000 of state money (your Iowa taxes) to renovate the old Dalhem Feed Store; Cascade citizens are chipping in $70,000.

We have no problems spending money; we just seem to have a problem spending it on people who really need help. This accounting does not include some of the large sums paid out in the past. We know of course that we sent almost $300,000 to the out-of-town owners of Brothers Market over the last decade. Some of us still haven’t recovered from the city paying Jesse Loewen $257,000 of our taxes to renovate the old Farmers Bank abandoned when Jeremy Miller absconded and left us holding that bag.  The new gazebo in Riverview Park cost us upwards of $135,000.

This is why I am running for Council because people who really need city help are not receiving it—ordinary citizen’s claims are not even articulated in council these days.