A Classic Lesson from "The Prince"

Friends of mine often swear they’ve never seen anybody use the dog park in Oak Hill. Well, anybody who does, they likely have to drive. My objection that amenities should be centrally located, equally accessible, not in richest neighborhood was poo-pooed. That set me to considering Cascade’s ethics, and I concluded I that after a dozen years or more of going to Council meetings, that this town was not just corrupt, it was concertedly, committedly so. Ethical ideas count for nothing. I began entertaining the notion of moving, but friends elsewhere assured me it was “No different here.” “Same everywhere!” Concurrently, the proposal to put pickleball courts in Oak Hill was being discussed. I begged Dale Mescher and Terry Frasher, not to put an amenity in the toniest neighborhood in town. Everybody knows that by agreeing to accept a piece of property from a developer, Mike Beck or any other, we are also aiding and abetting tax malfeasance. The property (likely overvalued—so much limestone beneath the top layer, they couldn’t dig a basement) used to lessen the developer’s tax liability. Pretty hypocritical for a city, which exists on tax dollars, huh? Mind you, I was not the only one against the pickleball courts on Oak Hill. A couple other, older wiser types were as well. Now the ones in the community park sit chipping and cracking, and I am betting for the few tennis players there are, the city won’t have the money to repair them. The single objection the promoters of the Oak Hill pickleball courts—the ground was soggy—is still true for the tennis courts. I just quit going to council meetings. My first week in Florida, in my sister's local Library, I found the most spectacular copy of The Prince by Niccoli Machiavelli. The cover is bright yellow with bronze embossing; the pages are glossy and heavy as magazine covers; the illustrations are reproductions of medieval paintings of Renaissance leaders—the Medici, Sforzas, and the Kings of France. I checked it out just to marvel at it. Only I began reading it and found this fabulous quote: “…men are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly and covetous, and as long as you succeed, they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life and children…” Reading this classic from the 15th Century, I saw clearly that I had expected a sense of justice, concern for the environment and the larger society. However, the human race is mostly duplicitous, greed and self-serving. My own fault: I wouldn’t have expected anything else if I’d read The Prince years ago. Read the classics and save yourself a lot of grief and time: a fabulous waste expecting moral behavior from our leaders.

The Choas of Arrogant Politics

Well, this week the Iowa legislature removed all LGBTQ protections from the law. Unfortunate on one hand; understandable on the other. Looks like there is a big demonstration against it today. The MOMA photo is so appropriate because neither side in this debate acknowledged the other's right to exist. Non-gender conforming people have as much right to credit, apartments, and services as anyone. However, people are not going to stand for genetic males playing sports against women. This is a big sports state and people are almost uniformly against that. Likewise, there is a sizable portion of the population against gay "marriage". Most folks don't (like me) care either way, hard-line religious types refuse to accept it. They define term "marriage" exclusively as a genetic man and a genetic woman. For better or worse, they own it; it has been that way for 6, or 8 or 10 thousand years, despite gay. So if you want to give tax and legal protections to gay unions, which they should have a right to, you have to call it something else--unions, liaisons, pacts. No, they had to have the term "marriage." Well, now we have a backlash and there will be people who will take advantage of it. It makes me unbearably sad, but I totally understand it, and I can't believe that if the gay community hadn't been so pushy and righteous about their "rights," but given some credence to the basic reservations of legit voters out there, we wouldn't be here.

An Anniversary of Sorts

It’s an anniversary of sorts: For a whole year, other than one meeting in early August 2024, to watch citizens toss out Lisa Kotter out on her inglorious bum, I have not attended a Cascade City Council meeting. I said nothing at that meeting, because neither I heard or saw there led me to believe that the systemic corruption of the entitled making every decision to suit their fancies continues unabated. Earlier on in the summer, a man who I had seen at only one council meeting tells me how “Much Mike Beck has done for this community…” I almost barfed on his shoes. Since I have been back from Florida this year, I had a beer with the Mayor, and he tells me it cost us $50,000 to fix the sewer line Beck transferred to the city several years back. Last year, Feb. 2024, when I got back to town, I discovered an end run around democracy: Ms. Kotter and the entitled, instead of a public discussion and decision about where the dog park should be moved to, it was decided behind closed doors to put it in Oak Hill. By the middle of July new pickleball courts were sited there despite the fact that it is not centrally located, and a community should not be using public money to augment property values in its well-off neighborhoods.

Twinzies--I am the prototypical and perfect Cascader: I have a house, drive a car and wear clothes none of which I could afford without assistance or at least borrowing big time. In short, I live beyond my means. A woman with a street urchin budget should look like it, but of course, when I am not too arrogant to be honest--I admit I am elated my family doesn’t mind subsidizing this old bat on the homeplace. I love wearing new duds, living in a “painted lady” with a new deck, etc. Cascade, a city with a limited budget in the same situation, but lacking flush, generous relatives, bleeds its taxpayers and defers maintenance. Like a private home owner ignoring maintenance at his own peril, the city has in the last 7-10 years quit maintaining alleys, abolished the sidewalk committee, is marginally maintaining the streets, reserved nothing to do Hwy 136, and has shot its wad on a new gazebo, a dog park, Cougar blue pool roof, parking there and other amenities. In conjunction with the state, the city has fixed the Monroe St. Bridge, which serves two businesses, and resurfaced the corner by Casey’s, which serves two more. Rather than fixing streets, alleys and sidewalks or prioritizing the library and doing a bang-up job of it, the City and Park Board accepted some ground in Oak Hill Mike Beck wants to pawn for favors from the city, and has endorsed a group fundraising for five or six new pickleball courts there. There is a class of Cascade folks who go to Ft. Myers (Guilty, as charged!) and Mesa every winter and wants to come home to the amenities communities with a lot of half-million dollar 2nd homes have. They refuse to acknowledge that this is a place with a lot of houses and people worth barely $100,000 (Guilty as charged!) and deluxe pickleball courts and dog parks are out of line. Maybe even a morally questionable. Adding 2 or 3 courts in the community park, though feasible and ersatz, not showy and brand-spanking like Oak Hill is the right thing to do. I will be donating a sum of money I can barely afford contingent on the organizers doing the right thing.

Deciding in the Age of Ambivalence

We are living in the Age of Ambivalence. I admire City Administrator Lisa Kotter—I even gave her a going-away present—though I’m both sad and glad she’s going. During Hometown Days I trekked down to Riverview Park one afternoon to clap for Bob Green and other Cascaders receiving Valor Quilts. But as I told Bob--“This doesn’t mean I don’t abhor war, despise the off-the-books secret military budget (Could that be why the U.S is so in debt?), and especially the bastards who profit from it.” I went because I like and respect these guys and I don’t believe you can have a country without a military, (Look at Ukraine.) In spite of the fact that militaries are mostly misused--consider the Israeli military’s support of land-grabbing Jewish settlers, and Major General Smedley Darlington Butler’s analysis of the U. S. military: I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. Capitalism, with its well-recognized capacity to play into the hands of the greediest, has little redeeming social value and has created the inequality that is currently destroying democracy here, in Germany and democracies around the world. However, the most vexing dichotomy the current Age of Ambivalence is whether to donate to the pickleball fundraiser. Especially now that we know Mike Beck turned over to the city a storm sewer line in Oak Hill is broken, and it will cost us $30 or $40,000 to fix. Beck is donating some rocky ground he can’t do anything else with to build new pickleball courts on. This was a problem from the get-go. It is: 1) NOT centrally located giving all citizens equal access, as city parks should 2) NOT environmentally-conscious because players will have to drive 3) NOT socially-conscious to solicit donated funds and use them to build an amenity in the newest, highest property value neighborhood in the city. So what do you do? I have been agonizing for weeks over this one because I play frequently and feel obligated. So, I will be giving the pickleball people a promissory note for far more than I can afford to donate, contingent on them NOT accepting ground from Mike Beck. They’ll need it if they do the right thing.

Is Cascade a Democracy?

You don’t think Cascade is an undemocratic outlier? Guess again. The reason Cascade ended up with an ordinance that says Council people have to run on their records every two years is because that’s what most towns with decent democracies do. The company that put our ordinances online made a template, presumed we had a democracy, so the glitch. In response, Councilwoman Megan Oliphant said she needed “two years to get up to speed on the issues.” Well, I was on council once and it took me two months—I came up with the list of questions about rebar & concrete and picked the brains of everybody that knew. If Oliphant isn’t willing to expend the effort, she should resign. If she’s not smart enough, ditto. That’s not the only problem on the Cascade City Council: with the mic off before a council meeting one night early this year, Mike Delaney told me: “This is NOT a democracy; it’s a Republic, and these people (he gestures to the rest of council) and I were elected to make the decisions. OK, King Mike. Yeah, I was the one who discovered this glitch, and I have called Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office to try to get some help in putting this up for the vote of the people, so here’s hoping they care more about democracy in Cascade than the people on council.

Devils & "The Devil's Element"

A McDermott Farms Honey Wagon returning for a load.

I can't quite believe I haven't made a post to Critical Eye since Feb. Well, like many another American, I am having trouble believing we have democracy here any more. It's not simply a matter of all all the time and energy I have expended in public service, it's men like Charles Grassley, who seem to do little more, but have established themselves on the right side of the power dynamic and have no compunctions. 

The Democrats drummed Joe Biden out, but 10 years older and infinitely more on ag questions Charles Grassley is going strong. This is no credit to the Republican Party, the Farm Bureau, Grassley himself or the rest of the superstructure that keeps him in power. 

Last week 17 beaches were closed in Iowa for excess E-coli bacteria--liberally applied to Iowa fields as animal manure, from hog, dairy and poultry operations, but I thought if we just got control of Grassley,  & Big Ag, the environment would recover overnight. Not so according Dan Egan, the author of The Devil's Element, who quotes David Schindler, who devoted his life to outlining the effects of Phosphorus, which it sounds like is a bigger problem than nitrogen.

On page 165 of The Devil's Element, he says: "What we better be prepare to do is make pretty draconian restrictions on phosphorus applications and on land uses that promote runoff, but then also be patient... This isn't going to happen in a few years. It's that patience factor that always stymies things, because for some reason people can spend 50 years screwing up a lake  but expect to be able to fix it in a couple years. It just isn't the way it happens."

 Equal Time for Shame

 

Then, in those old days when there were wolves in Wales

And almost nobody was above average except in Lake Woebegone

Where teachers weren’t beat or shot or fired and/or taken off

The sub list (tantamount to) being beat, shot or fired,

We had standards, democracy and a little equity, though

the fat cats have never been terribly fond of that stuff and often

got a pass, old Rothschild, George Bush and King George

and all the rest from as far back as the French Revolution, before

and fast forward to now and tomorrow, though the Romanovs

lost their heads and never learned, but don’t say retarded

because you know that’s not allowed.

 

I’d like to live in a true country where a Donald Trump is ashamed

To claim he made his fortune like the rest of us, walking to campus

In down-at-the-heel shoes because he didn’t have bus fare,

no less a sports car. A true country where Fat Cat Donald,

a million-aire-head while still pooping his dipes,

Is recognized as a fat cat pooping his dipes,

Is despised as a fat cat pooping in his dipes

and his old man’s raping, pillaging and grabbing

 the NY housing development pussy doesn’t become the gold standard

for developers as far and wide as Iowa, where our developers (Mike & Bucky)

now have silver spoons in their diaper poop thanks to ole man Trump.

 

I’d like to live in a true country where, when you buy a concert or plane

Ticket, you get a whole seat instead of three-fourths or seven-eighths

of one because some fat ass has his or her arm in yours and frankly,

I’d like the fat guy whose arm was in my seat last time I flew

to apologize, go on a diet or buy two seats next time. Look,

Amy Schumer’s fat ass isn’t the problem, rather far more basic:

The human frame was not engineered to carry the avoirdupois

of a grizzly, yak or yeti and so the reason most need new knees 

is simply that our we cannot carry what we have managed to lard

onto ourselves, and the shame, nay immorality of this rub is some

folks get no medical care because others are gobbling up

a load of what they should not need.

 

Democracy used to do this for us, but of course, we are losing that

Once upon a time, we kept each other in line and my sisters

Told me point blank the morning of the wedding, “you can’t

Eat breakfast and wear that dress; you’ve gained so much weight

For Shame! You look obscene; we don’t care how much you paid for it!”

Since I am the fat ass of the family, I know just how much shame we had

and how liberally we spread it around—Liberals, socialists, Democrats and

Republicans alike. Equal opportunity shame, I say, for not learning

My times tables, when I was told, shame on you! Now though,

not learning our times tables when you are told gets an IEP, a tutor

And your mother goes up to school and yells at the teacher who

Is taken off the sub list, beaten, shot or fired. Fuck her IPERS.

 

So ladies and gents, boys and girls, tell me this:

What indeed is a Bernie Madoff or a Donnie Trump but a

Small vacumn-packed lack of shame which can cannot

Relate to the pain of losing the little place they raised the kids in

While aggrandizing themselves with 58-bedroom mansions, Rolles,

Pools and we are sending them to jail for their crimes? Pray tell,

People, wouldn’t a little front-end shame do a whole lot more here?

So stand up.

I said, “Stand Up.” Let’s hear a hearty round of applause for shame.

Yeah, Shame! 

March 2023

Portfolio Links:

https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/The-Home-Forum/2016/1228/How-Mom-confounded-the-phone-man

at: 

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/2019/05/29/substitute-teacher-fired-scolded-students-their-grammar-teaching-education-schools-language-skills/1269842001/ and across the Gannett Syndicate,

and at:

https://secularhumanism.org/2021/06/adventures-of-a-nascent-atheist-abroad/

https://secularhumanism.org/2020/06/toward-a-more-democratic-atheism/

https://secularhumanism.org/2020/10/flipping-god-the-bird-across-the-ages/

(Review of a book called “Unbelievers, an Emotional History of Doubt” published by Harvard Press, an amusing book about the History of Atheism)

https://secularhumanism.org/2023/04/infinity-war-lies-damned-lies-and-superabundance/

(Originally titled “In the Ivory Tower with a Couple Forrest Gumps)

 

Celtic Life International, Newfoundland, Canada

https://celticlifeintl.com/a-song-for-father-francis-part-1/

https://celticlifeintl.com/a-song-for-father-francis-part-2/

behind a pay wall https://www.liguorian.org/contents-27/

Front Porch Review Republished: “Country Kitchens April 2023

https://frontporchreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/April-2023.pdf

 

in the Times of London July 2023 Education Supplement:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/are-student-demands-higher-grades-threatening-standards

Gutsick, Heartsick & Disgusted

One morning last week, somebody waylaid me in the post office wondering why I wasn’t at the Monday 22 January Cascade City Council meeting. He went to complain about the sidewalk ordinance. I explained I am gutsick, heartsick and disgusted of trying to do democracy for Cascade—it is a group activity anyway.  Though I noticed for all the threatening, some people in my neighborhood did NOT receive citations for not cleaning their sidewalk. Now, if it would have been my sidewalk…

            A number of people have appeared before council to complain, but we have elected a council with no sense of fairness, so only option seems to be to get a referendum of signatures from all the people in town unfairly burdened by this ordinance. Then present it to a judge after the city assesses us for NOT shoveling. I checked with Small Claims"

1)     The largest possible award is $6,500

2)     A group of homeowners can press charges,

3)     You don’t need a lawyer.

However, I am not going to organize it. I will aid any action homeowners in the town center wish to take, but—repeat—I am sick of trying to do democracy for Cascade. Nobody on city council has much sense of fairness or decency, as they have proven with actions taken across the board, including treatment of the police, the library, passing the tree ordinance, etc, ad nauseam.  

            I recognize a lost cause when I see one. I might as well be productive and make quilts or braid rugs instead of wasting time on Cascade's democracy. 

 

Update on Sidewalk Possibilities

Hearing from the meteorologists that we are back in the El Nino weather pattern, and watching the city pass a more restrictive shoveling ordinance; I called a couple lawyers after X-mas. Sue Hess kindly spent 15 free minutes on the phone discussing the issue and possibilities with me.After I explained the situation: old part of town, sidewalk; newer parts, none. Council created the problem; some developers and homebuilders had to install it; others not. One council even let a couple take theirs out!  While she agreed it was notoriously undemocratic, a legal realist, she pointed out, “You know very well the courts will side with the city.”

Thinking of former mayor Clay Gavin taking a previous council to court for a public violation of the law, I assured her I did. She went on to explain that you need a lot of property owners to join the action, and a “signed petition might help.”

“What about a sort of Old Towne Sidewalk Revolt where nobody shovels?”

“That might work! Only most ordinances provide for assessing the property owner.”

“As does ours, but what if we banned together and took the city to Small Claims Court to get the money back and a ruling?”

“You’d have to check into the specifics; I don’t deal with small claims.” 

I thanked her profusely. Last Wednesday I was called to jury duty, so in the break, I toddled down to Small Claims and got the skinny: 1)     You can have multiple defendants, but the clerk wasn’t sure if there were an upper limit. 2)     Anyone can fill out and file a small claims form online. 3)     Upper limit $ recovery: $6,500. 

Various Cascade citizens have complained to council—most recently Al Reis, but several others. This is Boston Tea Party territory, so if you want your democratic rights, you have to fight for them. I had to hire mine done because the wind had pounded the snow into styrofoam. If you can volunteer not to shovel and be a defendant in a small claims suit, or to sign a petition, write me at keyronmcd@yahoo.com.

 

Drought, Shingles, War, Immigration, Inflation & Elections--2023 Was One Demoralizing Year

At my age you don’t want to be caught wishing your life way, I am eagerly wishing this whore of a year 2023 outta here.  The La Nina drought we have had for the last three years, made gardening difficult and expensive. Your grass burned out, you had to water often, and you always needed mulch. Meanwhile, I signed up for the Master Gardener course thru Dubuque County Extension, which proved to be a good deal more difficult than it was when the person who originally told me about it took it, but I passed. 

The pressure of that, running for city council and trying to paste-up the Cascade Free Press on the computer is certainly what gave me shingles, which I still have--apparently it does last six months! While the Free Press was clearly campaign lit, it looked like a newspaper and was so highly researched that some of the pieces in it were nothing but numbers (i.e. ordinances, comparisons of salaries of local city administrators, fines, etc). That did not stop Mayor Steve Knepper from whining that it had inaccuracies. Shortly, after the election I invited him over here to my house and told him make a list of them—I would re-research the issue and publish a correction if necessary. Tomorrow is the New Year’s, and I still haven’t heard from him, so that tells me a lot. While he was here, however, he did admit that Councilwoman Megan Oliphant did say that removing a tree cost $1,000.  I rose and pointed mine cost $3,000+ but you can’t get up and correct a councilperson anymore, no matter how wrong they are. Citizen input was seriously curtailed in 2023. 

Mentally, I classify societal problems as those we could solve easily if we would each take the responsibility to act or vote honorably. Example: UPS, FedEx, and Amazon traffic on this street exploded this Christmas because so many people are ordering stuff. Are we really going to put a dent in pollution if we increase driving, deliveries and leaving the vehicle running when we dash into the P.O?  Or leave it running while we eat a burger in a bar? 

How much responsibility do we as individuals bear for what is wrong with our world? It seems the world we live in would be a whole lot better if individuals did what was right in and outside the voting booth.  How many Russians voted for Putin? Israelis for Netanyahu, and one of my opponents in November who only said he wanted “to serve” and came up with not one single idea before the election. He went to three council meetings, but I have never seen him at the podium either supporting a good idea or denouncing a bad one. He cares about Cascade? 

My second class of problems is those we can’t do anything about. My friend Rona living in Haifa,

suddenly finds herself in a war zone.  I disliked Netanyahu even in the year I was there in 1986 because he seemed corrupt.  He courted the right wing, compromised democracy in his country and look at where Israel has landed. I don’t have any friends in Ukraine, but my heart breaks when I see films of the destruction there. But I can’t vote in either place! 

It’s been a year of increased mental illness, judging by the talk about it, looking around and seeing the pressure ordinary people are under. Nevertheless, we will certainly see more of it because the Governor Kim Reynolds seems dead set on getting rid of the income tax, which will leave the state with less money and increase the tax burden on the poor. Nobody seems very concerned about this level of immigration is doing to the American people either.  

Look at Israel and Russian and vote honorably whether it is in your own interest or not.

Xmas Memories

 

My Florida niece wrote this Christmas wasn't sure why she always thinks back to Christmas in Berlin. Well, she has an excuse--she was a kid then. There is certainly that tendency to remember your "Santa Claus Christmases."  One of the years I was there, she had the lead in the  "Krippenspiel" (Christmas Pageant. I was always an angel!) 

But I recall those German Christmases  fondly too, and I was 50!  Something extraordinary about a society that lights one Advent candle, then two, then three and finally four. That doesn't put up the tree till a night before Christmas and puts real candles on it when it does. It seems real candles require a great deal more attention than electric lights. Still, as the days become shorter and darker, lights are in many ways a great a consolation to us as bonfires were, I am sure, to the Neanderthalers. 

Still I can't help but remember those mid sixties years when we kids, sang at midnight mass, and ran

over to the Old Grove to skate for a couple hours before we had to get nylons, heels, wool skirts--only female heathens wore pants to church in those days. My astonished great-nephew exclaimed, "You guys had midnight mass. "Yes we did!"  I am not sure why that was so astonishing. A more recent X-mas memory is the "Weihnachtswindmuehle" that I found in a Chariton, Iowa junk shop and Pat Kurt, loved (maybe because he was German; it's a German thing.) He's been dead 9 years this coming April and since I have had it out of the box once--to take it to a East Side classroom I gave it to Charlie, is either a little German or pyromaniac. At any rate, it found a home this Christmas, and I am happy.

Possible Cascade Rain Garden Sites

Walked around town Saturday in the rain, sizing up water flow and looking for good spots for rain gardens. I found several on city ground. Here are some pix that illustrate where the water runs and an explanation of how a rain garden might assist in holding it on the land for a short period of time, so that in a heavy storm it doesn’t roar into the river and contribute to flooding. Recently, I read that the whole state of Iowa was a collection of intermittent rain gardens, swampy spots farmers hate and are tiling the water out of. Those swampy spots are undoubtedly what made Iowa land so fertile, and once they are removed, it will undermine the composting processes that made our soil that way.

Immediately east of the second city  building directly behind the old hotel is bare spot that appeared to be retaining water and seems a most likely candidate. There would need to be little sculpting of the ground, so that the water it holds doesn't undermine the foundation of the building. It seems that mixing compost with the soil there would do the job. It could be planted with pampas grass, which gets ripped apart in the wind, unlike some of the other, better grasses that retain their pretty plumes well into winter. If you want an example, drive past my house, to the south along the sidewalk I planted pampas grass as part of my and compare the pampas grass with the cultivar of it that still has its plumes.

Another inviting possibility is along the old well-house. As can be seen from the photo, the road where the water runs is the alley that provides access to the apartment behind Main Street, and protected by the cement wall (at the top of this photo) that is clearly visible from the bridge. The problem with this site is obvious at a glance--the water runs down the road toward the river. To access the water, a person would have to have to pull up to the east (right) side of the building. Though the water can only be used for irrigation and watering down construction sites. It used to be Cascade City water, but now it is so laced with nitrates it can't be drunk. So this site would take a good deal more work to establish a rain garden, but a couple vigorous perennial bushes or grasses  would only shorten the road.

Of course, the purpose of a rain garden is to hold water for a short period instead of allowing it to rush into the river and curtail flooding.  Private homes and businesses provide ample opportunity for rain gardens as well. The first place to look is downhill of where the water runs off your house. (This is a lovely illustration from a book on the topic.) Water deftly selects the shortest distance with the least resistance between two points, so look to nature herself. 

The best possibility in town, it still seems to me is the section of the Legion Park that the city owns and is an (ersatz) "driveway." In really heavy rainstorms the water cuts a 6-in gulley in the sand and makes it almost impossible to drive on. The DNR would like a $50,000 fix (a grass paver system) that will cost the city $10,000 and any cost overruns and we must apply for a grant. A rain g arden would result in a lovely display of flowers and grasses visible from the pool.

Of course, not every lot can accommodate a rain garden. I might be tempted to try to squeezed one into the grassy section next to the B & B east of the bridge, and it might work, but it might also flood the owner's basement, so it is important to keep those sorts of practical considerations in mind. 

If you are interested in my opinion of what might work in your yard, garden or business, I will come out and look free of charge. Drop me a line at keyronmcd@yahoo.com or message me on Facebook.

Last Council Meeting of 2023

That the city is not broke but overcommitted and has had to strip down library, did not deter Future Fields & Recreation, spokesman Kurt Conrad from pressing his demand to hire a consultant for almost $10,000 to plan for future baseball fields. The motion was approved, as was a potential plan for two-phase pickleball courts in Oak Hill promoted by several players in attendance. Neither vote commits the city to specific $-amounts but does allow the groups to fund-raise for their respective causes.

            Jim Terry, the local Alcoholics Anonymous representative, requested that his group be allowed to continue to meet in the EMS building, which provides ground level access and bathroom facilities. The group can meet there till April, but must then move. City Administrator Lisa Kotter urged Terry to try local churches until the library is constructed.

Pure bureaucracy: there has been no assertion that AA or any other group renting the facility has caused damage or entered the locked areas, which presumably store emergency medical supplies including narcotics. However, an assessment done by a private firm recommended that other groups  not be allowed to rent the facility. The EMS volunteers will, however, be allowed to charge the city mileage for use of their private vehicles.

           The balance of the meeting was previously discussed ordinances: definition and time limits for snow removal from sidewalks and a method for notifying and fining citizens, the 300% increase in parking citation fees and a recreational burn ban, which will get three readings. However, the snow emergency and removal and parking fee increase passed on first reading. This writer has always objected to that practice but the 2nd December meeting would fall on Christmas day and has been canceled so the agenda was rather long this year. Merry Christmas.

    

Snow, Citation, and Parking Changes

 The Cascade City Council adopted Administrator Lisa Kotter’s suggestion that parking citations be increased 300% from the $5 they are now to $20. (Incidentally, there is only one local town with a $5 parking citation fee; most are $20.) Council defined a “snow emergency as 4 inches or more, discussed instituting a violation fee for them of $150 for the first citation, $200 for the second and $250 for the third. Until the ordinance is passed, it’s only a tow charge.

            When Kotter proposed that the current 48-hr window we have for sidewalk snow removal be cut in half, they went for that. Citizens will get a warning (a doorknob hanger) and have another 24 hours, a total of 48 before the city would remove the snow and assess your property tax. 

Councilwoman Oliphant pointed out that this might be a burden for the elderly and less well off, noting “we don’t have sidewalk.” Generally, Cascade’s older neighborhoods have sidewalk and newer ones don’t, creating an inequitable situation under which half the city has incurs the expense of snow, vegetation and obstruction removal etc. and the other half does not.

The administrator reiterated, “The goal is to affect change, not to increase revenue.” Someone might be forgiven for thinking it might be a 3^rd option.

Residents from the N.E. section of Tyler St. just beyond Main Street where there has been an incremental increase in traffic were invited to discuss solutions. Resident Ann Kurt noted she has lived at her present location for 40 years, asked why this has become a problem. Clearly, traffic to River Bend, including Martin semis, and both the size and frequency of industrial agricultural equipment (cattle transports and honey wagons) turning into a narrow street have created a potential hazard at the top of the hill, just across from the grade school.

However, those who precipitated the problem will not be required to remedy it: after a half hour’s discussion, the parking spaces on the west side of the street (along the Noonan residence) will be eliminated. Most of these changes will take publication and readings at coming meetings, but should be in place by the new year.

Council approved Tax Increment Payments to ROSO Properties, LLC, an agreement that was cut by the previous city administrator on the building rented by Butch & Frankies, for renovations that have already been done.

When BOTH the Universities & the DNR Are Corrupt

 

Ironically enough, last week, Farmer John, one of the grandees of the swine republic was in was in full-on mode running honey wagons up Tyler St. and back every 15 minutes from 8 till 10 p.m. from Monday till Thur., while I was reading Iowa, the Swine Republic by Chris Jones. Jones is a “research engineer with IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering at the University of Iowa,” according to the bio under his picture in the book.

Though a PhD there, he is more than a little peeved at swine ag and the university’s role in it. Having taken the Master Gardener training from Iowa State Extension, I can testify there is no preference for organic solutions there either. Leaving one to wonder how many profs endorse unsustainable, chemical agriculture just to keep their jobs.

That’s the reason to read this book of essays, incidentally. In one of them, he points out that everybody says they want clean water, in fact, 81% of Polk County residents voted to tax themselves to get it, but “the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) has no meaningful way to regulate farm pollution…” but in actual fact, “CAFOs (Confined Feeding Operations) make intelligent manure application impossible…”

The ironies never quit that day. Wednesday, another farmer, ironically also named John, stopped by to commiserate and complained, “He (the Farmer John with the 3 CAFOS up the road) doesn’t even bother to cut it in!”  I suppose knifing it into the soil would help keep a bit more pig pee and nitro on the land, but is that the solution?

  I think we have arrived at such a far-gone point where our institutions (universities and government, the DNR) are so corrupt that we may have to take matters into our own hands: refuse to repair the roads, bridges and culverts polluters drive on—since farmers don’t pay for city streets anyway. Put up a sign (pictured) and tell Farmer John to take the gravel over to Hwy. 136, which he does pay for.

 

Should City Residents Pay Farms/Businesses' Real Costs?

 If you caught the “Lisa Show” a.k.a. Cascade City Council meeting Monday night 13 November you heard her read me out for conflating the current main town bridge repair with work essentially ordered by an Iowa Dept. of Transportation (IDOT) Bridge Condition report. That repair now underway was apparently authorized earlier in the summer. There was no discussion of the IDOT report or its potential cost, and either Councilman Riley Rausch or Andy Kelchen said, “Let’s do it.” The following Tuesday a Weber Construction backhoe was already cleaning out the accumulated sand under culvert on Tyler, 1,000 ft. from my house. So you can understand my confusion.  The culvert installed in 2005, so the DOT report listed its condition as “Good;” all it needed was to have the accumulated cleaned out of the waterway.

            At the previous council meeting an IDOT “Bridge Condition Report” was introduced showing various problems on three city bridges: 1) the main span over the North Fork in the middle of town, 2) the culvert, which replaced the bridge just on Tyler St. NE out to River Bend and 3) the Monroe Street Bridge, formerly the main road to Farley. It is now dead ends at Custom Pre-Cast, so the only traffic is to the self-storage and Custom Pre-cast, essentially a private bridge/road.

            When Lisa finished I asked Kelchen “Is Custom Pre-cast in the city limits?”

            “Half of it is; half of it isn’t.” Mr. Kelchen answered and then launched into a tirade on me insisting that his company “pays more taxes than a private residence like mine”; (Duh!) that it supports many other businesses (Bard Concrete, for example), and is beneficial to the town.  He further insisted that the DOT created a private road his family’s business, inferring, I guess, that the city is obligated to repair it.

            I beg to differ on two scores: 1) all the hard surface you and Bard are installing around town is a “benefit” and the city, which has lots of other demands? Question is: should the city fix the bridge, which is going to be expensive because it is old and primarily been used by trucks carrying multi-ton loads of concrete?           

Speaking of demands, the exchange was followed by property owner Allen Knepper coming from Wisconsin to exhort the city to install curb and gutter near his property adjacent to Thomas and DeLong streets. And speaking of bridge and culvert repair, from dawn till well past dusk—the last one returned around 10 p.m. last night—every 15 minutes for the last two days, there has been a multi-ton honey wagon up Tyler Street. How soon is the Tyler Street culvert going to start showing the wear and tear? Question is, should city residents be paying Farmer John's way? No wonder farms are so profitable—city residents pay for all their real costs!

 

Election Reflections

 

In November of 1993, I ran for and was elected to the Cascade City Council. The main issue, if I recall correctly, was that then-Councilman Kenny McDermott (RIP) was splitting up city street repair work into component parts, so jobs came in below $25,000 and didn’t need to be publicly bid. Reporting for the Cascade Interpreter, the newspaper I published until then (The last edition is dated Winter 1993-4.) I discovered this, squawked and was voted onto council.

My dominant memory of being on there was Bill Gehl, also on council then, abusing me so spectacularly, that I bashed the desk, swore and stomped out of chambers. In defense of Mr. Gehl, I can safely say I was such a doofus about infrastructure, I wouldn’t have known what a piece of rebar was if one whacked me on the butt.

I know a 100x more now because my brother Paul has since worked for the city, and every time there was something I didn’t understand, he would it explain it or show me how it worked. Not that he didn’t get exasperated with me on occasion either:  “Can’t you see where the water is running?” “Well, now that you point it out, I can.” (Life is an uphill learning curve.)

So now that I am more enlightened about infrastructure, why was I not elected? A variety of factors I am labeling a, b, c, etc. and you can rearrange them in numerical order of 1, 2, 3, 4-priority as you yourself see fit: 

a)     Cascade is older and more conservative than it was previously. A History professor I had in a U. of Wisconsin course assured me that this was going to happen to the U.S. at large and indeed, the whole country has become more conservative—witness our governor—it’s a little like dementia, I guess. Just happens.

b)      b) I am more socialist. For the simple reason that I spent 5 years in Germany and saw how the Communist and Green parties there kept the capitalists from walking  off with everything. Like as not, you would be too, if you had that experience.

c)       C) This country thinks of itself as a democracy, we routinely vote for local, state and national royalty, the Kennedys, the Gehls and Hoschs.

d)    d) Women are far less likely to be elected, appointed, etc. to anything. I eventually resigned when I couldn’t get a job locally:  the principal of a school told me point blank: “You are well-qualified for this position, but I can’t consider hiring you because that newspaper you published was too controversial…”

I went home and applied for a job teaching English in Changwon, So. Korea and left the U.S. for two years the following month.

Cascade as Cruise Ship for Surrounding Communities

 

In the 1950’s the farming community came to town on Saturday night to buy, socialize, tipple and confess their sins, making a clear contribution to the city economy. Now?

We can only hanker for early decades of the last century when the farms of the countryside provided Cascade’s businesses an authentic, organic source of customers. The future is now and contains a lot of dog parks if we don’t step up and shape it.

Here’s why: Last January 24-26^th at the invitation of the Cascade Economic Development Corp., Iowa Rural Community Enrichment, a division of the Iowa Economic Development Authority in Des Moines, brought four experts to Cascade. They met with several people—a dozen business owners, a dentist, a chiropractor, a couple medical professionals, the three school principals, a high school teacher, some students, a banker, the chamber president, four council people, the mayor, a half dozen citizens and a couple farmers. This group and 98 other folks who filled out a survey on Facebook provided input to a Downtown Assessment Report issued in March. There is a copy in the library and you would do well to read it because what is happening in town is more or less laid out in this Downtown Assessment Report.

I. E: the new $50,000 party-planning, promotions and volunteer-organizing position created this summer, the new sidewalk and cement parking installed in October on the southeast of the pool, and the dog park—are all a result of those meetings. On page six the authors of the report have listed the town’s greatest weaknesses. Number one: “There is not enough to do in town.” 

Naturally, such a report does not assess the underlying problems plaguing American society—lack of meaningful education that cultivates interests (except sports) and makes us believe as people that going places, spending money and buying stuff makes us happy. Proof: the “most needed new businesses” called for by respondents are: 1) restaurants (We already have 5 plus 3 places you can buy fast food!), 2) clothing/boutiques, 3) bowling/entertainment, 4) an ice cream shop, 5) sports bar/Irish pub and 6) a consignment shop.

The business this community most needs is a lumber jack. Close to half the residences in town have a tree that needs to be removed and some local tree services can’t come to assess one for 60 to 90 days. Longer to schedule a removal. If city taxpayers are investing in businesses; why not invest in one we really need and haven’t a single one of?

Are dog parks, new restaurants and consignment shops the answer? I know an older couple on Main Street who would like to stay in their home, but can’t because they can’t do the maintenance and can’t find anyone to help them do it.  Shouldn’t we be investing in a business that would help them? I am sure they’d pay.

Last month, I searched in vain for a place to get a fine old Grundig radio repaired. I tried Dubuque, where it was bought, Cedar Rapids, Chicago, L.A. and NYC. I finally found a lovely guy in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Perhaps we need to question our toss-it-in-the-landfill-get-a-new-one philosophy and look for businesses that help preserve the environment, not just provide entertainment and diversion.

Volunteers, Volunteers

            One might also object to the Downtown Assessment Report’s insistence on drafting volunteers to do city work. We know why we don’t have the money to hire people and why. Last year, Cascade and state taxpayers gave a business $600,000 to redo the old Brewery Building. A couple years back we gave Jesse Loewen $157,000 to redo the old Farmer’s and Bankers’ Building.

            Almost every council meeting city taxpayers are asked to pay for infrastructure. At the Monday night October 24 meeting, Origin, Dubuque firm, presented its report on the main bridge over the North Fork of the Maquoketa, and two others both with defects, both receiving heavy use by non-tax paying businesses outside the city.

         

   The Monroe Street Bridge spans the creek bed that brings water from the East Side of town. It sits on a dead-end, no-outlet street and the traffic on the bridge is primarily Custom Pre-Cast’s trucks loaded with cement. Should city taxpayers be repairing a bridge for a profitable company not even located or paying taxes in the city? It’s practically a private use bridge—let them fix it.

            The farm community made notable contributions to the city’s economy in the past, but the situation now seems reversed! We now have three hog confinements on a farm north of town, and their heavy grain trucks and honey wagons have compromised the culvert that replaced the bridge on Tyler St./Aitchison Rd. in/out of town. They run up Tyler St., spill their contents on the road and Cascade taxpayers are expected to pony up to fix the culvert these vehicles have compromised?

This past summer, with a new pool, Cascade became a destination for out-of-towners and according to one of the life guards I spoke with, there were many patrons from as far away as Dubuque—“especially after the city-sponsored parties.” One has to wonder with potholes in other areas of town why the street along the pool was prioritized for repair and a brand new sidewalk. Is this a service for business?

City residents pay the same entrance fees as non-residents. South of town at Riverview Ridge, there are two dozen or more vacation/weekend residences. Should these non-taxpayers pay the same as us? It seems that ordinary taxpayers ought to get some benefit along with the business and farming communities. The right council person will insist on it!

 

 

More Comparisons & a Few Questions

 

At the Cascade City Council meeting Monday 9 October, $1.2 was shaved off the new library construction budget. Councilman Andy Kelchen even suggested that more might be taken off for good measure—to make sure we are well under the line. It is quite sad to consider what a beautiful design the library was to begin with and what has been removed.  Pictured above are two Cascade playgrounds barely a block apart—one at the East Side Elementary expanded this summer, the other in the Legion Park at the pool. Of course, the former was built by the school system; the other is a city installation, different government levels. However, it seems some cooperation and communication among decision makers might have avoided this costly duplication so we might not have to make such painful cuts.  Might other expenditures such as dog parks might receive the same scrutiny?

 

Administration is a widely varying cost among cities, but it bears looking at them, though comparison

is difficult because city administrators have differing duties. For example, the city of Epworth (pop. 2,023) is run by long-time Clerk Janet Burger. She stresses that she handles “only administration; the streets and police are run by the heads of those departments.” However, she has 35 years experience and makes $71,760. In Anamosa, with more than twice the population of Cascade at 5,522 people the top job held by Jeremiah Hoyt is paid $100,880.  With almost exactly twice the population at 4,040, Monticello Administrator Russell Farnum pulls down $96,500. Of course, none of these figures include heath care, clothing allowance, phones or other perks paid administrators.