Progress - 2011

BUILDING SOMETHING GREATER | PROGRESS EDITION 2011

COMMITTEDTO BUILDING A STRONGAND GROWINGCOMMUNITY

Waterloo | www.WCFCourier.com | Cedar Falls

EVOLVING EDUCATIONNew leadership program creates win-win for area students

NEW GROWTH Neighborhood business and housing districts are flourishing

MOMENTUMNew products and services keep the Cedar Valley on the fast track of technology

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>“ ”Business. Careers. Families. Whatever you’re building, it’s GREATER in The Cedar Valley of Iowa.

10 West 4th Street, Suite 310, Waterloo ......... 319-232-115610 Main Street, Cedar Falls .............................. 319-266-3593

www.CedarValleyAlliance.com www.GreaterCedarValleyChamber.com

By JIM [email protected]

WATERLOO — Even during the depths of the economic downturn that began in 2008, many indicators in the Cedar Valley hovered around levels business leaders consider nor-mal.

Unemployment rates were in the low 6 percent range through much of 2010 — well below national levels. Housing sales have trended upward, according to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Board of Realtors.

In general, the region’s business sector proved comparatively resil-ient, said Steve Dust, CEO of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance.

“It appears to me, from the anec-dotal responses I get, that the Cedar Valley economy has survived this downturn very, very well, particular-ly in the service and manufacturing sectors,” he said.

“The demand for product has been increasing. We’re hearing more that the service sector, particularly on the technology and creative sides, that they’re looking for highly skilled people to meet the increased de-mand that’s in the marketplace,” Dust added.

He pointed to Deere & Co.’s invest-ment to modernize its foundry, not-ing Deere’s employment and that of its suppliers have stabilized and, in some cases, increased.

Other sectors weathered the tem-pest as well, according to Dust.

“National retailers have made in-vestments, and we hope our local retailers are feeling similar strength,” Dust said.

He speculates personal services and entertainment venues locally took the biggest hit from the recession.

BankingThe banking sector remained

strong in spite of scares about tight-er credit, bailouts and bank failures across the country, according to Wade Itzen, president of the Wa-terloo-Cedar Falls Marketing for BankIowa.

“I think the local banking com-

munity, fortunately, has been able to remain very healthy in spite of the recession,” he said.

That should come as no surprise, Itzen added.

“I think part of it is just our con-servative banking practices in the Upper Midwest and particularly in Iowa. If you look at bank failures across the country, there were al-most 200 and only one in Iowa,” It-zen said. “ .... It was one of our best years ever.”

The trend should continue through 2011, said Itzen, who is cautiously optimistic.

“I don’t think the problems have gone away by any means, but we’re seeing some gradual improvements out there,” Itzen said.

The retail sector weathered the re-cession acceptably well, said Gary Ogzewalla, general manager at Crossroads Center.

“I think things have started to

improve and, using the mall as an example, we saw some very encour-aging results in the past holiday season, which are reflected nation-wide,” he said.

“That tells me people are gaining a degree of confidence,” Ogzewalla said. “

Year-on-year sales at the mall in-creased every month in 2010.

“No. 1, it says a lot about our lo-cal economy,” he said. “I see the Ce-dar Valley has broadened its base so that when some downturns come there is a way to fall back, and when the ripples come they’re ripples and not great waves.”

ManufacturingEd Jensen, CEO at Schoitz Engi-

neering, said his company actually managed to grow during the down-turn, though he is well aware the re-cession wasn’t as kind to others.

“From where I sit, some days, it’s a

tough business to be in, but it’s been good for Schoitz,” he said. “Last year, we probably had a record vol-ume year.”

The company increased its work force by 10 percent, reaching 50, Jensen added, and expanded its ros-ter of designers in the last two years from seven to 14.

Schoitz’s customer base in the ag-ricultural, industrial and appliance industries is “doing well” through the downturn, and Jensen antici-pates similar results in 2011.

“It looks like it’s going to be a great year again,” he said.

ConAgra is based in Omaha, Neb., but employs 144 workers at its Waterloo plant. The company has had a “challenging” first half of fiscal 2011, which began in June, spokesman Dave Jackson said.

ConAgra specializes in a variety of prepared foods and turns out Snack Pack puddings locally.

“That’s a strong brand coming out of Waterloo,” Jackson said. “We feel we have a portfolio of brands that’s well suited to the current economic climate. We offer value for the mon-ey and Snack Pack is one of those brands. Our plant is busy.”

At Wayne Engineering in Cedar Falls, which employs about 100 workers, the company is marking its 50th anniversary. CEO Kevin Watje said Wayne had its struggles during the recession.

“Our last fiscal year was chal-lenging, pretty rugged, but we nor-mally have backlogs of six to seven months,” Watje said.

His company manufactures street cleaning equipment and automated trash collection trucks.

“We got down to about a six-week backlog in the last fiscal year, but we’re back up to five months. It’s to the levels it should be,” Watje said.

Sales have not yet reached levels before the downturn, though.

“We’re kind of in a hangover be-cause tax collections are behind, but as they improve over the next 1-3 years, we should see it come up to the levels it should be,” Watje said.

Cedar Valley weathered Great Recession well

TIFFANY RUSHING / CoURIeR STAFF PHoToGRAPHeRDarrell Starling machines a slot into a block of steel at Schoitz engineering in Water-loo.

2011 PROGRESS EDITION "Building Something Greater" • �

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WO-042911028

By EMILY [email protected]

CEDAR FALLS — The num-bers have yet to be tallied but at least one local researcher is ab-solutely certain the University of Northern Iowa’s teacher educa-tion program is having a positive financial impact on the Cedar Valley and the state.

Sam Lankford, a UNI profes-sor and director of the Sustain-able Tourism and Environment Program, said his study will ex-amine the hours students are engaged in the community and value that based on what is done in the nonprofit sector. The study will also take into consideration the grants these students have helped secure.

“We have the number of stu-dents, the hours they worked per week and how many schools

The economics of teachingResearcher studies effect of student volunteers, grants on Cedar Valley

RICK CHASE / CouRIER StAff

PHotogRAPHERMegan Butler, a recent univer-sity of Northern Iowa graduate, works with her class at Walter Cunningham School for Excellence. Butler student taught at the school and opted to stay in the Cedar Valley after graduating in December.

Health careThe Cedar Valley’s major provid-

ers — Allen Hospital and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare — are work-ing to meet changes mandated by the federal health care system signed into law last year. Meanwhile, both report advances in technology and patient services.

“We’re finding people are coming from out of the area to have proce-dures,” said John Knox, Allen’s CEO since September.

The hospital is “on target” with budget projections, he added.

“The other area we’re seeing growth in is wound management, and there is new business because of that,” Knox said.

Allen works to minimize consum-ers’ costs while maintaining better treatment technologies.

Chris Hyers, spokesman for Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, said the recession’s effects have been “consistent” over the last few years.

“We didn’t see the big spike, but part of that was policies we did

ahead of time,” he said. “I really be-lieve in Northeast Iowa you saw the softening of the economy a good year or two before you saw it na-tionally.”

Patient services — including re-habilitation programs, in-patient pharmacy services and the cancer treatment center — were strength-ened at Covenant and across Whea-ton Franciscan’s network, Hyers said.

Perhaps the biggest event in the local medical community is the an-nual Heartland Conference. The 10th edition will take place in June at the Five Sullivan Brothers Con-vention Center in Waterloo.

Van Miller, CEO of the VGM Group in Waterloo, bought and moved the event from Lawrence, Kan. The conference will bring more than 1,000 representatives and their products from the medical equip-ment industry to the Cedar Valley.

Mike Mallaro, chief financial of-ficer for VGM, said downtown is a draw for participants.F

� • "Building Something Greater" 2011 PROGRESS EDITION

I am building the Cedar Valley

Each year, the University of Northern Iowa contributes to the quality of life in the Cedar Valley. This year:

■ There are 15,170 alumni making this their home

■ Business and Community Services worked with 2,065 clients

■ More than 2,000 alumni educators are shaping the future

■ Two sold-out crowds heard the Dalai Lama’s messages on the power of education

■ Nearly 70,000 guests attended performances at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center

■ More than 2,800 current students come from the Cedar Valley

■ The university was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its commitment to community service

■ UNI employs more than 1,800 faculty and staff and 4,000 students

■ Approximately 435,000 guests enjoyed athletic and non-athletic events in the UNI-Dome and McLeod Center

■ Nearly 200 adults took part in lifelong learning courses

■ UNI earned a gold rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), the highest rating for any school in Iowa

Learn more at www.uni.edu

WO-042911109

were impacted, but it’s too early to know any exact numbers just yet,” Lankford said. “The only thing I can say is that this will definitely be a positive just looking at the num-ber of hours students are volun-teering on boards and the activi-ties they are involved with beyond teaching.”

Dwight Watson, dean of the College of Education, already is well-versed on the other ways the department’s preservice teachers are affecting their communities and the state. He knows that in 135 years the school has produced more than 17,000 educators and more than 12,000 teach in Iowa. Each year, the school graduates about 500 new teachers. In the last six years, these students have brought in $45 million in contracts and grants from outside agencies.

But he wants to know more. And he believes the school can do more.

“We are concerned about Iowa’s brain drain and the population shift,” he said. “We lost a repre-sentative based on the 2010 cen-sus count. One of the thoughts is that teachers have a tendency to be steadfast, and we want to make sure that our teachers are well-pre-pared to go back into the commu-nities from which they came to replace the generation of teachers who are retiring. This is just one way to assure the viability and con-tinuation of Iowans and the teach-ing population.”

Megan Butler, a Washington, Iowa, native and recent UNI grad-uate, didn’t return to her home-town after commencement, but she is making a new home here in the Cedar Valley. After two student teaching positions in Waterloo she applied for a full-time position in the district. On Dec. 17 she was of-fered a contract at Dr. Walter Cun-ningham School for Excellence. She graduated the next day.

“My husband works at John Deere, and this is halfway between both of our hometowns,” she said. “I really like the Cedar Valley and after visiting a few of the schools it just started to feel like home.’’

Before graduation each pre-ser-

vice teacher must complete a 16-week student teaching stint in one of their top three location prefer-ences. Diana Briggs, the interim director of the Office of Student Field Experiences, said most stu-dents choose to go back near their hometown or in one of the state’s three larger metropolitan areas — the Cedar Valley, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.

Briggs said many students end up in the community where they stu-dent teach, in part because the ad-ministrators in those districts feel comfortable offering a position to someone they have seen in action.

“They are a known commodity,” Briggs said.

The students are often a com-modity in the community as well, Watson said. UNI teacher educa-tion students are encouraged to get involved in the community where they teach, either by volunteering with local social organizations or sitting on local boards.

J.P. Deckert, a recent UNI gradu-ate, may not be staying in Iowa for his first teaching job, but he left his mark on the Cedar Valley while he was in school. He volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters. He worked with the Special Olympics. And he helped organize a char-ity costume golf tournament that most recently raised about $5,500 for new playground equipment at River Hills.

And someday the Dewitt native hopes to return to his home state and put down some roots.

“Cedar Falls has been a great home for seven years and I hope to get back here or to the Quad Cit-ies, I think, but for the time being, I need to get out and gather some new experiences,” he said. F

‘‘This is just one way to assure the viability and continuation of Iowans and the teaching population.”

Dwight Watson dean of the UNI College of Education


� • "Building Something Greater"

New leadership program is win-win By EMILY [email protected]

WATERLOO — Tyran Collins’ voice could barely be heard in the quiet gym.

“Who knows what win-win means?” the fifth-grader asked his schoolmates.

When no one volunteered an answer, teacher Shayla Stevenson urged the other children along with suggestions. Soon, the young stu-dents were eagerly offering up ex-amples. For the next 15 minutes Collins, whose voice grew stronger as the lesson progressed, walked the multi-age students through a series of skits to determine which showed students acting with a win-win atti-tude.

“It’s cool to get up and help out,” said Collins, who admits he hasn’t al-ways been a leader. Then, his teacher introduced him to the Leader in Me program. “I thought they were just stupid words, but really they are en-couraging words.”

The Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence is the first Waterloo school to introduce the program based on Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effec-tive People.” The program, which is integrated into a school’s curriculum, “helps develop the essential life skills and characteristics students need in order to thrive in the 21st century,” according to theleaderinme.org.

It is also being implemented at North Cedar Elementary in Cedar Falls. Other Waterloo and Cedar Falls schools, as well as some pa-rochial schools and the University of Northern Iowa’s Malcolm Price Laboratory School, are expected to implement the program in the com-ing years.

“It’s really exciting. I think we have the opportunity in the Cedar Valley to do something very special. We are bringing every school in the Cedar Valley up on the Leader in Me,” said Tom Penaluna, president of the CBE Group. The business has helped fund Leader in Me training and ma-terials. “I am a big supporter of the educational system, but I think the

one place we are weak is in helping kids get the tools they need to be-come leaders. We have an opportu-nity with this program to put those tools in children’s hands in the Ce-dar Valley.”

Progress at North CedarThe Cedar Falls elementary school

is on the fast-track to becoming one of only seven Leader in Me Light-house Schools in the nation. These schools serve as models for other districts implementing or consider-ing the program. Principal Jennifer Hartman believes the school can complete the process by the end of the next school year.

This fall students were chosen for the school’s leadership team, which gives kids the opportunity to take leading roles inside and outside the school walls. Students are keep-ing data notebooks where they can write down and track their personal goals.

Words like “proactive” and “think win-win” are used by teachers, staff and students. Hartman has seen shy students come out of their shells and more students treating their class-mates and adults with respect since the program was started last year.

Even the students are seeing a dif-ference.

“I thought the teachers were speak-ing a different language,” said An-thony Chiattello, a fifth-grader. “But, now we do the seven habits every day. We don’t even think about it.”

Classmate Maddie Schmidt said the tasks can be as simple as doing your homework as soon as you get home or remembering to bring your planner to school everyday. Other times, the students have found them-selves having to be leaders among their friends.

“I was at the mall with my friends and they wanted to play hide and seek. I said no because we could get in trouble or even get kicked out,” Schmidt said.

Hartman said the hardest part of implementation is waiting.

“We believe in this and want to do everything right away, but we know we have to take it step-by-step,” she said.

Cunningham moving alongThe Leader in Me program seemed

to be a natural fit for Cunningham, said Stacey Shaver, a school coun-selor. The school had already imple-mented a positive behavior interven-tion and STAR Academy program. The Leader in Me filled in the gap.

Staff are in the process of choos-ing a student leadership council, but

many students, like Collins, have already found ways to show their potential during the Leader in Me Family activities, held throughout the week just after the first bell rings.

“They like starting their day with this group and it encourages them to get to school on time,” Shaver said. “Even though not all students can rattle off the seven habits, they know how to live it. Even if they don’t say they are putting first things first, they are showing it.”

Though it’s too early to know for sure, anecdotally Shaver said some students who may have made bad choices in the past are already mak-ing better choices, and she believes it’s because of the Leader in Me.

Outside praiseBob Justis, president of the Great-

er Cedar Valley Chamber, can feel the excitement when he walks into North Cedar and Cunningham.

“You see the signs and the post-ers the kids created. You see the ex-citement in the faculty, and it really doesn’t take long for the kids to get on board. That’s refreshing,” he said. “And what I haven’t seen, I’ve heard anecdotally from teachers, in terms of changes in performance in the classroom and student confidence. These kids are developing self-confi-dence and displaying it in school.”

Last year representatives from St. Columbkille School in Dubuque visited North Cedar to learn more about the Leader in Me. Principal Barb Roling said they could feel the pride the students’ took in their school from the moment the kids greeted them at the front door. That sense of pride continued throughout the day as students shared their data notebooks and talked about how their school had changed.

“They were really listening to these habits and instilling them in their school work, sports and their home life,” she said. “It was great to see this in action and know that it was doable. I couldn’t believe how fast they had done it. My teachers got really practical ideas and were very impressed.” F

RICK CHASE / CouRIER StAff PHotogRAPHERAmy LaDue, an elementary school principal from owatonna, Minn., talks to Malachi Mabry, a North Cedar Elementary School third-grader. LaDue was one of several owatonna teachers and administrators who visited North Cedar recently to see how the school implemented the Leader in Me program.

2011 PROGRESS EDITION

By ANDREW [email protected]

WAVERLY — Tyler Osborn pulls on a welding mask, picks up a tool and squeezes the trigger.

A flame shoots out of its nozzle as the Waverly-Shell Rock High School senior begins welding a T-joint. A popping sound like static can be heard as the flame hits the metal, melting together the two surfaces.

But Osborn isn’t kicking up sparks or generating any heat as he finishes the brief weld. And, all appearanc-es to the contrary, his welding tool did not shoot out a flame or melt anything. The surface wasn’t even metal.

He was looking through a pair of virtual reality glasses fit under the welding mask that projected the im-age around the tool and surface he pointed it at. The Lincoln Electric VRTEX 360 virtual reality welding machine also produced the sounds that accompany welding. Others in the room could see how Osborn was doing on the screen on top of the machine.

“It’s a pretty good representation of what welding is,” said Osborn. He and other welding class students were using the machine to complete their final exam earlier this month in a corner of GMT Corp.’s produc-tion fabrication facility.

Industrial technology teacher Bry-an Benham also arranged to use the machine as a way to check students’ progress. The machine provides a more exact measure of performance on a weld than would be possible through a teacher’s visual assess-ment.

“This actually gets a readout of what their score is,” Benham noted. “It’s not subjective.” On top of that, “it gets them in the real world of work.”

The Waverly-Shell Rock class is one of the few in the state incorpo-rating virtual reality into its learn-ing process. But with the impetus of Cedar Valley TechWorks, other area schools are poised to make use of the technology in their classrooms. A full room-sized virtual reality system was donated by John Deere

to TechWorks, which is pursuing installation funding and plans to make it available to schools.

Four table-top virtual reality sys-tems were created by engineers at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rap-ids and purchased with $15,150 in grant funding from the R.J. McEl-roy Trust. Each includes a 60-inch 3-D television, computers and five sets of 3-D glasses. East and West high schools in Waterloo have each received a system, as have Cedar Falls High School and Holmes Ju-nior High.

The systems won’t necessarily be used for virtual welding.

Cary Darrah, TechWorks’ general manager and vice president, said they could have numerous applica-tions in a variety of subjects. Science and industrial technology teach-ers are considering uses at some schools. But Darrah said it could even be used to teach math concepts or sentence structure.

No matter what the use, every-thing from figuring out how to op-erate the systems to finding ways to use them is an opportunity for team building and problem solving.

“The range of what can be done with it is pretty big,” said Kenton Swartley, a Cedar Falls High School science teacher.

He has been gauging the interest of students in using the equipment

in creating 3-D animation. Swartley noted that an animation competi-tion is always part of the robotics contests a team of students that he advises participates in every year. A student has also expressed interest in using the technology in connection with some graphic design work.

After John Deere donated the equipment to TechWorks, Darrah got the ball rolling on smaller vir-tual reality systems for schools. She heard about what students at East Marshall High School were doing with virtual reality equipment do-nated by the Mayo Clinic in Roch-ester, Minn., and visited the class-room.

She made the connection with Rockwell Collins engineer Jack Har-ris, who also heads the statewide network of schools in the Virtual Reality Educational Pathfinders. TechWorks paid for memberships so the Waterloo and Cedar Falls school districts could join the orga-nization, which provides opportu-nities for students across the state to work together on virtual reality-re-lated projects.

Darrah sees her organization’s involvement in the effort as ben-eficial from an economic develop-ment standpoint. The mission of the nonprofit subsidiary of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance is to provide a physical space for new businesses

developing emerging technologies. TechWorks is located in buildings along Westfield Avenue donated by John Deere nearly four years ago.

The financial and experiential re-sources that TechWorks and the Alliance provide can enrich the education available to Cedar Val-ley students, said Darrah. Helping to get virtual reality technology into the schools is “a very appropriate way to extend TechWorks resourc-es” to the community.

“The Alliance as an organization has realized for a long time how im-portant it is to interact and connect with the educational community,” she noted.

In Waverly, GMT Corp. under-stands the value of those connec-tions, too. The company bought its virtual reality equipment to provide ongoing training for employees and keep their skills up to date with competitors, said weld engineer Paul Nelson.

But company officials jumped at the chance to bring Waverly-Shell Rock students into the facility to use its equipment. Nelson said GMT has a “vested interest” in helping teacher Bryan Benham provide as many op-portunities for students to improve their welding skills.

“We’ll see if he can develop any future employees for us,” Nelson said. F

TechWorks brings virtual reality to schools

RICK CHASE / CouRIER StAff PHotogRAPHERWaverly-Shell Rock High School student Kolton Bohlen takes an exam on the virtual welding equipment at gMt Corp. in Waverly. the student results show on the computerized chart on the screen, and each welding pass is given a percentage score.


� • "Building Something Greater"

Center lets HCC expand driver trainingBy ANDREW [email protected]

WATERLOO — Hawkeye Com-munity College’s truck driver train-ing is on the move.

The college is building a new transportation programming center southwest of campus. And officials hope to use it to expand the scope of driver training programs offered through Hawkeye.

“We wanted to build a (facility) that would become the center for this state, this region,” said Linda Al-len, Hawkeye’s president.

She noted that the regional trans-portation training center is one of three “areas of excellence” admin-istrators are focusing on in techni-cal education as they develop a new strategic plan. Strategic planning is also under way for the college’s arts and sciences education.

Other technical program focus ar-eas include advanced manufactur-ing and health education, which is the furthest along. The new 46,400-square-foot two-story Health Educa-tion and Services Center just opened on the northwest corner of campus.

It includes classroom space for programs in physical and occupa-tional therapy assisting and criminal justice. In addition, it has a student health clinic, gym, suspended track and wellness center. The exercise fa-cilities are available for physical edu-cation classes as well as general stu-dent use.

Allen said the college is positioned to become a regional leader in health education with the new center. Offi-cials hope to follow a similar model with development of the transporta-tion training center. To do that, they are building on the success of the college’s truck driver training pro-gram, headed by instructor Marty Kroenecke.

“He took a good truck driving cen-ter and expanded it to a great truck driving center,” said Allen. The pro-gram “had really literally outgrown what we could provide on the main campus.”

Initially, the college found a place to operate the program in lots near Crossroads Center shopping mall.

When that space became unavail-able, it moved to the parking lot at the former greyhound racing track near U.S. Highways 20 and 63.

The board of trustees in August approved plans for Peterson Con-tractors Inc. of Reinbeck to build the center on 22 acres of Hawkeye Foun-dation farmland along Hammond Avenue just north of the Black Hawk County landfill.

The $1.38 million first phase in-cludes a 600-by-300-foot concrete slab, a connecting road to Hammond and a storm water detention basin. The $760,962 second phase includes 26-foot-wide perimeter roads and a student parking area. Work was par-tially completed this fall before win-ter and is continuing.

“We met with lots of different constituents both for input and as sounding boards,” said Allen. “We wanted to know we were building the right facility.”

Kroenecke said the driving course is designed with some inclines, a train crossing, an adjustable height underpass, and a number of right and left turns.

He noted that the center will have space and amenities for driver train-ing far beyond trucks. It could also serve the needs of police, firefighters and emergency medical services.

Other planned or proposed train-ing programs would be for drivers of school buses, motorcycles, snow-mobiles, all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes.

Along with the roads and parking areas, the center would include un-paved open areas for some of these uses.

A final phase of the center that has not yet come before the board for ap-proval would consist of a classroom building and a semi-tractor parking area.

“We’re seeking funding right now for that building and equipment,” said Allen. “We’re kind of in a hold-ing pattern until we identify the funding.”

One aspect of the growing pro-gram doesn’t require an open park-ing lot or miles of highway when students get behind the wheel. The college purchased two driving sim-ulators that students began using when classes started in the fall.

Those will be located at the cen-ter when the building is complete, and more simulators would be pur-chased. The equipment may also be used for training programs that will be added beyond truck driving.

Users sit on a bucket seat in front of a steering wheel, dashboard and stick shift. The simulator’s screen is

designed to look like a truck’s wind-shield and side windows.

Scenarios allow students to experi-ence driving with all kinds of weath-er, road conditions, terrain and truck variables.

Scenarios can even slow down reaction times to reflect drunken driving. After each session, an as-sessment of the students’ driving is printed out, showing anything they did wrong.

Using the simulators saves the cost of fuel as well as wear and tear on the trucks. It also helps students to more quickly master skills like shifting that they would otherwise work on while in the cab of an actual truck.

“When we all started, we all hit things,” said Austin Spencer, who was part of the first class to use the simulators. “Simulators are a great way to show if you get on ice how to get out of a skid.”

Last month, he finished the 16-week truck driving course and earned a Class A commercial driver’s license plus endorsements for driving a school bus and a variety of trucks.

Classmate Tammy Cornwell “rolled a truck on a mountain” dur-ing one of the simulations. Initially training on the simulator “was a great way to make a mistake the first time,” she said. F

BRANDON POLLOCK / COuRieR StAff PhOtOgRAPheRRavello Manzinillo, seated at right, with fellow student Shawn healey looking on, begins a driving scenario in one of the truck driving simulators used for truck driver training at hawkeye Community College.


"Building Something Greater" • �

WO-042911110

By KRISTIN [email protected]

WAVERLY — Students flock to Wartburg College’s biology depart-ment because of what the program offers and what it can lead to.

The national average for students getting into a medical school is 46 percent. Wartburg’s is double that — 92 percent. Its graduates also have one of the highest accep-tance rates among those who ap-ply to the University of Iowa Col-lege of Medicine.

Historically, every Wartburg graduate who applied got into a dentistry, optometry, podiatry, oc-cupational therapy, nursing, medi-cal technology and chiropractic medicine program.

“The acceptance rate is absolutely fantastic,” said Ann Henninger, a biology professor and department chair.

Biology students, the largest ma-jor of Wartburg’s 2010-11 enroll-ment, are apparently well-prepared

for a wide array of careers, varying from the health professions to re-search to biotechnology.

“Wartburg’s mission is to chal-lenge and nurture students, and that’s what we do,” Henninger said.

Ready for successWartburg has a long list of na-

tional and regional recognition. The college was one out of about 200 U.S. colleges and universities offering outstanding undergradu-ate programs in the sciences and mathematics listed in a recent edi-tion of Peterson’s Top Colleges for Science.

Hyerim Stuhr, a senior biochem-istry major from Eagle River, Alas-ka, chose Wartburg because of the school’s reputation.

“It was recommended to me by a family in Germany, and I wanted to explore the Midwest region,” she said.

Kylie Ebner, a senior in the biol-ogy program from Gillette, Wyo.,

Wartburg produces top-notch med students

RICK CHASE / CouRIER StAff PHotogRAPHERWartburg College biology students Kylie Ebner, left, and Hyerim Stuhr observe fungi under a microscope during a microbiology class.


10 • "Building Something Greater"

chose Wartburg because she loved the biology and athletic programs.

Stuhr and Ebner both intend to continue on to medical school.

Wartburg professors have several ways they ensure their students are not only ready, but successful in medical school.

“We work from the time they enter the door, from the time they send in their application,” said Da-vid McClung, a biology professor and premed adviser.

On- and off-campus research in biology, hands-on projects, inde-pendent research and a small-col-lege environment are just some of the reasons Wartburg’s biology de-partment is so successful.

“Relative to big schools, our stu-dents tend to get a wider array of experience that the med schools seem to find relevant,” associate professor of biology Edward West-en said.

Most students seeking medical school are working as certified nursing assistants at hospitals dur-ing their undergraduate years.

Students often participate in ser-vice trips in the U.S. and around the world where they work with patients during a critical time in their lives, which provides “good experience for being a doctor,” Westen said.

Students seeking entry into med-ical school or other health careers are required to take the Medical College Admission Test. In order to heighten preparation, Westen instituted an MCAT review course in 2003.

“We couldn’t just rest on a stron-ger reputation anymore,” he said.

Medical school has become more competitive, particularly at the University of Iowa, when the medical program began accepting students from all around the coun-try and around the world, accord-ing to Westen.

Schools in Iowa began putting more emphasis on the MCAT to differentiate curriculums from different institutions. The course at Wartburg assists students in obtaining letters of references, re-viewing different sciences, writing and test-taking practice and other

necessary preparations for medical school entry.

“It gives students a good clue of how well they are going to per-form,” McClung said.

Gross anatomy, a class typically required for doctoral health pro-fessions, uses dissection as one of the most common methods of study.

Wartburg opened a cadaver lab for courses in anatomy and physi-ology courses, taught by Westen, in the Wartburg Science Center in 2005.

Students who have previously taken the course are chosen to be in charge of dissecting and work-ing with current students. There is only one cadaver and anywhere from 50 to 80 students taking the class per year.

“There is more to the program. … It’s getting good grades,” said Roy Ventullo, director of under-graduate research and microbiol-ogy lab professor.

Med school students receive an honor ranking for a class instead of an A, and a pass ranking for a B. Around 11 percent of students typically honor a class. For the past five years in a row, a Wartburg graduate has honored gross anato-my in med school.

“To honor the class is saying something, something we are pret-ty pleased about,” Westen said.

Last year five students attended the University of Iowa, receiving a total of about 18 honors in their first year of med school.

Advising also is an integral part of the curriculum. Advisers at Wartburg take an honest approach to prepare students for medical school, according to McClung.

“Every year advisers check where they need to be. It helps students have a realistic view of their odds of getting in,” he said.

Each student is assigned an ad-viser who is an expert in his or her particular area of study. A new adviser is assigned if the student changes careers. Advisers help build schedules for students and

obtain educational experiences outside the classroom.

Wartburg offers an environment to prepare students for what is coming next. Preparation in gen-eral biology creates competitive students for medical school and problem-based learning in the lab sharpens critical thinking skills, according to McClung.

“We work hard so they aren’t wondering what to do when they graduate,” McClung said.

“We really don’t want the stu-dent to get to their senior year and wonder “What am I going to do? I didn’t get into medical school.” I think that’s where a lot of other places fall down on the job.”

Students are fully equipped with classroom experience and hands-on work by the time they leave Wartburg.

“We’re really proud of the pro-gram we have and the people that go on. We continue to get such positive feedback that we know we’re doing the right thing,” Hen-ninger said. F

WO-042911030WO-042911030

“Relative to big schools, our students tend to get a wider array of experience that the med schools seem to find relevant.”

Dr. Edward Westenassociate professor of biology

RICK CHASE / CouRIER StAff PHotogRAPHERRoy Ventullo discusses mold and fungi during his microbiology class at Wart-burg College in Waverly.


By AMIE [email protected]

CEDAR FALLS — If you’re look-ing for live music, you really don’t have to look a lot further than the Cedar Valley.

Every weekend, local and region-al acts compete for time at one of the several venues in Waterloo and Cedar Falls, and every couple of weeks they’re battling against na-tional acts as well.

In February, for instance, McEl-roy Auditorium in Waterloo wel-comed host hip-hop superstar Nelly, while the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls featured country sensa-tion Miranda Lambert. And goof-ball national comedian Tom Green entertained audiences at Joker’s in Cedar Falls.

Last month featured comedian and movie star Pauly Shore, rock band Buckcherry and Christian artist TobyMac.

No matter what you’re into, or-ganizers and venue operators say

you’re likely to find it without hav-ing to drive for hours.

And that’s a welcome change.“Right now, we’re definitely see-

ing a better upward trend for 2011,” said Jennifer Bloker, marketing and special event coordinator for McElroy.

In the past, McElroy was hurt by the economy and because it was contractually obligated to work only with one promoter, said Blok-er. Now, things have changed.

“There’s more bookings, more in-terest, people are spending money, promoters are less scared about booking events,” she said.

At the Gallagher-Bluedorn Per-forming Arts Center in Cedar Falls, booking first-run Broadway shows and attracting big-name artists and concerts is the name of the game.

And while executive director Steve Carignan can’t say yet who he’s signed up for next season, which starts in the fall, he’s excited about the lineup.

Venues draw national, local crowd-pleasers

RICK CHASE / CouRIER StAff PHotogRAPHERSteve Carignan, assistant vice president and executive director of the gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, Cedar falls, says “success breeds success” as far as entertainment in the Cedar Valley.

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2011 PROGRESS EDITION "Building Something Greater" • 11


“Success breeds success,” Carignan said.

And how did Gallagher-Blue-dorn become so successful in just 11 years?

“I think we’re brave,” he said. “I think we do diverse presentations. We have lots of audiences. We’re not just playing to one crowd, which you have to do in a smaller market.”

McLeod, which saw success with its recent Bob Dylan concert, is look-ing to get in the game of concerts whenever athletic schedules permit, said Andre Seoldo, who has been assistant athletic director for just a few months but has already booked the TobyMac and Miranda Lambert

tours.“Hopefully, in my time here, we

can start off strong with these two concerts,” Seoldo said. “You put on a good show, word starts spreading — ‘Hey, McLeod Center can do a good concert.’”

When it comes to local and region-al bands, local bars have mixed feel-ings on the live music scene.

Cody Winther, co-owner of Spic-oli’s in Waterloo, and Marcus Kjeld-sen, owner of The Hub in Cedar Falls, both lamented the rise of the cover or tribute band to the detri-ment of songwriters — though they admitted bands that trade on Johnny Cash, Sublime or REO Speedwagon

do draw large crowds.“Certainly there’s plenty of original,

good music out there,” Winther said. “But from my standpoint, (there’s) not that many bands that come out now that I’m really pumped about.”

Kjeldsen noted a lot of original music was coming out of the Uni-versity of Northern Iowa’s music department, well-known bands like Bob Dorr and the Blue Band were still out there and groups from the Twin Cities and elsewhere regularly descend upon the Cedar Valley.

“Big things are on the horizon for entertainers like Heatbox, Down Lo and Roster McCabe,” Kjeldsen wrote in an e-mail. “Those would be the

three original bands to watch for in 2011 when it comes to music out-side the area. I would throw the Iowa City-based Uniphonics into that cat-egory as well.”

Jameson’s is one of a growing num-ber of live music establishments in downtown Waterloo that offers live, local music without a cover.

And while general manager Shay-lin Marti said that makes it tough to get steady crowds on the week-ends, she’s never at a loss for booking bands.

“There’s so many good, talented musicians in this area. ... To get a new one, I kind of have to bump one of the old ones,” she said. F

By TINA [email protected]

WATERLOO — Commercial real estate remains solid as the Ce-dar Valley continues to be sheltered from national trends.

The area has seen its share of resi-dential property foreclosures, but very few on the commercial side, said Jim Sulentic of Sulentic-Fischels Commercial Group.

The past couple of years “have been fantastic,” said Sulentic, who purchased the company three years ago. Interest rates have been at his-toric lows.

Iowa Realty Commercial saw a 20 percent improvement over 2009, ac-cording to Fred Miehe Jr.

Using an annual baseline of 50 deals, retail made up slightly more than 40 percent, office transactions 30 percent and industrial 20 percent at Iowa Realty. The other 10 percent was land and bare ground. About half were sales and half leases.

“We really had the entire spec-trum of real estate covered,” Miehe said. “That’s kind of how the market breaks down, too, so it was well rep-resented.”

Multifamily and industrial ware-house space are particularly strong. The area is lacking industrial space, Sulentic said. Recently a Des Moines client needing 20,000 to 30,000 square feet had only a couple of

buildings from which to choose.The floods and tornados of 2008

and a down economy have been linked to more families renting rath-er than buying, he added. Nine 12-plex buildings have been added as part of a tax credit project near Tar-get in Waterloo.

“There’s very little vacancy in apart-ments,” Sulentic said.

Miehe said the increase in the retail sector indicates a rebound nation-ally. The coming of Dick’s Sporting Goods, which opened in the Cross-roads area last fall, had been in the works for about four years as com-pany officials went back and forth. Now, Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts and craft store is relocating into adjacent space.

But Jo-Ann’s moving is good and

bad, Miehe said. Another empty storefront in the former Kmart shopping center leaves a problem for someone else.

“Their rents will go up significantly in their new spot, but they recognize that their revenues are going to ex-ponentially go up as well,” he said. “There’s a lot of synergy on Flam-mang (Drive) in that corridor.”

Cedar Falls is trying to re- create that power center with the development at Viking Road and Iowa Highway 58. Blain’s Farm & Fleet, Walmart and Target will soon be joined by Scheels, which has an-nounced plans to merge its current stores in Waterloo and Cedar Falls to a new free-standing building at Vi-king Plaza.

However, that doesn’t mean Cross-

roads is going away, Miehe said. The south Waterloo market is anchored by U.S. Highways 218 and 20, as well as Covenant Medical Center, Hawkeye Community College and John Deere. According to Miehe, the hospital brings 385,000 people into Black Hawk County annually.

Sulentic said developments along San Marnan, including the reloca-tion of Kimball & Beecher Fam-ily Dentistry’s new office, will add to Tower Park.

The University of Northern Iowa and the industrial park are motors driving new rooftops in Cedar Falls.

The Cedar Valley offers affordable rents and as much market punch as Des Moines, Cedar Rapids or Iowa City. Plus, the area doesn’t share a market, as Iowa City and Coralville, Miehe noted. Waterloo got the first Dillards and Home Depot in the state.

“I think the attitude of the people in business is good,” Miehe said. “Typical Midwesterners — they’re optimistic, but they’re guarded.”

Moves are being made also in downtown Waterloo, a proven hub for new restaurants after already be-ing the county center with the court-house and jail. Cedar Falls comple-ments its neighbor by attracting college students and out of towners. Nearly all of its Main Street store-fronts are full. F

Commercial property values remain strong

MATTHEW PUTNEY / CoUriEr PHoTo EdiTorFred Meihe Jr.’s real estate firm helped bring dick’s and Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts to the Crossroads area.


WO-042911116

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By JOHN [email protected]

WATERLOO — As new business-es sprouted in downtown Waterloo in 2010, other deep-rooted busi-nesses closed their doors.

La Chiquita Mexican grocery store and restaurant, 301 E. Fourth St., closed in September. Bev and Jesus Ayala opened the business as a gro-cery store in 1994 and expanded the business into a restaurant in 1998.

Jane Messingham, president of the Main Street Waterloo board, called the store and restaurant a “catalyst” for downtown redevelopment. An-other key business, Classic Kitchen and Bath, 220 E. Fourth St., closed in December.

A downtown landmark was re-vived when Newton’s Paradise Cafe, 128 E. Fourth St., opened in Sep-tember.

“Seeing people waiting for a ta-ble, that’s something we want to see downtown,” said Jeff Kurtz, Main Street Waterloo executive director.

“I’m glad I could be a part of this,” said Newton’s owner Blake Landau.

The restaurant brought new use to the historic, art deco-style building that formerly housed Newton’s Jew-elers. The building was renovated by JSA Development. The upstairs will house two apartments.

Those apartments will add to a growing number of residential spac-

es downtown. Renovation work of three new apartments at the Asquith Building, 217 Fourth St., was com-pleted in December. Work on seven apartments in the Repass building at 326-330 E. Fourth St., which also houses Bank Iowa, were recently completed.

Kurtz said the living space brings a third essential ingredient vital to a

vibrant downtown — residents.David Deeds, controller for JSA

and a member of the Waterloo Main Street board, said the new apart-ments are filling fast.

Kurtz said downtown has an ap-peal for people who want a taste of urban living.

“Waterloo gives you the sense of a city,” he said. “You got the size and scale of the buildings. I think a lot of people are looking for that.”

As some of the living space is still a way down the road, so are other developments. A new Thai restau-rant will be established by Baujong Wachkit and Wanida Thomas, own-ers of the former Thai Blessing II Go in Cedar Falls. The location at 624 Sycamore St. is under renova-tion and will open later this year. A new Western-themed bar and res-taurant is under construction at 303 W. Fourth St.

For 2011, developers have their sights set on drawing more retail to downtown, Messingham said. F

Cafe, apartments among downtown highlights

RICK CHASE / CouRIER StAff PHotogRAPHERJon Curtis delivers two lunch orders at Newton’s Paradise Cafe, which opened in 2010 in downtown Waterloo.


14 • "Building Something Greater" 2011 PROGRESS EDITION

By MELODY [email protected]

WATERLOO — Exposed duct-work. Upscale amenities. Industrial chic. The view.

More than that, it is the urban life-style that appeals to people who are moving into lofts and apartments in newly remodeled and renovated spaces in downtown Waterloo and Cedar Falls.

Mary Taylor likes the modern vibe that comes from downtown living. She moved into her loft at the cor-ner of Third and Main streets in Ce-dar Falls nine years ago.

“That was the early years of Cedar Falls’ renaissance, and it was fun to be where it was happening. I could watch it take place outside my win-dow. It’s great to live in a place where you have easy access to all your daily needs — the post office, bank, res-taurants, shopping — just by step-ping out your front door,” she said.

“There’s a kind of Norman Rock-well feeling to the Cedar Falls com-munity, and I think Waterloo is get-ting to that point, too.”

For downtowns to be revital-ized and thrive, it takes people liv-ing there, said Vern Nelson III, vice president of development for Nel-son Properties-Midtown Develop-ment.

“An upscale, urban lifestyle is something Waterloo, in general, has lacked. That’s changing as more renovations take place. It’s a lifestyle that appeals to young professionals, but there’s also interest from other age groups, including people who want to downsize,” Nelson said.

“Even on the retail side, we’re see-ing interest from different types of merchants we didn’t see before.”

The Nelson group has com-pleted renovations to seven of 10 two-bedroom apartments in the historic Black’s Building, creating open spaces with character-rich tall ceilings, exposed beams and wood floors. On the flip side, the lofts have all the modern amenities, including geothermal heating and cooling.

Nelson is pleased by interest in the apartments, located on the Park Avenue side of the Sycamore Street building. “People are moving in. Apartments on the second floor have been occupied since June. Three on the mezzanine got occu-pancy in December,” he said.

Three more one-bedroom apart-ments are expected to be finished by spring 2012.

Living downtown “puts you close to entertainment, restaurants, night-life. The development of commercial spaces draws people downtown, so why not live and work there?” said Kristina Miller, director of market-ing and projects for JSA Develop-ment Co.

JSA recently completed three apartments on the second floor of the former Asquith Jewelers build-ing, 217 W. Fourth St.

Worth about $1 million, the reno-vation includes one upstairs apart-ment with about 1,200 square feet of space and two other spaces mea-suring about 600 square feet.

A staircase and stained glass win-dows are among vintage features re-stored in the building.

Seven second- and third-floor lofts and studios in the Repass Building,

626 E. St., were recently completed, Miller said. “And they’re going fast. These are not cookie-cutter spaces — each one has its uniqueness, and we put in granite countertops, stain-less steel appliances and polished concrete floor.”

Lofts on the second floor of the Haffa building on East Fourth Street, and the third-floor apartments in the Fowler building at East Fourth Street and Lafayette Street, also de-veloped by JAS, are all occupied.

Cedar Falls Community Main Street’s Upstairs Downtown has helped showcase the several dozen lofts, apartments and second-floor offices in the Main Street District since 2002. Executive director Marabeth Soneson believes the event fosters excitement about liv-ing in a downtown setting. “There are lots of preconceptions or mis-conceptions about these spaces, and people often are really sur-prised by what they look like in-side. These renters are different, a little older, more established in their careers. It’s much more an ex-ecutive lifestyle than it was 20 years ago,” she said.

Julie and Andy Shimek live in a loft above Vintage Iron, Julie’s home

decor store, on the Cedar Falls’ Parkade. Both Andy, a blacksmith/artisan and Julie are hands-on types who had dreamed for years about transforming two old apartments into a single, cosmopolitan loft.

“Everyone told us to put the bed-room on the back of the space so we wouldn’t hear traffic noises. We wanted an open kitchen and living room, and a view of the river from the living room, not the bedroom, so the bedroom went to the front of the loft,” she said in CV Home & Garden magazine.

Renovation of the lower level of Humble Travel and the building housing Scratch bakery encour-aged Gregg and Arlene Humble to gut three upstairs apartment and create two lofts. “We were updat-ing the electrical, plumbing, heat-ing and cooling, so we decided we might as well do the upstairs, too. We want to make our units attrac-tive to working professionals and executives who want to live down-town and not worry about mainte-nance like mowing the yard,” said Gregg Humble.

Both spaces are energy-efficient and filled with amenities fitting for a downtown lifestyle. F

Downtown housing hitting lofty ambitions

BRANDON POLLOCK / COuRieR StAff PhOtOgRAPheRthe Shimek loft apartment overlooking the Cedar River on the Cedar falls Parkade is an example of urban living that is sparking interest among residents and newcomers.

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By PAT [email protected]

WATERLOO — John Deere’s Waterloo operations definitely will be building something greater in 2011.

New products. New construc-tion. New hires. But the same com-mitment to quality and community that the city’s largest private em-ployer has displayed thoughout its 90-plus years in the Cedar Valley.

Not that the company was in a bad spot to begin with here. In fact, the large row-crop tractors manu-factured at the company’s Waterloo operations — still the largest trac-tor-manufacturing operation in the world — contributed mightily to a strong finish for the fiscal year that ended Oct. 31.

The company posted re-cord fourth-quarter net income — $457.2 million — reversing a $222.8 million fourth- quarter op-erating loss a year earlier. Deere

New products have Deere running strong

Courtesy photoJohn Deere operator Lyle Gibbs uses electronic gauging equipment to perform a quality inspection on an Interim tier 4 9.0 liter engine at John Deere’s Waterloo operations.



had the second-best earnings year in company history, at nearly $1.87 billion. Fourth-quarter sales of agricultural and turf division equipment — including Water-loo-made tractors — increased 33 percent.

Instrumental in that perfor-mance was the introduction of the new Waterloo-designed and

manufactured 8R series tractors. And Deere will be building even bet-ter ones in 2011, said Thad Nevitt, factory manager at Deere’s Waterloo operations.

New and im-proved R series tractors were scheduled to hit

the market just prior to spring planting, Nevitt said, and the com-pany has high expectations that this year’s crop of big-boy tractors will be even more popular with farmers.

“That’s been a very successful product for us,” Nevitt said. “The changes were well received by our customers. And we’ve announced there’ll be a new version of 8R coming out meeting all emissions requirements.” We expect that to be very successful too.”

To put those products out, Deere has to put “in” to its facilities. “We’re committed to investing in our factories here in Waterloo, and worldwide too, to make sure we re-main competitive,” Nevitt said. It’s done as products are added, and “it also gives you an opportunity to make improvements in your operations, provide higher qual-ity for the customer. That’s what John Deere’s all about. We take those opportunities to improve our business and our product and really develop a great product for our customers.”

For decades, Deere’s tractor op-erations were concentrated at one location on Westfield Avenue, the original location of the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co., which the company purchased in 1918.

While Deere’s Waterloo opera-

tions today are spread out over multiple plants throughout the metro area — the Westfield site still being one — “we’re pretty inte-grated,” Nevitt said. “From found-ry to drivetrain to tractor cab, it’s not that far.”

The Waterloo operations produc-es the company’s 7000, 8R — for-merly known as 8000 — and 9000 series tractors. Plus the Deere En-gine Works produces engines for products companywide. “That’s an important part of the John Deere landscape here in Waterloo — a critical partner,” Nevitt said. “All of us really are on the same team here.”

Employment has remained steady over the past year. “We have been hiring,” Nevitt said. “Our numbers can ebb and flow up and down a little bit based on what’s going on at the time or the number of peo-ple retiring. We continue to hire to replace people. Overall, we’re pretty stable in terms of our work force and don’t anticipate anything major that will sway it significantly one way over the other.

“We’ve hired at least several hun-dred over the past year” to fill re-

tirements, he added.Additionally, the company, and

its employees, through “continu-ous improvement” teams, are looking at ways to make opera-tions more efficient — which can include bringing work back into the plant that has been outsourced or having that work performed by outside suppliers, including many local ones.

Deere is still in the middle of a major, $100 million multiyear im-provement to its Waterloo found-ry, Nevitt said, along with other improvements throughout the Waterloo operations. That comes on the heels of an estimated $125 million redevelopment of Deere’s drivetrain and tractor manufac-turing operations from 2000-07 and another $187 million invest-ment that began in 2008 to in-crease the manufacturing capacity of the Waterloo Works. That also doesn’t count a $17 million dona-tion of land, buildings and tech-nical assistance by Deere to cre-ate the Cedar Valley TechWorks ag product development complex on former Deere property at the Westfield site.

The company remains commit-ted to reinvesting in the Cedar Valley, Nevitt said. The company continues to find enough quality labor locally as well as recruiting qualified individuals to come to the community. The company’s reinvestment in “quality-of-life” community projects attracts and keeps people in the community, preserving and enhancing that la-bor pool.

For example, the John Deere Foundation recently announced it donated $2.5 million to the pro-posed SportsPlex recreation proj-ect in downtown Waterloo. Deere and its union-affiliated work force with United Auto Workers Lo-cal 838 teamed up to give more than $1 million to the Cedar Val-ley United Way for a third year in a row.

And the company is committed to establishing a tractor history museum in Waterloo, adjacent to the Cedar Valley TechWorks, an-ticipated for late this year. Recently retired Deere Waterloo operations general manager Dave Rodger will be instrumental in making that project happen. F

Thad Nevittfactory manager of Deere’s Waterloo

operations

courtesy photoJohn Deere operator Nathan sealman installs a timing gear cover on an Interim tier 4 9.0 liter engine at John Deere’s Waterloo operations.


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By HOLLY [email protected]

WATERLOO — Early last year, the Bosnian community in the Cedar Valley celebrated the 15th anniversary of refugee resettlement in Iowa. Marked with concerts and dance performances, the milestone gave the refugees the chance to show their pride in their heritage as well as revel in the accomplishments made since their arrival.

Since the resettlement, which brought more than 3,000 Bosnians to the area, as a group they have accomplished much. With such notables as artist Paco Rosic, of Galleria de Paco fame, and Anesa Kajtazovic, the first Bosnian-born American elect-ed to the Iowa Statehouse, among their ranks, the refugees have a lot to be proud of.

The first refugees arrived in the mid-’90s, fleeing the turmoil of a civil war, and were brought in to work at IBP Inc. Since then, many Bosnians have become business owners, pursued higher educa-tion and flourished in professional fields varying from medical to academic.

While IBP, now Tyson Fresh Meats, attracted a large number of Bosnian workers — at one time, about a third of Tyson’s Waterloo work force was Bosnian — others found ways of using their exist-ing skills to make a living in their new country and add to the local economy.

While living in Bosnia, Senad Dizdarevic worked with his father, who is a carpenter. When the war broke out, Dizdarevic fled to Germany and then to the United States with his wife and children. He spoke little English, but found employment in his field at Trost Designs and then at Prairie Cabinet Co. He took classes at Hawkeye Community Col-lege to improve his English.

In 2003, Dizdarevic opened his own business, Dizdarevic Construction.

“Ninety-eight percent of my business is word-of-mouth,” he said.

Dizdarevic employs other Bosnians, including his son, who was 7 when he came to America.

“Now he is 20,” Dizdarevic said. “He works with me a couple of days a week and goes to school at UNI. He studies accounting.”

The refugees have earned a reputation for close families, taking care of their homes and a strong work ethic.

Nermin Ferkic is an example of that work ethic and of the progress made by Bosnian refugees in the relatively short amount of time they have been in this country.

At age 23, Ferkic came to America after fighting in the war and being shuttled between four refugee camps over two years.

On March 6, 1997, he arrived with little money and speaking no English.

While many of his fellow refugees were taking entry-level jobs at IBP, Ferkic decided on another route.

“I never wanted to be average. I wanted some-thing different,” he said. “I would walk to Cove-nant every day and ask for a job.”

After his persistence won him a job as a custo-dian, Ferkic began taking classes at HCC.

Meanwhile, he taught himself English.Ferkic rode his bike to class every day, worked

multiple jobs and earned a degree in police sci-ence at HCC. He then went on to the University of Northern Iowa to study criminology.

Today, Ferkic has a master’s degree in communi-cations and public relations, is planning to pursue a doctorate in psychology, and works as the man-ager of public safety at HCC, as well as an adjunct teaching communications.

He became a U.S. citizen in 2003.“That was the greatest day of my life,” he said.“I try to tell young people what they can accom-

plish,” he said. “I always show them my paycheck. If you work hard, you can achieve anything.” F

Bosnian community thrivingBRANDON POLLOCK / COuRieR StAff PhOtOgRAPheR

Nermin ferkic is the manager of public safety at hawkeye Community College in Waterloo.




WATERLOO — It may not be ap-parent from a casual glance at the Cedar Valley TechWorks campus, but the process of molding the re-gion’s agricultural past and its tech-nological future into a vibrant busi-ness center is humming along in high gear, although the realities of the national economic downturn have altered its pace somewhat, its leaders say.

“We have adjusted, like many busi-nesses, to the path of the economy,” said Cary Darrah, TechWorks gen-eral manager.

The business of building Tech-Works continues. The last year brought its first tenant, as the Uni-versity of Northern Iowa’s National Ag-Based Lubricants Center moved into “Tech 1,” one of the two six-story buildings on a 40-acre site that Deere & Co. donated to the project.

The addition of NABL is emblem-atic of TechWorks’ potential role in the region’s economic might, said Terry Johnston, marketing and fa-cilities manager at TechWorks.

“As I travel around and talk to peo-ple in job-creation roles, they say if you’re going to grow, it has to be technology-focused,” he said. “That’s where the jobs are in the future, and that’s what TechWorks has to offer. We’ve got the building blocks to re-ally put Iowa on the map as it relates to biotechnology and ag-tech devel-opment.”

The public-private partnership that fuels TechWorks is central to its success, Johnston said.

“We need to make sure we engage our local elected officials,” he said. “We need to keep telling them the story and make sure everybody is aware of the many benefits and, of course, focus on agriculture com-modity groups. We’re trying to get ag business engaged, along with the bio economy and bio products industries because that’s where we feel we can recruit tenants. We want support from all the other organiza-

tions.”TechWorks organizers revised

their business plan in the last year in deference to certain economic re-alities, sharpening their focus on op-portunities in renewable energy and biotechnology, Darrah said.

“When we revised our business plan to adjust to the changes going on globally,” she said. “We recog-nized in our presentations to legisla-tors that the piece of the TechWorks project that was most exciting for them to get behind was the renew-able energy opportunities, and rightfully so. In including renewable energy projects, it (the Legislature) will support what’s going on with biotech and ag businesses, which can be supported by an over-arch-ing energy umbrella.”

That’s no real stretch for Tech-Works planners, Darrah said.

“We won’t be held to part of the market that isn’t appropriate at the moment,” she said. “We’ve always intended on being open to wherever the market will take us with respect to ag biotech and renwable energy.”

Through its ability to adjust, Tech-

Works has transcended the biofuels area, which remains a core business, Darrah said.

“With the revisions of the business plan, we’re now working with man-ufacturers in two renewable energy sources that are very interested in TechWorks,” she said.

She was referring to solar and wind energy.

“We have a have a viable relation-ship with solar and small wind man-ufacturers to use those on the cam-pus as a showplace, and people can see how they work,” Darrah said. “It’s a good opportunity to support biotech and ag businesses to provide resources for them to do business better.”

Darrah acknowledged that the pace of visible changes on the cam-pus has slowed in the last year or so. However, she also said the Tech 2 building also will be getting plenty of work over the next year or so, as work on Tech 1 proceeds apace.

“You don’t notice the tangible improvements like the extension of Commercial Street and clean-ing up the site,” she said. “But you

can’t ignore the fact that John Deere is making two major investments in their Waterloo facility, with the foundry and the Deere museum. While those aren’t TechWorks, the museum is on the campus and their investment in a location that’s near the project that is on the bubble to bust wide open is exciting.”

Deere’s ag-exhibit center has been scheduled to open by next fall, al-though no firm date has been set. Construction has not yet begun.

Dave Rodger, retired director for large tractors at Deere in Waterloo, is managing the project.

“This is an exciting time for Wa-terloo and the Cedar Valley,” Rodger said.

He added that the museum, along with other downtown projects like the Riverloop, the proposed Sports-Plex, TechWorks and the Waterloo Center for the Arts, “all work togeth-er to create an environment for suc-cess, investment, and job growth.”

“Now is the time to intensify the work to distinctively position the Cedar Valley for the future,” Rodger said. F

TechWorks envisions being regional power

COURTESY PHOTOThe Cedar Valley TechWorks campus, photographed in summer 2010.


WO-042911108

By JOSH [email protected]

WATERLOO — Anymore, it seems the only connection that can be considered hard-wired is the one between mobile phones and their users.

Movies, music, email, Facebook — it’s all a click away with a smart phone. No wires, brick, mortar or anything else. Just the cloud. It makes sense, then, that community banks are jumping into that cloud with mobile banking applications.

“It’s more just following what the industry is following,” said Susan Evans, chief operating officer at MidwestOne Bank.

MidwestOne is considering such a mobile application. The big boys — Citi Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and so on — all have ad-vanced mobile applications that mesh with their physical stores and online sites.

But several smaller community MATTHEW PUTNEY / CoUriEr PHoTo EdiTor

T8 Web Ware in Cedar Falls has been a leader in the development of software for mobile bank websites.

More banks adopting mobile phone apps



banks aren’t riding that wave yet. And many are still waiting for their surfboards to be built. One of those board manufacturers — T8 Web Ware in Cedar Falls — has been busy as more and more banks make the jump into the mobile market.

“Everything mobile is exploding right now,” said Wade Arnold, T8’s chief executive officer.

Arnold said mobile applications like banking are appealing for people because they often find themselves on the go, away from a computer or ATM, to find out how much money is in their accounts.

There are more than 230 million mobile phone subscribes nationwide, according to Fiserv Inc., a banking

technology company in Wisconsin. A survey of 3,000 of those subscrib-ers showed that 75 percent were in-terested in using a mobile service, Fiserv said.

T8 works with 230 banks or credit unions around the country, includ-ing Bank Iowa in Des Moines and Dubuque Bank and Trust. The com-pany works to bridge the gap be-tween the online and physical opera-tions banking by developing mobile applications. That includes access to accounts and more advanced fea-tures like text updates or person-alized financial tools to help track spending habits, he said.

That personalized aspect is where much of the industry is headed, Ar-

nold said.“Our biggest hurdle will be to keep

up with investments from compa-nies like Chase and Wells Fargo,” he said.

The increase in interest of mobile banking is pretty evident in the staff at T8. Of the 36 employees at the company, 13 were hired in the last year. The company also is looking to hire more in the near future, he said.

When a company looks to add the mobile option, the interest can be driven by a few different factors. One is industry trends. Another is customer requests. Veridian Credit Union had a combination of both when it launched its mobile appli-cation in August, said Eric Kinman,

Veridian’s communications man-ager.

Veridian put a lot of thought into mobile, however, before rolling it out.

“The industry is changing so fast and we try to be as current as we can without going down paths that don’t develop,” Kinman said.

Veridian’s mobile option doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles like the personalized banking, but there could be other services offered in the future. That incudes person-to-person fund transfers.

At MidwestOne, Evans said they’ll probably make a decision about their mobile operation within the next two months. F

By DENNIS [email protected]

CEDAR FALLS — In 1995, Burk “Skeet” Miehe and Ron Klein found-ed American Pattern & CNC Works in the Cedar Falls Industrial Park. The described goal at the time was to service production pattern tool-ing needs demanded by agricultural businesses and other industries.

Since then, a time line shows a steady expansion of available tech-nologies and facilities.

American Pattern started with a handful of employees in a build-ing covering 5,000 square feet. To-day, combined facilities in a number of locations include at least 70,000 square feet of space, and the business keeps about 65 workers busy.

Customers read like a who’s who of industry — John Deere, Caterpillar, Toro, Case IH, New Holland, Bobcat and Tenneco.

Miehe downplays his role in build-ing American Pattern into a power player.

“I’ve been fortunate to have some good contacts,” he says.

More to the point is what the com-pany offers, Miehe says: one-stop convenience for companies that don’t have time to fool around. From designing a concept to sculpting pat-terns to pouring castings, American Pattern’s technicians and workers

can carry a client’s project from start to finish.

“They get a finished, painted product fully machined,” says Fred Schulte, a supervisor and manager at American Pattern.

Speed and size also matter, Miehe adds. American Pattern likely has more computer numerical con-trolled machine tools — and prob-ably the largest — of any shop in the Midwest.

“We can turn around a prototype casting in a matter of days, and that has really opened doors big time,” he

says.Scott Hahn, a sales representative,

works with some of the company’s biggest clients. Over the years, he has seen how manufacturers rely on American Pattern to get from con-cepts to showrooms.

“They use us as a bridge between prototype and product,” Hahn says. “We’ll support them until produc-tion suppliers are up and running.”

He understands why they are inter-ested in taking research and develop-ment concepts to showroom models without delay.

“You’re trying to get to that product as fast as possible,” Hahn says.

When demand exceeds the plants’ capacities, Miehe turns to other ma-chine shops and foundries in North-east Iowa, like Denton Castings in Brandon.

“We keep it local,” he says.American Pattern’s arsenal also

includes cold-jet cleaning service, which blasts parts with crushed dry ice rather than sand. The ice cleans without damaging metal surfaces.

For some applications, the compa-ny also can turn to a water jet, which generates 60,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. The force is sufficient to cut through 12 inches of steel.

Miehe predicts 2011 will be an-other successful year. Beyond that, he is optimistic the company is on the right track: A second generation is getting ready to keep the company rolling.

Blake Miehe, 22, is a business ma-jor, and his sister, Beth, 20, is study-ing communications. Both work part time for their father and likely will play a larger role in the future.

“When they decided to come into the company, that was a big thing,” Miehe says.

American Pattern & CNC Works is at 5540 Westminster Drive in Ce-dar Falls. For sales, call 266-6651. For operations, call 268-2233. F

American Pattern molding a bright future

DENNIS MAGEE / CourIEr rEGIoNAl EDItorEric Masteller connects a set of molds crafted by workers at American Pattern & CNC Works in Cedar Falls. the company has shown steady growth since it was established in 1995.


"Building Something Greater" • 21

By JON [email protected]

WATERLOO — The story is as old as storytelling itself.

Man embarks on career, has a son and eventually the son takes over and follows in the footsteps of his father.

Even hunters and gatherers passed down their skills to their offspring. Through the ages, all sorts of fam-ily businesses have been passed on through generations, from black-smith shops to banks to grocery stores.

While today the job prospects are much more diverse, generational businesses still form the backbone of local economies. The Cedar Val-ley is no exception, as evident in nearly every sector of the economy.

To celebrate the tradition, we highlight a few of those businesses today in Progress.

Jim Mudd Sr. started his Ce-dar Falls advertising agen-cy in 1981, after he owned a radio station and worked with local auto dealerships.

The Mudd Group has grown up through the years, meeting the ad-vertising needs of 3,000 car dealers across the country. Today the com-pany employs 170.

Now the company’s founder has passed the primary management of the company on to his family. Jim Jr. serves as chief executive officer, Chris is president of Mudd Direct, and Rob heads up Mudd Hyper-casting, which focuses on online efforts.

Don Landau has been in the Cedar Valley food business for half of a century. He started out with a College Hill gro-

cery store before going into restau-rants. He launched The Other Place on College Hill before selling it to a friend. He opened another couple of places before settling on some of his primary claims to local fame: the Brown Bottle restaurants in Ce-dar Falls and Waterloo.

In the 1980s, the two Cedar Valley Brown Bottle locations were sold to his sons, Chuck in Waterloo and Jim in Cedar Falls. Jim and his wife, Jodi, added the Montage restaurant in downtown Cedar Falls. Chuck and his wife still own and operate both the Waterloo Brown Bottle and Doughy Joey’s Peetza Joynt. A third son, David, would later take over restaurants in the Iowa City area.

Don Landau said his boys started out doing dishes and put plenty of

time into the restaurants before eventually buying them.

“I pretty much started from the bottom and worked my way up,” said Jim Landau.

Chuck Landau’s sons have car-ried on the tradition. Mike Landau has the Doughy Joey’s restaurants in Waterloo and Cedar Falls, while Blake Landau operates Newton’s Paradise Café in Waterloo.

Today, the senior Landau op-erates the Highway 63 Diner in Waterloo and East Bremer

Diner in Waverly. “I was go-ing to retire, but decided I didn’t like that,” he said. “I don’t know what I would do.”

John Deery Sr.’s drive to succeed in the automo-tive business spawned a family business that stretches across gen-

erations and across the state. Deery started out with car deal-

erships in Illinois and Wisconsin before buying a Buick dealership in

Generational businesses at heart of community

DAWN J. SAGERT / CouRiER STAff PhoToGRAPhERPatrick Moore, left, and Mason Moore stand at overhead Door, their family owned-and-operated business in Waterloo.


Cedar Falls in the 1960s. His business ex-panded, and as his sons grew up, they fol-lowed him into the business.

Dan Deery and John Deery Jr. both oper-ate Cedar Valley car dealerships, and cousin Brad Deery operates another in Maquoketa. The group also owns other dealerships in Iowa City, Burlington and Mount Vernon.

The drive and work ethic passed down from John Deery Sr. has led directly to the success of all the Deery ventures, according to Dan.

“My dad worked harder than I ever did. My dad put us in the position we’re in,” he said.

Now a new crop of Deerys are in the busi-ness, with Dan’s son D.J. set to graduate from the University of Northern Iowa in the spring and go to work full time in the busi-ness. D.J.’s younger brothers are both in col-lege and work part time at the business. In addition, John Deery’s son, Johnny, works with his dad.

Dan Deery knew the car business was for him and he went straight to work. While his sons have worked at the dealership for years, he wanted them to have options.

“I really wanted my boys to go to college. Then they could decide for themselves if the car business is right for them,” he said.

Young Plumbing and Heating has been passed down through genera-tions in not only one, but two fami-lies. The business can trace its roots back to the 1880s, when the Young

Coal Co. sold coal, later branching out to har-vest, store and sell ice from the Cedar River. Young Heating Co. was established in 1943 by Bob and Dick H. Young.

The business eventually was incorporated in 1968, with employee Arnold Becker joining the Youngs in owning the business.

Mark Tink, Becker’s son-in-law, now serves as company president. Before him, Rick Young operated the company, and Rick’s son, Travis, also is in the business.

“Transitions have been very smooth,” Tink said.

Like most generational businesses, the young-er sons at Young learn the business from the ground up, or in this case sometimes even low-er.

“Typically they start in the trades and they work from the bottom up,” Tink said. “They start off in the ditch or whatever the trade re-quires.”

Ace Fogdall RV can trace its origins back to 1933 when its namesake started up the Black Hawk Cab company. The business morphed through those years from a cab

company to a car dealership. In 1963, Fogdall started selling recreational

vehicles out of its longtime location on Univer-sity Avenue.

Current owner Jim Fogdall got into the busi-ness in 1970 and eventually moved it to its cur-rent, high-profile spot at Iowa Highway 58 and Ridgeway Avenue in Cedar Falls in 2004. Jim’s daughter, Sara Miller, serves as office manager at the dealership.

The automotive business is filled with family history. Rydell Chevrolet first opened its doors in Waterloo in 1984. Jim Rydell learned the business from his father, Leonard Rydell. Leon-

ard had started in the business in the 1940s in Montgomery, Minn. Leonard Rydell would move to Grand Forks, N.D., to operate a Chev-rolet dealership there and in years since, the Rydells have had a hand in opening nearly 70 dealerships in 11 states.

Jim Rydell now owns dealerships in Waterloo, Center Point and Cedar Rapids, all operating on the no-haggle, Best Price Up Front policy. These days Jim’s daughter, Krissy, and her hus-band, Matt Kalbur, have been working in the family business since 2006.

It would be nearly impossible to get any-where without using the fruits of the labor of Peterson Contractors Inc. The Reinbeck company does heavy construction work stretching from Reinbeck to all parts of

Iowa and well beyond. Its earth moving formed the base for much of the network of roads we drive on every day.

Cordell Peterson started the company in 1964 and was later joined by Gale “Cork” Peterson. The two company leaders are unrelated, each have sons who grew up in the business and re-main major components to this day. Cordell Peterson’s boys, Mark and Mike, are joined by Todd Peterson, Cork’s son.

“They all worked there in high school and have ever since,” Cork Peterson said.

Patrick Moore’s grandfather, Elmo Moore, established the Overhead Door Co. of Waterloo in 1957. The business started out selling win-dows and overhead doors, but soon

narrowed the focus to just the overhead door aspect.

In the early years, it started at 311 W. Mul-lan Ave., in the basement of Elmo’s father’s coal business. As the business grew, it moved to lo-cations a location on 15th Street and eventu-ally to its current location at 800 Commercial St.

By 1985, Elmo Moore retired and turned it over to Patrick. Patrick’s son, Mason, grew up around the business, sweeping up the shop and doing odd jobs around the building.

“Everybody starts out working until you learn the trade, until you can do all the aspects yourself,” Patrick Moore said. Such was the case with him and with Mason.

By 2000, Mason moved up to vice president and these days he is president of the compa-ny as Patrick phases himself out of the busi-ness. But even as he runs the company, Mason Moore stays true to his roots.

“I still sweep the shop,” he said.

Gary Bertch started making cabi-nets with his brother in 1973. A few years later Gary bought out his brother’s share of the business and Bertch Cabinet Manufactur-

ing was officially born in 1977. Since then, the cabinet company has grown, becoming one of Waterloo’s largest manufacturing employers and adding additional facilities in Jesup and Oelwein.

In 2001, Gary and his wife, Becky, opened Lost Island Water Park to the public. Their son, Eric Bertch, now serves as general man-ager of Lost Island Waterpark.

Witham Auto dealerships in the Cedar Valley gave way to the latest generation more than five years ago. At that time, broth-ers Jason and Jeremy Witham

joined with a partner, Tim Godfrey, and bought the business from Dick Witham. Now the team reserves an office for Dick, but the business is wholly owned and run by the new generation.

Jason, the general manager, grew up in the business, first playing in the dealership on Sat-urday when he was young. When he grew up a little, he would mow lawns and wash the cars.

“I always envisioned myself being in the car business. I grew up in this environment,” With-am said.

Witham said he learned all about the business from his dad and enjoyed several years of work-ing side by side with him before the sale. F

2011 PROGRESS EDITION22 • "Building Something Greater"

WO-042911063

Historic Cedar Falls places get makeoversBy JON [email protected]

CEDAR FALLS — Even as the downtown Cedar Falls streetscape was still in planning, College Hill supporters wondered, “Why not us?”

Soon, College Hill’s version of extreme makeover will be com-plete, leaving two historic Ce-dar Falls business districts with a brand-new charm.

Former Community Main Street Director Marabeth Sone-son thinks merchants on College Hill will feel a big difference with the new look.

Rose Lorenz, president of Uni-versity Book and Supply, said cus-tomers struggling to work their way through construction this summer were already starting to share positive comments on the streetscape. The street reconstruc-tion and beautification efforts on College Hill began way back in 2008 and will be completed in coming months.

“We’re sure in the long run it will make a big difference,” Lorenz said of the project.

Lori Vest of the Henry W. Myr-tle Gallery agreed.

“It looks absolutely beautiful. We can’t wait until springtime when they get started on the plantings,” Vest said.

Work continues on the College Hill streetscape in the spring, as the brick sidewalks will continue to be installed west of University Book and Supply on 23rd Street. After that, further aesthetics will be completed, like flower and tree plantings.

“Hopefully as soon as we get de-cent weather we can get out and get this done,” said city engineer Dave Lipinski.

Downtown Cedar Falls has been reaping the benefits since its streetscape was finished in 2004.

Soneson frequently hears about the importance of a business dis-trict’s appearance in conferences and workshops she attends. It

bodes well for the Parkade, where Soneson often hears compliments for the area’s aesthetics.

“It makes all the difference in the world,” Soneson said. “How a place looks is so important to its success.”

The signature mark of the down-town streetscape is the red bricks used for sidewalks and cross-walks.

David Sturch of the city’s plan-ning staff said the bricks have held up well, not often needing repair. Just this summer the bricks were cleaned and sealed, the first reg-ular maintainance to be done on them since the project was com-pleted.

But other aspects of the down-town streetscape also add to the atmosphere downtown. For ex-ample the lightposts bring a more classic design, avoiding the utili-tarian look of regular aluminum poles. And public art pieces in-corporated into the project often draw attention, particularly from visitors from outside the commu-nity.

“We feel very fortunate to have that aspect. It’s not something every downtown has,” Soneson said.

While the physical improve-ments downtown have added pi-zazz, volunteers ensure the dis-trict stays vibrant. Community Main Street changes banners on display up and down the Parkade several times each year. Volun-teers combine to spend about 40 hours on each changeover.

Keeping trees alive and thriving in a high-traffic area has proven a challenge. F

‘‘It looks absolutely beautiful. We can’t wait until springtime when they get started on the plantings.”

Lori VestHenry W. Myrtle Gallery

BRANDON POLLOCK / COuRIeR StAff PHOtOGRAPHeRCollege Hill has been dressed up as the new streetscape has taken shape. New ban-ners beckon visitors to “Head for the Hill.”


WO-042911063

WO-042911063




WATERLOO — Many Cedar Valley residents don’t have to go far from home to hear the happy sounds of cash-register beeps and bells.

Some neighborhood shopping districts continue to thrive across generations. Others have seen down periods but are climbing back to success levels of yore.

“I think all these economic groups are important to the local economy in general,” said Bob Seymour, com-munity services manager for the city of Cedar Falls, which numbers College Hill and Thunder Ridge among some of its successful neigh-borhood business clusters. “When they’re successful, it seems to have a spinoff effect.”

The so-called “big-box” stores and shopping malls are natural — and important — draws to shoppers, but the traditional neighborhood merchants play roles that the bigger businesses can’t.

“You need the mom-and-pop specialty stores, where you can get something different you’re not go-ing to find at the mall,” Seymour said.

College HillCollege Hill is a good example,

Seymour said. Efforts are under way to help the area adjacent to the University of Northern Iowa cam-pus evolve to meet the needs of resi-dents as well as students.

The city views College Hill as a destination point for families, in a variety of retail shops and restau-rants, as well as the traditional stu-dent-oriented venues.

“To be honest, the biggest chal-lenge I see there is getting new in-vestment,” Seymour said. “They’ve been kind of in transition the last couple of years.”

The city is working to get College Hill designated as an urban-renew-al area, not unlike its work on behalf of the city’s downtown shopping district a couple of decades ago,

Seymour said.That would put the district in line

for grants and incentives that could propel growth.

More than $1 million already has been spent on streetscape projects on College Hill.

“We can sit here and do nothing, but we see what can happen when you do that: not a whole lot,” he said.

A newly formed organization, the College Hill Partnership, is working to build the area, said Darin Beck, CEO of Barmuda Cos., which oper-ates a restaurant/bar in the neigh-borhood.

“There has been a tremendous coming-together of the neighbor-hood,” Beck said. “It’s working out nicely.”

Thunder RidgeThe Thunder Ridge shopping dis-

trict, on the northwestern edge of Cedar Falls, is comparatively new, having sprung up in the last 30 years amid a cluster of new housing developments.

The Thunder Ridge Plaza now has 24 tenants, “which is more than

we’ve had in years,” said Jim Benda, a broker for Lockard Realty, which leases space to a variety of business-es there.

“We’ve done some remodeling along the way,” Benda said. “We’re providing a turnkey space for the tenant, and it’s all-inclusive leasing that covers their utilities, tax contri-bution, everything. That’s been very popular.”

Thunder Ridge has a need for more restaurants and service-ori-ented businesses.

That’s bound to happen, once the economy rebounds, Benda said.

“I think the market is still spooked a little bit,” he said. “The bigger companies aren’t expanding yet, and the small ones can’t neces-sarily afford some of the rents for strip spaces.”

But the strip mall and the area surrounding it are healthy, Benda said.

“It’s a pretty convenient spot for the neighborhood,” he said.

Kimball RidgeWaterloo also boasts a number

of thriving neighborhood business

districts. Merchants say accessibil-ity and customer loyalty go hand in hand.

Kimball Ridge, clustered around the intersection of Kimball and Ridgeway avenues on Waterloo’s west side, is growing. A new Cabin Coffee business just opened, and the long-established men’s cloth-ing store Palace Clothiers opened there in February.

“I think it’s a very positive area, and there’s continued growth in that area,” said Steve Volz, co-own-er of Palace Clothiers. “There’s a good mix of merchants. One of the biggest things about retail is that retail follows people. When there are stores in a convenient area and a residential area, there are people that are going to be attracted to go there.”

Aram Susong, co-owner of Fac-ets by Susong and a spokesman for the Kimball Ridge Association, agreed the mix of businesses is a key to success.

“I think the strength is our diverse business group,” he said. “We’ve got everything from medical to profes-sional businesses to a lot of retail

Neighborhood business districts flourish

DAWN J. SAGERT / CouRiER STAff PhoToGRAPhERKimbly Baker shops at hometown foods in Waterloo earlier this month.



and restaurant-type businesses. You can get everything need to get done in a small neighborhood-type set-ting.”

Logan PlazaThat assessment also applies to

Waterloo’s other neighborhood business districts, such as the Logan Plaza area, said Aric Schroeder, Wa-terloo city planner.

“We’ve been working very dili-gently to try and get additional development in there,” Schroeder said. “We continue to work with landowners in the area to try and encourage infill development and redevelopment.”

The Waterloo City Council has looked to help the area by creating a tax-increment financing district encompassing property on both sides of Logan Avenue from Don-ald Street north to Ralston Road.

Hy-Vee has a new, larger store in the neighborhood, and nearby Al-len Hospital has gone through some major renovations. A new Wal-greens and a physician’s clinic are just east of the shopping center.

The newest project in the neigh-borhood is a 5,600-square-foot strip mall that Subway restaurant fran-chisees Kevin Loy and Bob Denny have built on the northwest corner of U.S. 63 and Heath Street, just north of the Logan Avenue Hy-Vee across the street from Logan Plaza.

“I guess we’ve been there 18 years in the other location, and it has proved to be a very good store for us and very good area,” he said. “We’re confident it’s going to stay that way and probably get better. We look at the new Hy-Vee store and gas sta-tion. There’s new Dollar General and Family Dollar coming in down the road. It’s a very vital part of the town.”

The Highway 63 Gateway Com-munity Development Corp. has placed development of the Logan Plaza area at the top of its to-do list.

The organization has seen prog-ress, with the construction of a new Subway restaurant among the latest developments, said Morgan Wortham, executive director of the GCDC.

“Things have been looking good for us over the past few months,”

Wortham said. “I’ve been very op-timistic, as far as retail business has been there for activity in that area. I think there’s been some difficult times, but over the last couple of years, we’ve been trying to promote more business, and we’re interested in more activity along that corri-dor.”

Would-be occupants of space around Logan Plaza have come for-ward to express interest, Wortham said.

“We’re going to see more activ-ity with some retailers this coming spring, so we’re seeing interest pick-ing up that we haven’t seen before,” Wortham said.

Menard’s owns land in the area and hope runs high that the hard-ward/home improvement retailer will build soon.

“We continue to be in conversa-tions with them,” Wortham said. “We know it’s currently still on hold, but they still own the property and are still committed to building there. The economy is such that they’re not building in any new markets. They’re not singling us out.”

Ninth and MitchellHometown Foods serves as an an-

chor business for this district, which relies on neighborhood trade, said Jill Eilderts, manager of the store

at 1010 E. Mitchell Ave., which had been known as Adams Grocery Store until 2003.

“I think the neighborhood is very important to the business, and we have tried to tailor our store to meet the needs of the neighbor-hood,” Eilderts said.

As an example, Eilderts said, many customers are immigrants from Bosnia, and the store stocks items those customers regularly use.

“We try to cater to them, and that has helped us a great deal,” Eilderts said.

The neighborhood also has taken in a lot of younger families, which also has led to strong sales, Eilderts noted.

“We see the same people on a daily or at least a weekly basis,” she said. “I think people might not buy all their groceries here, but if they’re on their way home, it’s a lot easier to stop here.”

She noted neighboring business-es have been thriving, as well.

“The laundromat nearby expand-ed last summer with more com-mercial-sized washers,” she said.

Other established businesses in the neighborhood include a dentist and insurance agency.

“Things have been going well over here,” Eilderts said.

Falls AvenueThe new Leer’s Cycle Center, at

101 Fletcher Ave. in Waterloo, is emblematic of growth in the Falls Avenue district, said Andy Mul-linex, creative director of Impact Marketing, a marketing, advertising and Web-development firm that does business on the same block. “All I have to do is look out my win-dow and look at the giant building at Leer’s Cycle, and that’s a testimo-ny to the local progress going on in this area,” Mullinex said. “That’s a pretty impressive new facility, and it’s really encouraging.”

That’s because it feeds optimism among the neighbors, and brings in new businesses, Mullinex added.

“I think progress breeds progress,” he said. “Advantage Screen Print moved in two doors down. Scarbor-ough Automotive is real good about taking care of us, and it’s a real con-vnience to have somebody like that next door. It’s nice to see additions and development for restaurants in the area.”

That’s as it should be, the city’s Schroeder said.

“It’s really about having a neigh-borhood commercial center so you don’t necessarily have to drive across town to get some of the ba-sic necessities you need. You have it right there, and that’s important.” F

DAWN J. SAGERT / CouRiER STAff PhoToGRAPhER

David Susong, co-owner of facets by Susong in the Kimball Ridge district, sands down edges before soldering a ring at the jewelry repair and design shop.



By KAREN [email protected]

CEDAR FALLS — If Michele Block needs an outfit, a haircut or a bite to eat, she can check each item off her list with just one stop.

Block, a Cedar Falls resident, is a regular at College Square Mall on University Avenue. She enjoys the tidy atmosphere, store selection and customer service.

“I really like this mall,” Block said. “It’s always really clean.”

Block may shop online for some products, like cosmetics, but when it comes to clothing, for her there’s no replacement for a dressing room and a helpful sales clerk.

“I like to absolutely try it on and see what it looks like,” Block said.

That’s music to the ears of shop-ping mall owners and tenants, who are invested in the one-stop shop concept. The Cedar Valley’s two largest shopping malls have been around for 40 years.

“I think there will always be a place for the mall,” said Gary Og-zewalla, general manager at Cross-roads Center in Waterloo.

Crossroads Center opened north of U.S. Highway 20 in 1970. A year earlier, College Square celebrated its grand opening in 1969, while riding a retail trend sweeping the country, said Marianne Fasano, a spokeswoman for GK Develop-ment Inc. The company took over College Square Mall in 2004.

Over the years, mall officials, aca-demics and analysts say, the shop-ping model has faced challenges: a lagging economy, online competi-tion and changes in consumer and retailer habits. The Cedar Valley isn’t immune. However, spokesper-sons for shopping centers in Water-loo and Cedar Falls expressed faith in their product.

“Customers continue to want the opportunity to see, touch and try on the merchandise before making a purchase,” Fasano said. “There is really no substitute for live shop-ping.”

Malls can benefit from a diverse shopping environment like that which exists along the San Marnan Drive corridor, Ogzewalla said. Consumers can visit the mall and its surrounding properties, stand-alone mega stores and strip malls.

Malls must continue to respond to consumer trends in order to survive, Ogzewalla said. With the emergence of online shopping, some brick-and-mortar stores saw an opportunity to utilize the Web to supplement traditional custom-er service. College Square keeps a website and encourages shoppers to join its e-mail program. Cross-roads Center maintains a website and is on Facebook and Twitter, Ogzewalla said.

“Malls have adapted,” he said. “The successful ones have adapt-ed.”

Other adaptations include retail-ers offering more discounts and malls hosting giveaways and pro-motions, he added.

In retail, progress and success are defined in terms of sales, Ogze-walla said. And sales often dovetail with high occupancy rates.

“We keep the mall as fully occu-pied as we can,” Ogzewalla said.

Crossroads Center offers 65 stores, according to statistics as-sembled in 2010 by Jones Lang La-Salle IP Inc. Ogzewalla reported a 90 percent occupancy rate.

College Square counts two de-partment stores, 48 specialty stores and a 12-screen theater, Fasano said. She declined to comment on the vacancy rate. However, shop-pers on a recent Wednesday morn-ing could walk past 16 closed or dark storefronts.

Determining the right combina-tion of tenants is an ongoing chal-lenge, Ogzewalla said. Tenants at both Crossroads Center and Col-lege Square include a mix of well-established department stores as well as newer arrivals that may ad-dress more specific niche markets

like children’s or teen clothing, au-tomotive needs or entertainment.

Malls across the country are be-ing used for nonretail purposes such as classrooms, medical and church services and office space. Fasano pointed out College Square officials are responding to a de-mand for multiple dining estab-lishments, located both inside the main building and on outlying mall properties.

“Malls respond to the tastes that consumers have,” she said.

In 2009, Old Chicago Pizza and Pasta joined an ensemble of eateries at College Square. The chain counts locations in or near other shop-ping centers as well as stand-alone stores, said spokesman Jim Ulman of the Old Chicago franchise.

In Cedar Falls, the site’s associa-tion with the mall and its visibility were selling points, Ulman said.

“It’s a known reference point,” Ul-man said. “Everyone knows where the mall is.”

Malls offer one-stop shopping

MATTHEW PUTNEY / Courier Photo EditorShoppers walk in College Square Mall in Cedar Falls.


Block doesn’t understand the reason for the number of empty storefronts at College Square.

She knows The Gap pulled out of the Cedar Valley all together. Scheels recently announced plans to exit malls in both Cedar Falls and Waterloo and relocate at Vi-king Plaza.

While it would be nice to have a store like Old Navy, all in all Block is content to use her cou-pons at favorite stores Von Maur and Younkers.

Recent changes at College Square include a $20.5 million improvement project in 2006 that included a renovation of the mall’s interior and the relocation and ex-pansion of a nearby Hy-Vee Foods store. Many pieces are in place for College Square to continue to im-prove, Fasano said, and talks of improving the University Avenue corridor are encouraging.

Even with retail alternatives to the traditional shopping center, champions of Cedar Valley malls expect to survive.

With a few exceptions, mer-

chants have held their ground at Crossroads, Ogzewalla said. Confidence comes in the form of improved storefronts by exist-ing tenants and newer arrivals

like rue21, The Children’s Place and Things Remembered. Many retailers renewed their leases, he added, which is always good news.

The shopping mall will survive, if it evolves, Ogzewalla said.

“As long as we adapt and stay up with what’s going on and what’s timely and typical,” he said. F

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RICK CHASE / CouRIER StAff PHotogRAPHERthe Waterloo Younkers store at Crossroads Center opened nine minutes before its scheduled 4 a.m. time on Black friday in 2009.



By META [email protected]

CEDAR FALLS — As a success-ful businessman, Ron Rabune has done his share of negotiating. But telling his kids the family was mov-ing from California to Iowa was a pretty tough sell.

“I really had to sell them on qual-ity of life,” he said. “They are very special kids. They’ve moved a lot — three times in four years. This move was it.”

Rabune was recruited by PFGBest chairman and CEO Russ Wasen-dorf Sr. to join the company at its new headquarters in Cedar Falls.

The family arrived in early Au-gust and settled in quickly. The kids couldn’t be happier, Rabune said. This fall, Ryan, 7, hit the turf in a lo-cal flag football league, and Alexa, 13, and Aliya, 11, are putting their best feet forward on Cedar Valley soccer teams.

“My 13-year-old played for a club team in California, and we were concerned the competition would be different here. That wasn’t the case. They’ve got a great bunch of programs here.”

Rabune has found time for his own fun, too.

“I’ve played golf more in the five months I’ve been here than ever before. I’ve gone to more sporting events. I’ve gone to every UNI bas-ketball game. We go out to dinner — MyVerona, Brown Bottle, Mon-tage, Becks.”

The PFGBest moveThat’s the life Wasendorf aimed

to create for employees of PFGBest Cedar Falls headquarters.

An Iowa native, Wasendorf start-ed PFGBest in Cedar Falls and has grown it to become a leader in world financing, online trading and the largest nonbank currency trader in the world. He can hold meetings face to face with any of the compa-ny’s offices in 25 countries around the world via video conferencing from his Cedar Falls “war room.”

Wasendorf christened the new headquarters, an $18 million office

complex, in September 2009 in the Beaver Hills area of Cedar Falls, up-rooting his Chicago-based opera-tion and moving its nerve center to this region.

“Most of the employees, particu-larly those who are married and have kids, live in the suburbs; the culture shock will be getting to work in five minutes rather than an hour,” he predicted in a September 2009 Courier story.

He was right.

Happy to relocateDan McMullin, senior wealth

manager of the Wealth Manage-ment Group at PFGBest, had lived in Chicago for 19 years before mov-ing to Cedar Falls more than three years ago in the early stages of the company’s relocation.

“It wasn’t mandatory to move. I was the first one to raise my hand. I was looking for something differ-ent. (Without a long commute) I gained a couple hours of life every

day,” he said.Wasendorf has a similar story. He

lived in Chicago from 1994 until last year when he moved to Cedar Falls.

“My commute went from three hours a day to three minutes a day,” he said. “That’s 15 (more free) hours a week. The quality of time I have with my family is much greater.”

Lots to likeFor McMullin, the commute is

one reason among many that he’s happy to live and work in the Cedar Valley. The area has great shopping, restaurant and entertainment op-tions, he said. Also, there’s friendly, small-town atmosphere you just can’t find in the Windy City.

McMullin is most impressed with the trails system, though.

“So many other cities have long-term plans for bike paths, but Cedar Falls already has it in place and be-ing enjoyed throughout the year,” he said.

For both McMullin and Rabune, the relative low cost of living in the Cedar Valley is a major draw.

“It’s interesting because I grew up in South Carolina and California. The last place I thought I’d be was in Iowa,” Rabune said. “But the quality of life is so much more in the Cedar Valley. Income-to-expense wise, you can definitely go a lot further on a dollar here.

“We’re in the process of building a home, and the kids are ecstatic about it. Doing it in California or Minneapolis was never go-ing to happen. The economy here has been somewhat insulated. To know that I can provide a better quality of life for them, it couldn’t be any better. I’m very fortunate to be where I’m at right now.”

McMullin concurs.“I absolutely love the Cedar Valley

and plan to stay here indefinitely,” he said. “Cedar Falls has the perfect balance between small town and bigger city.” F

New arrivals find all the comforts of home

MATTHEW PUTNEY / CoUriEr PHoTo EdiTorThe rabune family, left to right, Jeane, ryan, 7, Aliya, 11, Alexa, 13, and ron have appetizers before dinner at My Verona in Cedar Falls. ron rabune moved his wife and kids to Cedar Falls from California to work for PFGBest.


By MATTHEW [email protected]

CEDAR FALLS — Housing con-tractors and real estate agents stayed busy last year, and building officials don’t expect the workload to let up any time soon.

That’s just fine with the companies building new homes and the people selling existing ones. Landlords also report a fairly tight rental market in the Cedar Valley.

In other words, the overall hous-ing picture was pretty bright in 2010. And it very well could glisten this year.

“I don’t see anything to discourage us having a very nice year in 2011. I think we will,” said Craig Witry, Cedar Falls building official. “There are more buyers looking to get into their first new home, interest rates are low, the Cedar Valley economy is good and people still have their jobs.”

That appears to be the case as more houses were built in Cedar Falls and Waterloo in 2010 than the previous year.

Permits for 211 new single-family homes were taken out in Cedar Falls last year compared with 158 in 2009. However, the average value of a new home based on permit information decreased by about $5,500 in 2010 to $190,634.

“That’s more typical of the econo-my,” Witry said.

While new housing starts aren’t as robust now as the boom times in the early 2000s, city building officials and contractors are pleased with current numbers.

Waterloo issued 42 permits for single family and 20 permits for multi-family residences in 2010. That’s compared with 33 and 32, re-spectively, in 2009.

According to permits, the new houses last year are worth a com-bined $5.2 million. New multi-fam-ily domiciles like apartments and duplexes are valued at a little more than $2.2 million.

Craig Clark, Waterloo interim building official, believes 2011 will be busier than 2010.

“I’m just judging from the amount of work already started and talking with architects,” Clark said.

Housing experts say the Cedar Valley didn’t suffer like the rest of the country during the Great Re-cession, but that doesn’t mean the area wasn’t affected. Clark said more moderately priced homes — in the $160,000 range — are being built than $300,000 ones.

One developer filling that need is former Waterloo Mayor John Rooff. As owner of Black Hawk Contract-ing, he’s working with buyers who qualify for state down-payment as-sistance grants to put them in All American Homes on Waterloo’s east side.

Last year Rooff’s company put up 15 modular units. He anticipates 30 will be completed this year.

In some neighborhoods where Rooff plans to build, he said, there hasn’t been a new home constructed in 100 years.

“It’s really a need. You put a new house in and it seems to lift up the entire area,” Rooff said. “Waterloo needs good housing on the east side.”

There are still plenty of people will-ing to spend $300,000-plus in Cedar Falls for a new home, said Sam Run-yan of Runyan Custom Homes. The contractor said people are starting to feel better about the economy and

the direction of the country, and that will result in more construction.

“I’m thinking it should pick up this year. Things look positive in the Cedar Valley,” Runyan said.

However, he said, it is getting harder to find lots. Tougher regula-tions and the cost make it difficult to develop a new housing addition, Runyan said.

Existing home sales were up slight-ly in 2010.

Bob Reisinger, executive vice pres-ident of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Board of Realtors, reported 2,201 transactions last year. The median sale price was $115,000. The average time on the market was 71 days.

In 2009, there were 2,173 sales with an average price of $114,900. It took 74 days, on average, to sell a home.

Considering how bad the national economy was, Reisinger considers the numbers encouraging.

“The market is pretty flat, not dropping like the national market. Looking into my crystal ball for 2011, I think we’ll stay at an even keel,” Reisinger said.

With interest rates in some cases under 5 percent, he said, it’s an ex-cellent time to buy. Reisinger said the market isn’t oversaturated with homes by any means, which is good for those looking to move up or build.

Housing officials said tax cred-its for first-time home buyers and those wanting to move up spurred sales last year.

Real estate agent Deanna Wheel-er said she had an excellent 2010 and expects the same this year. She closed on 91 homes last year worth about $22 million.

The region’s strong manufacturers, hospitals and schools help, Wheeler said.

“I’m definitely busy,” she said. “We’re fortunate to have a stable market. A lot of relocations.”

Property owners and managers say rents locally are holding steady. Officials consider it a tight market, with few upper-end rental proper-ties available.

Building officials report little ac-tivity when it comes to building new apartments or other complexes for rent. A contractor is currently constructing four five- and six-unit townhouse-style rentals in Cedar Falls, officials said.

The rental market general reflects the employment figures, property owners said. Stability for wage earn-ers has translated to stability in rent-al housing.

“I’m happy to see a tight market,” Karen Atwood, a property man-ager, told The Courier earlier this year. “Good apartments are hard to find.” F

Housing a bright spot in the Cedar Valley

BRANDON POLLOCK / COuRieR StAff PhOtOgRAPheRA townhouse complex is under construction in early January at 26th and Walnut streets in Cedar falls, one of the few new rent-als being constructed locally, building officials said.



By TIM [email protected]

WATERLOO — Three mayors have overseen Waterloo’s decade-old quest to remake its downtown for the modern economy.

Mayor John Rooff pulled togeth-er major industry leaders, spear-headed the planning efforts and ultimately landed the Vision Iowa grant in 2003 to help pay for im-provements to the Cedar River dam and construct riverfront trails and a public amphitheater.

Mayor Tim Hurley took the reins in 2004 as the city ratcheted

up designs, hired contractors and watched as heavy machinery be-came a fixture in the downtown landscape. Related attractions like the Phelps Youth Pavilion, River-Loop Expo and Public Market and Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum opened for business.

Now current Mayor Buck Clark is at the helm as the city races to complete the projects by the end of 2011, a deadline established by the Vision Iowa board, while new plans are under way to break ground on the Cedar Valley SportsPlex, a $26 million downtown recreation fa-

cility to include a large fieldhouse, swimming pools, basketball courts, running track and fitness center.

“It’s exciting, and I’m anxious to see those things we’ve been talking about for years actually coming to fruition,” Clark said. “I’m hoping by the end of the next construction season that our downtown is going to have a completely different look to it.”

Rooff and Hurley share that en-thusiasm.

“When it’s done it’s going to be a pull for people to come down and enjoy their river and enjoy events

…just getting used to having down-town be the center of our social life again,” Hurley said.

“This shows everyone we were serious about it,” he added. “People probably had their doubts in the beginning, but we did it and we’re doing it.”

Rooff said he’s pleased with how the projects are taking shape, noting the face of downtown has changed dramatically since he pulled to-gether the Waterloo Development Corp., a group of major business leaders to guide the effort.

“This started at a time when you

Three Waterloo mayors have led push to revitalize downtownTransformers

BRANDON POLLOCK / COuRieR StAff PhOtOgRAPheRCrews with Peterson Contractors inc. work in early December on concrete forms to shape what will become an amphitheater on the banks of the Cedar River near the Phelps Youth Pavilion and uS Bank in downtown Waterloo. it’s been eight years since Waterloo received a Vision iowa grant for a number of downtown projects expected to wrap up this year.


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had to roll the dice a little bit,” he said. “I hope Waterloo remembers how downtown used to be. It’s easy to forget about how things were.”

Mike Triplett, who was general manager of John Deere’s Waterloo operations at the time, summed up the significance of the Riverfront Re-naissance project in a 2001 letter en-couraging the Vision Iowa board to support the project.

“Every major employer in the Ce-dar Valley area realizes a good-pay-ing job is only one piece of the em-ployment puzzle,” Triplett said in the letter. “To attract and maintain a quality work force, we must also of-fer recreational, cultural, educational and entertainment amenities.”

Clark said that sentiment still holds true.

“As we do surveys and ask the Per-egrine Financial’s and other major employers what’s important, people are looking for towns that invest in themselves and create quality-of-life amenities for their residents,” Clark said. “There are people that say we can’t afford this, but they just don’t realize these are projects we can’t af-ford not to do if we want to grow the

community.”Among the $20 million in Vision

Iowa projects, the city has already completed most of the trails and overlooks along both sides of the Cedar River from U.S. Highway 63 to 18th Street; a rubber bladder has been added to the dam near Park Avenue, ready to be inflated to pro-vide 4 more feet of recreational wa-ter upstream; work on a riverfront amphitheater and play area is under way near the Center for the Arts; and a bid opening is pending for an ele-vated plaza above the amphitheater.

Kirby Baumgard, president of Ce-dar Valley Cyclists, said the trails alone will improve the downtown

business climate and interconnect Waterloo and Cedar Falls.

“The trails downtown look really nice,” Baumgard said. “I took the one through Exchange Park down to Screaming Eagle. I think more people are using the trails for trans-portation now; instead of driving to (events like) People in the Park, they’ll ride their bikes down there.”

The latest announcement, which came in late 2010, was the Sports-Plex. The WDC is raising the con-struction funds privately and plans eventually to turn over the building to the city.

Rick Young, who is helping with the fundraising effort, was in a meet-

ing two years ago when one of the ar-ea’s “major employers” talked about their difficulties recruiting profes-sional workers to the Cedar Valley.

“When you’re bringing in a (po-tential employee) to come in and work for you, you’ve got to not only pay them what everybody else is paying, you’ve got to sell them on the community,” Young said. “And we’re hurting up here in the winter time.”

The SportsPlex, just like the oth-er downtown projects, is as much about economic development as it is entertainment.

“We need to keep our young peo-ple in the area,” Young said, “and bring in new ones.” F

At left, an artist’s rendition shows the 125,000-square- foot, $26 million multi-purpose Cedar Valley SportsPlex planned for construction in downtown Waterloo.

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By MATTHEW [email protected]

WATERLOO — The Abbas brothers knew buying a company during the nation’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depres-sion was a gamble.

But Sean and Ben also knew they had two aces in the hole — each other. Instead of folding, the broth-ers went all in and purchased Baird Industries in October 2008.

The risk paid off. Now called Baird Mounting Sys-

tems, the company on the south side of Waterloo is considered a world leader when it comes to building mounting systems for an-tennas, satellite dishes, solar panels and small wind turbines. Mounting systems are fabricated at the shop, 3160 Logan Ave., and shipped to suppliers worldwide.

The day the Abbas brothers took control of the company, Sean said a Wall Street Journal story inferred the nation’s economy was on the brink.

“It was the perfect time to buy,” Sean said with a chuckle.

Actually, the Abbases weren’t too worried. The brothers knew the company had loyal, skilled employ-ees and good products in demand around the globe. Most impor-tantly, Sean and Ben said, they had confidence in their manufacturing, finance and sales skills.

“I’ve seen a lot of tremendous people understand manufacturing but not understand the financial side,” Sean said. “It’s kind of a bal-ancing act between the two. I’m not sure either of us would have done it without the other.”

Even though they’re more than a decade apart in age, the Abbas boys respect and complement each oth-er perfectly.

Sean is president of Baird. His specialty is manufacturing. The 44-year-old worked for Iowa Laser Technology for 22 years, becoming president in 1999.

After a four-year hitch in the Ma-rine Corps and a couple of years of

college, Sean went to work for Iowa Laser in the maintenance depart-ment and worked his way up the corporate ladder.

As chief executive officer and chief financial officer of Baird, Ben’s expertise lies in — you guessed it — finances. He graduated in 2003 from the University of Iowa with a degree in finance and economics.

The 30-year-old moved to Chi-cago and worked for Merrill Lynch for five years as a financial analyst. Most of his work dealt with com-pany acquisitions.

“I learned the process how busi-nesses are bought. All this helped with the process of buying this one,” Ben said.

Purchasing Baird essentially ful-filled several goals, the Abbas broth-ers said, and it wasn’t by chance. It kept a 30-plus-year-old company in local hands, continued the family tradition of running a business and it brought the brothers closer.

The Abbases were born in Wa-terloo, but both graduated from

Cedar Falls High School. They cur-rently live in Cedar Falls with their families. Their father, Tom, was a co-owner and president of H&H Machine Tool Co.

Baird’s former owner, George Marquart, was a family friend. Once a formed concrete and block com-pany, Marquart changed directions after he built a satellite mounting system for a friend in the 1980s and realized a need with the advances in technology.

When Marquart wanted to retire, the Abbases didn’t hesitate.

“It was a good opportunity and the timing (except for the econo-my) was right for both of us,” Sean said. “One of the good things is we got to know each other better than we ever did before.”

Ben added, “You can always look at it as a risk. We felt confidence in the upside.”

So far, so good.The brothers wouldn’t divulge the

purchase price or sales figures, but they said the company is profitable.

Business is good enough they’re considering a second shift to sup-ply 1,200 customers on every conti-nent. The company has 16 full-time workers and one part-time worker.

“Our goal is to stay local and de-velop local talent,” Sean said

For the time being, the Abbases said, most of their extra earnings are going back into the company to upgrade equipment, computers, boost sales and improve its website, www.BairdMounts.com, which now features a direct purchase op-tion.

The future is bright for the com-pany, the brothers said. As the world becomes more dependent on technology, satellite and com-munication devices will always be in demand, and they need to be mounted on something. Plus, the company has expanded into re-newable energy as well.

“There’s a lot of companies that do it, but the big stuff is what Baird is known for,” Sean said. “Everybody wants to be connected.” F

Brothers band together to buy Baird

RICK CHASE / CouRIER StAff PHotogRAPHERBrothers Sean, left, and Ben Abbas stand by pallets of mounting hardware for satellite dishes at Baird Mounting Systems, 3160 Logan Ave. the Abbases purchased the company in 2008 and run it together.


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By TIM [email protected]

CEDAR FALLS — The ability to work, shop and access entertainment is becoming more de-pendent on how much — and how fast — infor-mation can be pushed through little glass cables.

Local telecommunications providers Cedar Falls Utilities and Mediacom made huge strides last year to ensure their customers in the Cedar Valley won’t get left behind the curve in the digi-tal revolution.

When Mediacom launched its new Ultra ser-vices in early 2010 — using DOCSIS 3.0 technol-ogy — it gave Waterloo customers the ability to access what was, at the time, the fastest residential Internet download speed in North America. And the company is continuing to enhance its local network with more fiber-optics cable to enhance telephone service and provide more digital, high-definition television offerings.

Last fall, CFU launched a full-scale effort to ex-tend fiber into every home and business, replac-ing what has been a hybrid of fiber and much slower coaxial cable. The $17 million fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) rollout provides a conduit to provide dramatically faster and much more reliable Internet and entertainment services to customers.

“This is really an extension of what we did when we made the decision 15 years ago (to build the original cable system) to not be left in the dust in the communication stream,” said CFU Gen-eral Manager Jim Kreig. “If you look around the world, you better be connected.

“Whether it be China, India or other countries, they’ve got very high-speed Internet … but only about 15 percent (of U.S. providers) are offering fiber to the premises,” he added. “This sets up out next generation very well to compete in the glob-al market.”

The current CFU system, which utilizes a fiber backbone with coax into the homes, puts 400 customers sharing 39 megabits of downstream capacity. While maximum individual speeds are 8 Mbps, those can be restricted if too many users are using too much bandwidth.

The new system will have no more than 32 customers sharing 2,400 megabits downstream and 1,200 megabits upstream. With hundreds of times more bandwidth per customer, the stan-dard home Internet service will be boosted to 10 Mbps with no increase in cost, while 20, 50 or 100 Mbps services will be available for custom-

ers who want it. And the system will be able to deliver the advertised speeds.

Kreig said the bandwidth demand has exploded with the introduction of video streaming and on-line gaming, which require a constant bandwidth instead of the “bursting” seen when customers are just surfing and loading website pages.

“With the introduction of YouTube we saw a real surge,” he said. “Data requirements have been going up about 40 percent a year per customer.”

The complete buildout is expected to take CFU through 2012. More information about the roll-out schedule, pricing and FTTP in general can be found at the utility’s website, www.cfu.net.

Mediacom splashed Waterloo across industry newsletters in early 2010 when it launched its “Ultra 105” broadband service with download speeds of 105 megabits per second. At the time, it was the fastest home service available on the con-tinent and was more than five times faster than the company’s standard home Internet product.

“The biggest change in 2010 is that … we’ve added more ‘flavors’ in the broadband equation, making available more choices in service levels and speeds,” said Mediacom Communications Director Phyllis Peters. “Making this robust ser-vice available demonstrates our commitment to stay at the leading edge of technology and deliver advanced services to residential and commercial customers.

The company also offers a 50 Mbps service to business customers.

“Our commercial sales team in Waterloo/Cedar Falls reports getting more calls and higher inter-est in the Ultra 50 commercial product just since mid-November than in earlier months,” Peters said, adding the company extended the ability to receive that service to Independence, Oelwein, Cedar Falls, Grundy Center, Manchester and a big radius around Waterloo in late 2010.

The company has also been completing custom-ized fiber systems for several businesses, includ-ing hospitals and financial institutions, and has extended fiber to the Cedar Valley TechWorks in anticipation of businesses locating at the down-town Waterloo site.

Mediacom has also expanded its services to of-fer phone lines to commercial customers, allow-ing bundling of all telecommunication products, and has added 10 new high-definition channels to the family cable lineup in each of the past two years, “investments we make to keep pace with customer demand,” she added. F

CFU, Mediacom keep Cedar Valley on fast track



By JEFF [email protected]

CEDAR FALLS — A Cedar Falls manufacturer with roots in a leaky stone quarry is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Viking Pump is marking its cen-tennial by setting up a company museum in its headquarters later this year, said Beth Sulentic, mar-keting manager.

Artifacts from some of the com-pany’s history had been on display at the Wyth House, but those were put in storage to make room for items res-cued from the Ice House museum in 2008. When com-

pleted, the Viking museum will be a step up from the old displays.

“It will tell a better story and have interactive displays,” Sulentic said. “It will tell more about how we got to where we are.”

Viking also is planning a sales and distributor meeting in June and an employee celebration.

Founded in 1911 as a two-em-ployee shop with backing of the lo-cal Danish community, Viking has seen steady growth in the past cen-tury and now employs about 500 people. The business designs and manufactures pumps for the chemi-cal, petroleum, machinery and food processing industries, and its prod-ucts are used around the world.

Throughout the changes, the com-pany has held onto its downtown roots even while expanding into the city’s industrial park.

HistoryThe spark of genius that became

Viking Pump started with a drip.Jens Nielsen, a Dane who immi-

grated to the United States aboard a trans-Atlantic ocean liner, started a quarry near the intersection of Main and 18th streets in the late 1800s.

In 1886, he designed a pump to remove water that seeped into his quarry from a nearby creek. Nielsen started by carving a wooden model with a rotary mechanism and gave

his example to George “Shorty” Mathes to build.

The pump was completed in 1904. Made of cast iron, it weighed 900 pounds and could move 900 gallons of water a minute.

Nielsen’s design drew the attention of another Dane, machinist P.C. Pe-tersen, who prepared a patent.

In 1911, the two started the com-pany with W.L. Hearst, a doctor of Danish ancestry, and shoe store owner George Wyth. The name “Viking” stuck because of the Dan-ish heritage of the company officials and because 60 percent of the com-pany’s capital came from the local Danish population.

With $3,000, Viking Pump rent-ed a washing machine factory in downtown Cedar Falls and churned out 50 pumps in its first year, bring-ing in $2,000 in revenue.

Nielsen’s “gear within a gear” de-

sign was the first of its kind in the United States, and Viking Pump built its first factory — a 40-by-60-foot facility — in 1912. The com-pany began working on sanitary pumps for canneries, dairies and other food production.

By the end of the decade, Viking expanded into three buildings and had 40 workers.

In the 1920s and 1930s, oil began flowing through Viking equipment, keeping the company healthy dur-ing the Great Depression.

Standard Oil sought a pump that could be mounted on the top of a rail car to distribute fuel to deliv-ery wagons, and Viking was the only manufacturer that could de-liver. Standard bought thousands of pumps from the Cedar Falls com-pany.

Viking started up the Viking Aid Society in 1922 to offer accident and

death coverage for its employees. The $1,000 policies cost 75 cents a month.

When World War II broke out, Viking pumps helped battle Ger-man forces.

A Viking fuel pump was aboard the Intent, a small tugboat that the Allies used to clear a barricade of scuttled ships blocking Massawa harbor on the Red Sea. This allowed ships to resupply British troops, who eventually drove German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel from Af-rica.

Viking lubrication pumps also were installed in M-22 light tanks used by U.S. and British forces in Europe. Known as “Locusts,” the tanks fit inside gliders and were flown behind enemy lines. Locusts were used in Operation Varsity, which was part of a 1945 push to move Allied troops across the Rhine River into northern Germany.

Also during the war, Viking prod-ucts helped mass produce penicillin for wounded American troops.

In the 1950s, Viking expanded its international distribution, worked its way into dry cleaning equipment and introduced other new prod-ucts for the printing ink and chemi-cal industries. The company’s brass foundry was renamed the alloys foundry as production began using more stainless steel.

By 1960, Viking was moving into a new 50,000 square-foot shop and became the first resident of the Ce-dar Falls industrial park south of town. It added a 140,000-square-foot machine shop in 1976 and iron foundry and machine shop addi-tions in the 1980s.

The downtown locations were connected into a single building and now serve as the company’s head-quarters.

Houfaille Industries bought Vi-king Pump in 1968, and the com-pany was acquired by IDEX Corp in 1987.

In recent years, Viking has opened facilities in Ireland, bought opera-tions in Canada and England and expanded into China, Chile, India and Brazil. F

Jens Nielsen

Courtesy photosthe Cedar Falls quarry that Jens Nielsen used to operate. Nielsen designed a pump to remove water that seeped into the quarry from a nearby stream. the pump was later patented and helped launch Viking pump in 1911.

Viking Pump marking 100th anniversary

Viking pump’s original Cedar Falls location.


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Progress - 2011

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