Home Care In Fairfax, IA

FAIRFAX, Iowa (KCRG) - In the past 20 years, thousands of people have moved to Fairfax, and now call the community, ‘Home Sweet Home.’

“I have lived in Fairfax almost 30 years, which by Fairfax standards is still a newcomer,” said Mayor Jo Ann Beer with a laugh.

The same things that brought her to town years ago are still bringing people to the community now.

“The small town charm, yet we’re just seven miles from the Cedar Rapids downtown,” she said.

Bruce Sevig is one of the managers at Iowa Lot Development LLC.

“The Highway 100 bypass is one of the biggest things that are bringing people to the area people that work outside of Cedar Rapids,” he said.

The town of Fairfax grew from 800 people to 2,800 people in just 20 years. That includes the newest of three major developments, Heartland Heights.

“Fairfax is very easy to work with, it’s a small community, pretty much everyone knows everyone, we grew up in this area,” Sevig said. “Our family has been developing in Fairfax and the surrounding area since about 2000 starting with my dad.”

Irie Homes is one of around a dozen builders to put up homes in Heartland Heights.

“Our tagline is Peace Within, Irie Homes,” said Mark Prahm. “Some of the biggest compliments we’ve got is that when people move in the home they feel that sense of peace.”

The first house of the development was built in 2017. Now there are around 120 homes there. Fairfax feeds into the College Community School District.

“Fairfax has always been good about controlled growth, and we have always controlled our growth,” said Sevig. “We don’t just go to grow, we want to do things right and make sure it’s a nice area for everyone involved, homeowners, builders, the city.”

“The challenge with this, is we want to retain our small town character while at the same time doing smart growth,” explained the mayor.

Town amenities are growing too.

“When I moved to Fairfax back in the 90s, we had one park, city park,” Beer said. “For a community our size, our parks and our sports facilities are just outstanding.”

All making it home sweet home.

Copyright 2023 KCRG. All rights reserved.

After longtime mayor resigns, Jo Ann Beer wins special election by 15 votes

FAIRFAX — The city of Fairfax has faced drastic changes over the past several years.

A Wisconsin-based company that produces pellets for renewable fuel opened a production facility, and a forthcoming facility from REGEN Fiber — from the Alliant Energy subsidiary Travero — will be opening to recycle wind turbines. With industrial development comes new jobs, potentially sparking a continuation of Fairfax’s population trends over the past decade.

From 2010 to 2020, the community west of Cedar Rapids has grown 33.2 percent from a population of 2,123 to 2,828, making it one of Iowa’s faster growing cities. Currently, the city’s fiscal 2024 budget is over $10.8 million.

Beyond new development and growth, Fairfax also is experiencing a change in city leadership for the first time in seven years. In May, Fairfax held a special election to find a new mayor after longtime mayor Bernie Frieden resigned in February due to health reasons.

Jo Ann Beer, 71, won a seat for the remainder of Frieden’s term against City Council member Michael Daly with 52 percent of the vote, becoming Fairfax’s first female mayor. Beer, a semiretired instructor at Kirkwood Community College, won by 15 votes for a total of 224 votes.

The future of Fairfax

Beer said she has divided her objectives into short-term goals that can be accomplished before her term ends at the end of the year, and long-term goals she hopes to continue pursuing if reelected to a full term. Beer said her immediate changes are focused heavily on communication and information access for citizens.

“Rather than wait until we're knee-deep into it, I prefer to just immediately say, ‘Here's what we're doing,’ and ‘What do you think?’” Beer said.

Before the special election, City Council member Marianne Wainwright served as mayor pro tem. Beer said the hardest part of taking office has been the transition from having a temporary mayor to an elected mayor, and the ambiguity that comes with.

Beer had been a council member for 20 years, but chose not to run for re-election at the end of 2017. During her time out of office, she had continued to attend Fairfax City Council meetings.

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“There's a lot of catch up to do,” Beer said. “The challenge has been nonstop meetings and just finding out where we're at on all the projects that are going on.”

Beer to ‘bring all of Fairfax together’

In its growth, Fairfax has faced distinct waves of population increases that have deeply impacted the structure of the city. According to Beer, recent population shifts have caused different communities and housing arrangements to form.

Between housing that is several decades old and the newer development called Heartland Heights built within the past five years, Beer said she wants to serve the entire city and each citizen’s own needs.

Specifically, Beer said she wants to continue working on the new development and the growth of Fairfax, while balancing continued support and services toward the original areas of the city to assure that tax rates are sustainable and fair for all areas of the city.

Dan Wozniak, an advocate for Fairfax’s newer housing district and supporter of Beer’s campaign, met her during a City Council meeting. Wozniak said the two started talking about the state of Fairfax and potential changes they wanted to see, discovering they had quite a few similar opinions.

“Comments that Jo Ann would make during the meeting, I could tell that she actually wants to bring all of Fairfax together — as it should be,” Wozniak said.

Frieden, the previous mayor of Fairfax, said the direction he planned on taking Fairfax was different compared with what he has seen of Beer so far.

“I had a very easy job. We have fantastic staff, each and every one of them. They know what they're doing; the department heads know what to do,” Frieden said. “The mayor just stays in the office and is quiet.”

While the two worked together while Frieden was mayor and Beer was a City Council member, he said he doesn’t know if Beer holds the same beliefs and ideas for the city. Frieden said the rapid growth of Fairfax is what makes the city so successful, and he worried that Beer’s leadership would stilt that expansion.

He said Beer’s focus should be keeping property tax rates static and allowing the “phenomenal” development to guide the city and its needs.

“I think she's headed in a different direction than what the community is,” Frieden said. “Hopefully, she will listen to her staff and the engineering folks.”

Beer said in her leadership position, she looks forward to collaborating with residents, business owners, the City Council and city staff in her time as mayor.

“Fairfax is a tremendous community. We have a lot of character,” Beer said. “While we're growing, we don't want to lose track of that.”

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FAIRFAX, Iowa (KCRG) - In the nice summer days, the parks are full of families playing on the playground and splash pad in Our Town Fairfax. The parks have changed a lot through the years, as now hundreds of kids take part in summer rec programs.

Jeremy Griffith coaches some of the hundreds of kids involved in summer rec programs in little league, machine pitch, coach pitch, softball, and T ball. The parks programs have grown a lot through the years.

Fairfax Parks and Rec director Joe Kell started out volunteering with the program.

“Only had about 35 kids when we started and eventually grew it to that 500 to 600 registrations per year,” Kell said.

He says the focus is all about the kids.

“The kids are always our priority, that’s always our number one priority,” he said.

There is something for everyone, among the five miles of trails and eight parks across 25 acres.

“For not a very big town, either geographically or population wise, that’s a pretty big number,” said Kell.

There is disc golf, playgrounds, a dog park, and a newly offered community garden.

“They are scattered all throughout town, even though this is the complex and kind of the crown jewel of our town,” Kell said.

The locations are done intentionally, so people can use them easily. The city is building a pocket park in a new housing development too.

“We’re at the one right next to the house almost constantly, we have one right down the block from us, one here in town with the splash pad that everybody’s at, it’s great,” said Griffith.

The parks department can also be a first job for kids who used to play on the field.

“These 14, 15, and 16 year olds I’ve known since they were 3 and 4 year olds playing T ball,” Kell said.

All while keeping with the goal of doing the best for the kids.

“If we don’t do something to help the kids, or if we don’t do something to put the kids in a position in a safe environment, then we’re not doing our job,” Kell said.

“When you see the look on the little kid’s faces when they’re playing that pretty much says it all,” said Coach Griffith.

Copyright 2023 KCRG. All rights reserved.

A Wisconsin-based company that produces pellets for renewable fuel will receive incentives from the state of Iowa to create jobs at its new location in Fairfax.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority said Friday it has awarded incentives to Convergen Energy.

The company plans to establish a 100,000-square-foot production facility in Fairfax to “better position the company to reach new and existing customers throughout the region,” according to an IEDA news release. The total capital investment will be $18.4 million.

Eleven of the 23 new jobs that Convergen will create in Iowa will be incented through the state’s High Quality Jobs program at a qualifying wage of $24.20 per hour.

The company, founded in 2009, produces pellets that are used in solid fuel power and steam generation facilities.

The process shreds and blends non-recyclable paper, labels and packaging material destined for landfills and turns them into pellets that can be used in solid fuel boilers such as those that burn coal.

Convergen has been working with the University of Iowa for years to turn university-grown miscanthus grass into pellets that can be burned at the UI power plant.

The Fairfax City Council voted earlier this month to approve a resolution that expresses its intent to provide economic development support to Convergen Energy. According to the resolution, the city will provide tax exemptions on a sliding scale from 75 percent in year one, to 15 percent in year five.

Fairfax City Clerk-Treasurer Cynthia Stimson said the city plans to annex the land along Lefebure Road, south of Travero Logistics, where the Convergen plant will be built.

Coralville start-up receives state award

A UI spin-off company that’s developing treatments for knee injuries received a Demonstration Fund award from the IEDA board last week.

CartilaGen was awarded $125,000 for product refinement, marketing planning, market entry activities and key personnel.

The company was founded by Frank Yu, a former UI graduate student, and Jaison Marks, a former UI undergraduate student, who developed the treatment while working together in a university research lab.

The company produces an intra-articular injection of small-molecule drug that can prevent osteoarthritis after a traumatic injury.

“The technology has demonstrated strong preclinical results and is now advanced to the stage of human clinical testing,” according to an IEDA news release.

FAIRFAX, Iowa (KCRG) - One family in Fairfax wants to help others even more in 2020 because of the pandemic and the derecho damage in this unforgettable year.

Steve and Sandy Tomash have a Christmas display so large even Santa comes to visit on occasion. It’s a tradition that has gone on at their current home for 15 years, but this is the first year their display will raise money for a food bank.

“Everyone needs food and with people being laid off and not having the money we just thought that would reach not only children but people of all ages,” Sandy said.

Their yard is sprinkled with handmade characters Steve has made from “Frozen” and “The Grinch.” He’s unsure just how many lights he uses but he says there are around 400 extension cords involved.

The Tomash’s don’t usually take donations of any kind for their display. But, between the pandemic and the derecho, they decided this year they could use the display to give back. There is a donation box out front and every penny people contribute will be given to the Linn Community Food Bank in Cedar Rapids.

Leaders there say they’ve seen an increase in need. They used to give food to 20-30 people per day, but, lately, it’s been more like 50. Monday through Friday, they’re giving out groceries from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the parking lot at the First Presbyterian Church on Fifth Street SE, no questions asked.

The Tomash’s chose this food bank because it’s run fully by volunteers.

“Even their directors are volunteers. So we know all the money people give us to donate to somewhere will be 100% paid off for the food for the people,” Steve said.

The food bank is more than grateful for the help.

“Oh, it’s great because then we can provide extra things. We get a lot of our things from HACAP through the Feeding America program and anything that we can’t get from them we would subsidize with all our donations,” Jane Suiter, president of Linn Community Food Bank, said.

Suiter said while they’ve seen more of a need, the food bank has also seen a lot of people step up to donate. In the first five days of collecting donations, the Tomash’s have raised $250.

Copyright 2020 KCRG. All rights reserved.