Home Care In Kalona, IA

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Posted Wednesday, November 8, 2023 12:00 pm

By TJ Rhodes

KALONA

When you hear that someone had a career in the Military, serving during conflicts in both Vietnam and Iraq, you might imagine a certain kind of experience. However, for Kalona resident Larry Geno, 69, his memories are largely positive. For the most part, he spent time helping countries around the world build and improve, and he has the photos to prove it.

Geno got his start serving in the Air Force, joining in 1974 after scoring a “picket fence” on his aptitude test, meaning he could enter any Military Occupational Specialty – MOS – of his choosing. After choosing electronics, Geno began the path to become an Automatic Tracking Radar Repairman.

Immediately after finishing basic training and MOS school, Geno moved to Arizona for three years during the Vietnam War where he would work on radar systems until the war ended.

Afterwards, Geno moved back to Iowa with wife Laura to raise a family. Together, they had four children: Angela, Joshua, Micah and Zach.

In 1985, Geno re-entered college life at Luther College in Decorah. He also joined the Army Reserve at this time to help pay for school with the GI Bill.

After an over 20-year career with the Army Reserve, Geno retired and eventually moved to Kalona in 2021, following his son Joshua, who is a registered nurse at the VA Hospital in Iowa City and lives in Wellman with his family.

Since moving, Geno has become a staple in the community. He is on the board of directors at the Kalona Historical Village. He joined the Kalona Optimist Club. He’s a member at the VFW in Riverside. He helps at the Kalona Area Chamber of Commerce. He’s a part of the Planning and Zoning Commission. He volunteers. And to round it off, Geno is a member of a motorcycle club.

“[Friends] remind me that I have failed at retirement,” Geno said with a chuckle, adding, “I wanted to go to Key West, my wife said no [so they would be closer to family].”

Annual Training: The first step

Geno’s favorite aspect of the military: times spent building up, not tearing down. Joining the ranks of an engineering battalion unit in 1985 meant Geno would spend his summer annual training excursions building -- overseeing projects all over the world -- two weeks at a time.

This led to three trips to Honduras; two trips to Germany and Guatemala; and one trip to Panama and El Salvador, earning Geno nine ribbons to designate his trips overseas.

Geno’s first training mission overseas was in Honduras. Their task was simple.

“My unit, Decorah, was one of the first ones into the area. This road was up in the mountains of Honduras, huge pine trees and so forth,” Geno said. “Our job was to remove the trees from the right of way of this new road. Basically, that two-week period I spent with a chainsaw cutting trees.”

This challenged the idea that the Army was only sent overseas for violence. Geno, always watchful for photographic opportunities, was rarely seen without a camera to document each and every step his troops made.

“One of the people at the college was a friend of my wife and she was a Quaker. She was under the impression that the only thing the United States military ever did down in Central America was kill people. When she found out I was going down there, she wasn’t happy,” Geno said. “When I came back and showed her pictures of what we were doing, she had no idea that we did that type of thing. The thing is, it’s not just in Central America.”

There were other moments that helped prove how important an engineering battalion can be. Soldiers bring their knowledge of trades from their civilian jobs; those without that knowledge do a great deal of learning. It works both ways.

No moment better encapsulated this than when Geno worked alongside a Marine engineering unit in either Guatemala or El Salvador – Geno could not quite remember where – but recalled they worked alongside an active volcano, building a school to be earthquake-proof while the Marines worked on constructing wells.

“One of the wells they put in, the pump didn’t work. [The Marine captain] called back and asked if we had anybody who could get the water pump working and our captain said yes,” Geno said. “[Our captain] sends him up to fix the pump. He goes up there. I’m not sure what he did, but it didn’t take him very long [to fix the pump].”

“This Marine captain, she thanks this young man, ‘Glad that you could come up here and fix the pump. You’re a plumber in your [battalion], right?’ He goes, ‘No, I’m the company clerk,’” Geno said with a vociferous laugh. “It goes to show the Army Reserve, National Guard, they pull in so many other things. That is just amazing.”

Annual Training: A public service

Geno’s favorite missions involved building schools for communities in need, noting that their appreciation was the best part.

Geno helped in the construction of at least three schools. His first was a school high on a mountain in Honduras in 1991. The road was in such poor condition that the vehicles transporting supplies needed to nail boards to the roof, and sometimes, cement blocks would break simply being transported in the vehicle.

Residents gathered daily to watch the troops work on the building. Geno’s battalion had a medic who tended the ill and injured as well, furthering their contribution to that community.

They eventually celebrated with a small party after the school was finished.

“There’s an appreciation of doing it. Especially schools,” Geno said. “A school, you have the students and the teachers and so forth coming, watching, because this is going to be their new [school].”

When the general in charge of the project came to view the various schools the company was working on, he insisted on seeing the school on the mountain first, signaling it was the toughest project and the most rewarding to see done. Geno noted the other groups worked on flatter plains along a highway for their school projects.

Another time, when Geno assisted in the building of a school in Guatemala, he was asked to keep a low profile since the country was dealing with a communist threat.

“The locals wanted us to put our information down: US Army, because they’re proud of what we did for them,” Geno said. “My order was not to do anything like that because what would happen is the communists would come in and destroy it. We had to tell them thanks, but no thanks.”

The final overseas story Geno shared was when his company traveled to Guatemala in 1999 after a hurricane.

Geno was in charge of re-building a bridge in place of one that collapsed. Without instruction, his battalion built the bridge in their two-week time span.

“I found out later that the US Army was watching what we were doing because they did not have an instruction book on how to [build a bridge in this particular way],” Geno said. “They wrote the instructions from what we did.”

This brief history does not cover the full story. Geno assisted in numerous projects within the US and had even more overseas stories.

“As I told my wife, if I didn’t have fun doing this, I never would have lasted over 20 years,” Geno said.

The Iraq War

Because he was thinking of retiring, Geno stepped down from his position as Platoon Sergeant of the Decorah unit. After he was denied retirement, Geno took up the same position in the Alpha Company of Iowa City to begin prep for deployment to Iraq.

Geno’s unit deployed in March of 2003 and Geno again shifted units, taking up the construction inspector role in a Dubuque unit despite never actually having worked in Dubuque.

This role allowed Geno to oversee many projects. He was also in Iraq when the US captured Saddam Hussein.

“The army decided to actually make a prison for all these high-ranking prisoners we were catching. That didn’t take so long to build. But it was kind of interesting when you look at it; all the towers around this prison had the guns pointing out,” Geno said. “These guys are happy to be in prison because they have all their buddies that want to kill them, that’s why all the guns are pointed out.”

Geno served overseas with his son, Joshua, and a step-son of his sister-in-law, also named Joshua. Geno left a great impact on his son, a main reason for why he also joined the Army Reserve.

“[Joshua Geno joined] without even asking me or telling me because if he were to talk to me first, I would have told him to go to the Air Force, not the Army,” Geno said. “[Joshua] said that I had so many stories about going to Central America and these other places, he wanted to be part of that. That’s why he joined the engineering unit in Decorah [and] for a short time, he was in my platoon.”

Geno would finish his tour, returning home in May of 2004; he then finalized paperwork to retire in 2005. He spent the remainder of his military career in the Ready Reserves, prepared to be re-activated at any time, until his retirement was official in 2014 when he turned 60.

Geno laughed and smiled while recounting stories from his military career, but wondered why his experience would be considered newsworthy. His adventures, accomplishments, and perspective are unique; perhaps he might share more of them when you when you next bump into him in Kalona.

Keywords

Army Reserve, Air Force, Larry Geno, Military, Iraq War, Vietnam War, Kalona, Iowa

If you enjoyed the fireworks displays of the Sons of AmVets at Richmond and at Wellman, you can thank the City of Kalona (and many other contributors) for helping to fund both displays.

The City of Kalona used funds from the WCRF municipal quarterly municipal grants to contribute $3,000 to the Wellman Display and $3,000 to the Amvets fireworks display, according to Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh. The funds were paid directly to J&M Displays out of Yarmouth, IA for Richmond and to City of Wellman upon getting verification of the cost of fireworks.

Both fireworks displays took considerably more funds from other contributors. The Sons of AmVets recognize the donors to their fireworks with a thank you ad on pages 6A and 7A of this edition of The News. You can thank all those businesses for making the July 3 fireworks possible.

“The goal is to help improve the fireworks displays that are attended by Kalona residents,” commented Schlabaugh in explaining why the Kalona City Council approved the fireworks donations since the City of Kalona doesn’t have any fireworks.

I’ve always enjoyed fireworks and everything that happens on Independence Day including the placement of over 350 flags by Kalona Optimists on lawns of homeowners and now at Kalona City Park. All this helps remind me of the Declaration of Independence and appreciate our founding fathers.

I was disappointed to read in the Sunday Cedar Rapids Gazette that a professor at Drake University tells her students that the American Revolution that resulted in the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was completely unnecessary. She says the United States should have remained tied to the British similar to what Canada did.

I also find it disturbing that vastly overpaid professional athletes dishonor the American flag and all that it stands for by kneeling or refusing to stand for Old Glory at games. The singing of the Star-Spangled Banner and raising of the flags is one of the things I have enjoyed before the start of sporting events in high schools, colleges and professional games.

The News will be publishing the Kalona Area Visitors Guide in late July for distribution across the state and to be handed out at the Kalona booth at the State Fair. The News will be printing 16,000 copies to help promote Kalona and nearby communities including Wellman, Riverside and Washington. Advertisers from all those communities and Iowa City help to make this popular publication possible.

The Kalona Area Visitors Guide is also used to help introduce newcomers to our communities.

If you have not yet been contacted about advertising in this guide, please get in touch with publisher Ron Slechta or ad designer Anna Kahn of The News staff by calling 319-656-2273 or stopping by The News at 419 B Avenue, Kalona.

KALONA — Manufacturing company CIVCO Medical Solutions has announced plans to move out of its production location in Kalona to a consolidated company site “in the Iowa City/Coralville area” by 2025, where it will also move its corporate headquarters, currently on Jones Boulevard in Coralville.

The company said the push change would make its affairs more efficient, but not result in any workforce reduction.

“We are excited to bring our manufacturing and corporate functions together under one roof in Coralville,” said CIVCO President Robin Therme in a news release last week. “These changes will allow for improved logistics and capabilities, while also supporting our current growth and what we anticipate in the future.”

The change would vacate a 43,000 square foot, industrially zoned building in the city, leaving it open to a new company.

Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh said the lot would stay on tax rolls under CIVCO’s ownership if a buyer wasn’t lined up in time for the manufacturer’s move. Still, he said the city would feel the loss of such a major business, when the time came.

“We did meet with their leadership and we understand their reasoning for the decisions they’re making,” he said. “It does impact Kalona and our business community during that downtime, if there is any. Because (employees) do shop locally, they do eat locally, they purchase gas, groceries, live, all those sorts of things.”

That said, there may be little to no gap in occupancy for the building. Schlabaugh said he was optimistic about finding interested parties.

“We’re hopeful that the quality of the building, the quality of our community, will make it a great draw for the next CIVCO of Kalona,” he said.

Washington Economic Development Group Executive Director Mary Audia is one of a handful of people helping to find a replacement for the company. With the move two years out, that search is just beginning.

Audia said the lot could be broken into smaller pieces for new buyers, possibly under the same roof. Such an approach would broaden the community’s options.

Workforce is another piece of the puzzle. Audia said many of CIVCO’s employees already commuted from out of town, and that the availability of labor for a new company in Kalona would depend heavily on its sector and business model.

“It kind of depends of the type of industry, or if it’s a local industry that’s already established, that plans to grow,” she said. “If it’s smaller, incubator type of situations going in there, I think that’s a lot more doable, because that’s kind of how CIVCO started … they gradually grew into the company they are today.”

In any case, Audia said the lot was a top-notch location, close to larger population centers like Iowa City and Washington, and situated along highways 1 and 22.

“You can basically get wherever you need to get … it’s super, super accessible, and very visible,” she said. “We’re actually kind of excited to see what can grow next in that area, because obviously it’s worked great for CIVCO.”

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KALONA — A handful of area students are spending this summer working in construction, building a market-ready house from start to finish close to downtown Kalona. Project organizers called the effort a slam dunk for education, workforce recruitment and the local housing market.

"It’s rare when you have a project that is a public project — and we’re using public funds to start the seed money to make it sustainable — that it is met with almost 100% positivity in the community,“ Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh said. ”And I have yet to have anybody approach me and say, ‘I don’t think that’s a great project.’“

The project is a collaboration between the city, the Greater Iowa City Area Home Builders Association, a wide array of supporting sponsors, local businesses and students of Durant, Washington, Mid-Prairie and Highland schools. With some city startup money, the site is both a source of paying work experience, and a future affordable home for incoming Kalona residents.

Schlabaugh said the city bought as much of the building material as possible from local suppliers, and often lined up participants for related jobs in the community. The effort has drawn abundant praise from those businesses, as well as from nearby schools and area elected officials.

The city administrator said he hoped to make the student-built housing initiative an annual affair.

“We’ve met with (City) Council, and we’d like to make it sustainable, to where we can continue this,” he said. “We’ve had great success with students, we’ve had great success with the community. So yeah, I think we’d continue to look at what properties we could remove, and put something different on.”

Last year, students worked to restore a neglected house in Kalona. This summer, they’re building a duplex from the ground up on the lot of the former oldest house in town.

“This is just something I can’t do in my own school,” said Project Supervisor Tim Rouse, an industrial arts teacher from Durant. “It’s an opportunity to build a house, or the majority of the house, with kids. And it’s in the summertime, instead of during the school year … the kids get to work right alongside the plumbers, the electricians, the brick and block layers.”

Rouse said each student gained immeasurable construction skills and a network of peers over the course of the project.

“It’s amazing to see the growth, even in 10, 11 weeks,” he said. “Some of them struggle, the first few days, to just pound a nail in straight, and that kind of stuff. Or use a tool, and know what a tool is … and a lot of these kids, they’ve never met each other before. And by the time the summer’s over, they’re friends and they communicate back and forth.”

Kyan Nash, a recent graduate from Mid-Prairie, said he worked on last year’s project before returning for round two this summer.

“It’s what I’m going to college for, plus I enjoyed it and it was fun last year,” he said. “When they told us it was going to be more to do, I was interested.”

Andrew Shepherd, a Washington home-school student, said he found the experience insightful as well.

“I designed the trusses and the outside walls, and I thought it was really neat to be able to put everything up while doing it,” he said. “I liked putting up the walls, mainly on the main floor … that was super fun to start off with.”

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Cheryl Allen

Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2023 1:02 pm

Cheryl Allen

After the ribbon was cut on the Streetscape exhibit inside the Wahl Museum at the Kalona Historical Village on Aug. 6, 2023, those who went to see it were in awe. The streets of early Kalona were brought to life in a way that no one anticipated, thanks in large part to the work of Janet Ferry and Marilyn Yoder. Their Kalona Community Award recognizes their efforts and achievement.“It started with a box of photos,” Ferry says of her and Yoder’s partnership on the project, which began in 2016 after the original Wahl Museum building was torn down. The found box of historical photos needed to be scanned and archived correctly, which required some research. Yoder volunteered to help Ferry with that task, and then she joined the Streetscape committee.“Then several of us went to Milwaukee, because they have Streets of Old Milwaukee,” one of the first walk-through dioramas in the world inside the Milwaukee Public Museum, Ferry says. The group met with the exhibit’s curator, and then “one thing led to another, and then the committee was just full of people who wanted the history and the research.”The amount of research required to build a streetscape exhibit of turn of the century Kalona was extensive. Ferry and Yoder spent time at the Washington County Courthouse and the library’s genealogy room. They asked businesses for their records and abstracts; they interviewed people around town. To uncover the history of Native Americans in this area, they partnered with state archeologists in Iowa City. The staff at Edwards Creative, who designed and fabricated the exhibit, told Ferry and Yoder that their concept was unique because they involved the people of the community. The Grady, Peterseim, and Haberman families, just to name a few, were consulted and their stories included in the exhibit. Those Ferry and Yoder reached out to found photos and artifacts that could be used in the exhibit. “It just snowballed,” Ferry says.Just sorting through the artifacts was a daunting task, Yoder says. They had to determine which business items went with, which ones would be best to include in the exhibit, and which would be stored. They had to clean, take photos, and inventory everything.“That’s why we’re retiring a second time,” Ferry jokes. “First from being a teacher -- both of us were teachers. We know [about the] hidden work, so many hours outside the classroom and on weekends.”Their experience as educators helped guide Ferry and Yoder in creating the museum’s exhibits; now school groups are coming in on field trips that help them meet the standards in their curriculum.For Ferry, the motivation to tell the story of Kalona’s agricultural past – “the heart of many of the businesses at the beginning” – was personal, as she was born and raised in Kalona. “Once you get started, you get hooked,” she says. “I got hooked on that history of my community.”For Yoder, who is from Fort Dodge, “I just love to research and I love history,” she says. “I didn’t feel connected at first, but then I noticed that there was a Gideon Bear who had settled near Richmond in 1838 or something like that.” A lover of genealogy, she soon discovered that they were distant cousins.When researching previous generations, “you develop this pride of what they had to go through,” Ferry says. “There’s a lot of very positive things that come out of this kind of research. I hope somebody picks up the torch and continues.”In reaction to receiving a Kalona Community Award, both Ferry and Yoder agree that “it’s an honor” to be recognized by the community for their contributions.

Keywords

Janet Ferry, Marilyn Yoder, 2023 Kalona Community Award, Wahl Museum, Streetscape, Kalona Historical Village, Kalona, Iowa