Home Care In Waterloo, IA

Waterloo may have found a solution to one of its brownfield sites.

The city, in collaboration with the volunteer-run Waterloo Development Corporation (WDC), has spent years mulling over what to do with the industrially polluted lot near the John Deere Museum and riverfront, and may have settled on an answer: a youth sports complex.

The site has been vacant for nearly 20 years, but soon may spring to life with the possibility of eight full-size basketball courts and enough volleyball courts to host a 96-team tournament, as well as pickleball to keep the space occupied during off seasons.

Jim Miller is on the Board of Directors for the WDC. He said that the facility makes sense not only for the Cedar Valley, but for the region at-large.

“This was an area where we knew people were leaving town every weekend to go to these facilities around the Midwest.” he said. “We didn’t have anything comparable to keep our families in the community as well as bring in others.”

He cited a feasibility study conducted over the past year as a strong argument for moving forward with construction. According to it, each event hosted by the Waterloo Court Works could wrangle the city up to a million dollars.

Fundraising is ongoing, and nothing has been set in stone, Miller said; the first phase of the project is sitework, made possible by a $1.5 million reimbursement from the Iowa Economic Development Authority specifically for brownfield sites.

“The city owns the land right now and will be paying for the site work," he said. "Whether this development happens or not, work needed to be done on that site to make it ready for future development.”

The facility will be privately funded to the tune of a $32 million construction cost estimate. Miller and the WDC have presented their proposal before both the Waterloo City Council, the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors, and the Waterloo community, all of which, Miller said, have given an enthusiastic green light.

“There’s been a lot of phone calls that I’ve received asking, ‘Can we do this in there?’ or, ‘Can we do gymnastics and dance?’ The feedback’s been very positive that there’s potentially an option that could exist here in the Cedar Valley for a lot of different events to take place,” he said.

WATERLOO, Iowa (KCRG) - “It was like, I kind of feel like I made it moment,” Deandre “Sip The Kid” Smith said.

Smith says he got his moment last December when Netflix cast him in the reality show “Squid Game: The Challenge.”

Smith is contestant 181 out of 456 players. He says it’s been a long road to get this new recognition.

“I’ve been trying all these years of acting and the fact that millions of people apply for this show and this one little me from Waterloo, Iowa got chosen,” Smith said. “That’s a very emotional moment for me.”

He says he wanted to join the show to possibly win its $4.56 million prize in the hopes of giving his family a new life.

“Growing up [with a] single mom, you know struggling’s a big part of my life. No dad wasn’t around,” Smith said. “I became a man of the house at 14.”

Smith says he lost his mom and brother to gun violence months apart in 2018.

He says he wouldn’t be where he is now without the support of his mentor, Dave Hansen.

“Not having a dad and then having Dave around as a father figure, it helped a lot because you kind of get to see a man as a role model,” Smith said.

Hansen says he met Smith 20 years ago — and says Smith’s family has become part of his own.

“He, at some point, probably about the time his mom passed away, made a decision that he was going to go after everything he wanted,” Hansen said. “He was going to be a daddy. He was going to be a husband. He was going to be a TV star.”

Smith hopes the experience he gained, inspires others.

“Because I got chosen for that, I feel like there’s nothing I can’t do now,” Smith said. “I want my kids and my wife to look at me like if he can do it, we can do anything.”

Copyright 2023 KCRG. All rights reserved.

The significant storm that impacted the area throughout the duration of the day yesterday has now exited the region and snowfall reports have been filtering in. This blog post will contain both some of the overall snowfall totals through the entirety of the event as posted by the NWS along with the 24-hour totals from 7:00 AM 01/09 through 7:00 this morning 01/10.

A daily snowfall record was broken in Dubuque as well from 1957 (5.8") with a total yesterday of 11.5". In Waterloo, it is very likely that the daily record snowfall was broken as well from 1957 (3.8"), but the 24-hour total from yesterday has not been reported just yet.

Overall, this was quite the impressive storm in terms of snowfall totals with widespread totals reaching the double digits in many locations! Here's a look at the overall snowfall map through the duration of the storm.

Here are of the overall totals so far as provided by the NWS so far:

Now, here are the 24-hour totals reported from 7:00 AM yesterday 01/09 through 7:00 AM this morning 01/10.

With that, it looks like a little more snow is on the way later on this evening and even more possibly by tomorrow night and through Friday! Winter is here!

WATERLOO, Iowa (KWWL) -- The Waterloo Community School district's school board is reviewing the new high school plan for the first time Monday night.

The November announcement includes plans to consolidate students into one brand new high school by Central Middle school in 2028. Waterloo East and Waterloo West would be transitioned into middle schools, serving up to the 9th grade.

Superintendent Dr. Jared Smith says overall, community, staff and student response has been positive.

"People are saying they’re excited about the possibilities for the students, for the staff and really for the entire community," he said, adding, "the staff they see what’s in this for kids, they know how nice it would be to have a brand new state of the art facility, and, just what a cool opportunity that would be for a kid."

Monday's meeting is the first time the board will have any kind of vote in the project. It's a request for approval to have INVISION Architecture research the current schools, and render a plan for a new school. It is not a vote to move forward with construction or approving the plan as a whole.

"It’s not like we’re going to break ground next week, it’s not like we’re committing you know, money to the overall project; it’s simply 'hey we want you to take a deeper look at this,' bring back the information, so we know exactly what we’re looking at before we move forward," Dr. Smith says.

It's important to the district to keep plans in local businesses, and they have a history with INVISION for several recent projects.

"We’ve got a great relationship with INVISION, they have done all of the work out at Central Middle, the WCC, the WCCX, central renovations, so we felt good about that partnership we wanted to keep that going with them," Smith said.

The district is planning four town halls so far in 2024- at Kittrell Elementary, the Waterloo Career Center, Poyner Elementary, and Cunningham Elementary. Dr. Smith says he hopes as many people as possible show up to learn more.

"My hope is that we can address these questions, concerns, my hope is that people will see what the vision is for our kids, our community, our hope is that they feel committed to this project," Dr. Smith says.

One of the most frequently asked questions has to do with how the district plans to pay for this project. The district has already announced it does not require a bond vote, only board approval.

"The funding, people want to know is this going to impact property tax? And this project would not impact property tax," Dr. Smith says, adding, "we’re using the one percent sales tax, we’re using basically 10 years worth of that money to fund this project."

Another frequently asked question is concerning staffing. Dr. Smith reiterating, they do not plan to cut jobs for this plan.

"We feel like we’ve got a strategy in place to adjust to make sure that we fill- all of the positions are ready to go for that 2028 opening. Meaning that nobody in this district should fear that they’ll lose their job," he explains, adding, "may some staff be in other buildings other than Central? Absolutely, they’ll be placed in other buildings. However nobody should walk away feeling like their job is in jeopardy."

Right now, the district's plan has the board officially voting on whether to approve the project in 2025, with an official opening in 2028.

Dr. Smith says if approved, this plan will be one of a kind.

"We have an opportunity for this district to do something that really hasn’t been seen in the state of Iowa. The scope of this project, how many students are going to be impacted, the ability to meet the career needs of our students, is just unheard of, it’s unparalleled." he concluded.

You can watch the full meeting at this link.

June 8, 2023

Contact Information

Kellen Ashford ([email protected])

816-610-2132

LENEXA, KAN. (JUNE 8, 2023) – Today, at the Crystal Cold Storage site in Waterloo, Iowa, EPA Region 7 Administrator Meg McCollister presented a $642,400 ceremonial check to the City of Waterloo as a Brownfields Cleanup Grant selectee.

McCollister was joined by city leaders Mayor Quentin Hart and Community Planning and Development Director Noel Anderson, and Iowa Department of Natural Resources Executive Officer for Brownfield Redevelopment Program Mel Pins. This grant program is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

EPA has selected the City of Waterloo for this grant that will be funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Grant funds will be used to clean up the Former Rath Buildings property at 1442 Sycamore Street. The 4.4-acre cleanup site contains four interconnected brick structures and was operated as a meat packing plant from 1908 to 1985. Some of the remaining buildings are currently used for cold warehousing. The cleanup would remove the contamination of asbestos-containing building materials. Grant funds also will be used to conduct two public meetings and support other community engagement activities.

“The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a once-in-a-generation financial investment in our communities,” McCollister said. “We are incredibly proud to see a portion of this historic investment go to benefit the City of Waterloo, creating economic opportunity and a healthier environment for all.”

“We are strongly encouraged by the partnership between the EPA and the City of Waterloo to impact business growth and development through this sizeable grant, Hart said. “To see renewed activity in the historic Rath neighborhood will help ensure that the area is environmentally sound, produces more jobs, and expands Crystal’s business footprint: A win for all involved!”

These investments are part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to grow the American economy from the bottom up and middle-out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving over $470 billion in private-sector manufacturing and clean-energy investments in the United States. These investments will also create a manufacturing and innovation boom powered by good-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, build a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.

Background

EPA has selected these organizations to receive funding to address and support the reuse of brownfield sites. EPA anticipates making all the recently announced awards, once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.

EPA’s Brownfields Program began in 1995 and has provided nearly $2.37 billion in Brownfields Grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse. EPA’s investments in addressing brownfield sites have leveraged over $36 billion in cleanup and redevelopment. Over the years, the relatively small investment of federal funding has leveraged nearly 260,000 jobs from both public and private sources. Communities that previously received Brownfields Grants used these resources to fund assessments and cleanups of brownfields, and successfully leveraged an average of 10.6 jobs per $100,000 of EPA Brownfield Grant funds spent and $19.78 for every dollar.

The next National Brownfields Training Conference will be held on Aug. 8-11, 2023, in Detroit. Offered every two years, this conference is the largest gathering of stakeholders focused on cleaning up and reusing former commercial and industrial properties. EPA co-sponsors this event with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).

# # #

Learn more about EPA Region 7

View all Region 7 news releases

Connect with EPA Region 7 on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter: @EPARegion7