Geez, it's Christmas time already. Just yesterday it was the 4th of July..As you get older the years go faster! S L O W down!!!....I had the privilege to attend Coralville Elementary and Coralville Jr. High....I spent 10 years. k-9 in what is now called Coralville Central Elementary. All the kids in Coralville went there until about 1963 or so when Kirkwood Elementary opened. EVERY year we had a HUGE Christmas 'show' in the gym. In those days the north 20' or so was a Stage, with storage for chairs underneath. Each grade level would put on a 'show' of some sort. We all filed in, grade by grade, and sat on the floor. The older kids sat farther back...perfect for pushing and shoving etc..We had to take music, so each grade level did a song, a teacher usually played the piano, and all in all we had a great time. Did I mention that we had Christmas trees in most of the class rooms? HORROR!!!! We made decorations, we put presents underneath, (stuff we made in Art etc) We sang CHRISTMAS carols, songs, stories etc. THE SHAME OF IT!! We had fun and everybody took part. Parents brought CHRISTMAS cookies, treats etc. We then had a CHRISTMAS vacation for a few days...
SO, Merry Christmas to you, and to you a good 'day'!!

Winter is at hand!

I guess! Man this past weekend of December 11 and 12 was not good. Not much snow but BIG winds. I have always contended that it is the wind that makes it harder to handle. Spring winds are really cold, and winter winds are the worst..It is like 3 deg right now in the middle of the day. So what I guess. MOVE to AZ or somewhere...no. I like it here,,,,well maybe not in Jan and Feb.. THIS IS December and it is acting like January..Isn't the traffic in Coralville something?..12th ave is all backed up at Holiday Road in the am, (all 4 directions) and especially at 5 or 6 pm. Maybe some of that traffic will go back over to 1st avenue now that it is done for the season. Let's hope. The Strip is the Strip and hooray for the middle (turning) lane. This has really helped. Boston's Restaurant has been gone for a month or so. Signs coming down,, let's hope we get a new 'joint' that is a fun place with good food and drink. Rumors abound that Tony Roma's Ribs is coming to Coralville. This is a real 'catch' if it happens. We have a lot of room for good places, and let's hope we get more! Make sure you disconnect your garden hose from the faucet! You will be sorry if you don't !!!
It's off to the Insight Bowl.. NOT for us, we will watch it on our own t.v..........Did you see that an NFL game in Minneapolis is/was cancelled due to snow.............huh??

Cold, I mean COLD!

Geez, it is only early December and it is COLD! Forget this crap. Sure makes you wonder WHY we live around Iowa...I have known a lot of people who move south, west, southwest etc. I also know lots of people who did that, THEN moved back! The weather is better, but you really don't know anyone..Lost souls always return. I can sure see leaving for Jan and Feb however. Saw a nice head on crash on 1st ave today. Some lady pulled out onto 1st ave from 6th street heading north, BUT she ran head on into a car (SUV,, Mercedes!) heading south in the passing lane. Kaboom.. Just because you pull out doesn't not mean southboun drivers can see you cutting into the other side. Ruined a couple of workdays there..The eagles are back along the Iowa river here in Coralville. My dad always told me that he and his buddies ice skated a lot above the dam. I was and still am, afraid to try it. I would think the current underneath could make the ice 'iffy' even in real cold spells. Let's not do that. I suggest that you go to Coral Ridge Mall and skate on their ice. It won't melt!...Keep warm thoughts!

Bring on the Holidays!!

I really don't mean 'bring on the holiday', but it made a nice headline..Thanksgiving has come and gone, and December is in the headlights. My experience with December over the years has been mixed. I have played catch on X-Mas day, I have had pipes freeze on X-Mas Day..I prefer to the former anytime! Remember, we have had a pretty nice and calm Fall. The sun makes a U turn and starts heading NORTH on December 21 or 22. Alright!
Had to laugh when someone said 'they opened up the intersection of 5th street and 1st avenue today', 'that is HUGE".....Well yes it is, HOWEVER this is not the first time this intersection 'opening' has been HUGE......Seems 5th street was U.S. Highway #6. Yep, the same U.S. Hwy #6 that goes thru Durant, Wilton, West Liberty, Iowa City, Coralville, (now the Strip) and on to Des Moines, and on to the West Coast, originating on the east coast.. RIGHT THRU Coralville! Now you know 'why' we had motels along 5th street over the years.. Blue Top, Pine Edge etc. Opening the 1st Ave(HaydenFryWay) and 5th street corner is nice and we sure were ready, but in 1921 this corner was 'opened' for the first time, as a PAVED intersection! Woohoo! Right on that corner, NW corner that is, stood Koser's Store. This was DOWNTOWN Coralville! When paving came from Iowa City to this corner, it extended on west to roughly the site of Lowe's in Coralville. THAT was a BIG deal.. Paving...imagine,, no mud, clean streets etc...The rest of the story is that Mayor Ed Koser (owner of Koser's Store on the corner) thought that this was such a big deal that he had 5 street closed from 1st ave, west to his house (about 100yds) and the citizens had a BIG street dance! Ha! Sounds like fun! Next time you drive thru this intersection remembe that in 1921, this WAS a BIG deal!! .........Now you know.....IF you have any questions about Coralville history, or thoughts on this subject, or need to know 'who' or 'what' or 'why' things happened here, OR if you have a question about 'why is that house there' or 'who built this building' ,, let me know and I will try my best to find out!! Till later,, "NO SNOW" !!

It is late Fall here in Coralville. Thanksgiving Day is this week. I swear the it was the 4th of July just a couple weeks ago. Must be me getting older...It is...Progress on 1st avenue has been HUGE the past week. You realize that once there is frost in the ground the paving company has to stop. THAT is why they poured a TON of cement last week. They really went to it! This project started early last Spring and is getting close. They will NOT be done with all the fancy stuff and the landscaping until Spring, BUT the street will open, all lanes, north and south in the next few days. The Clear Creek bridge work will go on 'forever', so to speak. Don't look for that to be completed for awhile. Do you remember the bridge PRIOR to the bridge we have now! Ha! 2 lane, steel beams along the sides, and wooden planks.. Yep, about 1970 or so, that is what we had until then.. This bridge and creek have actually been a pain in our 'butt' forever. The bridge that will be completed in the Spring is the 5th bridge at this location. Coralville has to have one here to accomodate crossing Clear Creek. With THIS new bridge you will be able to walk/ride/roller blade underneath along the trail system. Should be neat. I will not be roller blading, but I WILL walk the trail. Sounds neat. We will have access right to the confluence of Clear Creek and the Iowa River. This will be cool and I look forward to it.
Take a look at the X-Mas lighting along the Strip. This is pretty nice. Here is a fun one.. When I was a kid here in Coralville, we had Christmas lights too. We had ONE string of lights in town. ONE! They were put up annually by the City. They stretched across 1st avenue at the south side of the old Clear Creek bridge. ONE string. They were regular sized light bulbs in red, green, yellow. Good old X-Mas spirit. It was all we had and everybody was happy. Guess things have progressed a little since then. Nice to chat, make sure you say HI!

..Wow what a FUN weekend!. Lots of people in town for the IOWA football game. We went to Gus' Tavern on Friday Nite.. End of playing shuffleboard and LOSING 15-1.. I could blame my partner Patty, but it was not all her fault.. This is one of those games where you get 'pucks' and you slide them about 20' or so, and try to keep them on the 'lane'..The lane is covered with salt etc to make them slide. The other team can knock your pucks off etc....IF any of you recall, they had a game similar to this in bars back in the day. Most of those games had bowling pins, and you would slide your puck like you were bowling. The pins you 'hit' went UP, and you kept going against someone else etc. WHen the pins went UP the machine made a nice clangy, bells, etc noise,...kind of 'tavern' noise etc.. Fun....Since I did so bad, I assume I am not spending enough time in a tavern??....Hmm,...They had one of these 'bowling machines' in the old Wagon Wheel in Coralville. I played it a million times.. 1st time was when I was a kid..Lots of fun. My Dad would give me a dime or whatever just to get rid of me while he talked to other guys in Coralville...NO redeeming qualities to the game, but at least I felt BAD as to my prowess..The old Wagon Wheel is gone, but not forgotten. Koser's Store is gone too, but not forgotten. If you have any old photos that I could scan, let me know. I have a lot and am always working on more. I heard from friend over the weekend that I had NO idea of his whereabouts, etc. Tom Bruner found me on facebook. He lived on 8th avenue in about 1962 or so.. SEE, facebook can be fun! Cheer on the Hawkeyes this week! I am always here so drop me a line at rex@rexrb or here!!

Old Coralville fun

Man is the wind blowing today!! Whew! Tuesday and Wednesday I hear..Nothing we can't cope with.. I can cope with wind easier than a Hawkeye football loss..Not good. I remember when organized football came to Coralville. Fall of 1961. 7, 8 and 9th grades. We Coralville kids only knew sandlot football. We knew only the rules that a Dad told us about, etc. We were greenhorns, but we were hungry for learning...OH, wait, calisentics?, pushups, run, hit each other..??...More later on this.
I will be at Boy Scout Toop 207 this week for their big Court of Honor. Several Scouts will be receiving merit badges, advancement awards/recognition, AND it is Alumni Nite!! That's me! I sure enjoyed every minute, every outing, every meeting as a Scout in Troop 207. Same old troop, and they still meet at Coralville Elementary. (now Coralville Central) Lots of good fun, a lot of good guys from Scouting..Great family program..50% of the leaders in the Boy Scouts of America are women.
More later!

October already?

Geez,, what happened to September..??....When I was a young brain surgeon growing up in Coralville, the summers went so FAST, and the school year went slow...NOW that I am a grown up/adult brain surgeon,, ALL months go fast, EXCEPT Jan, Feb, and March.That is because GOD is of the mistaken opinion that most of us LIKE cold, wind, drifts, etc...wrong..

I suggest that you get out of the house and drive down to the Coralville Mariott. ( I love saying and typing those 2 words) Check out all the 'sitework' going on. This is the new home of the Univ of Iowa's new hospital/clinic, AND a new parking ramp as owned/built by the City of Coralville. PLUS you can see some of the earth berm over by the I-80 bridge for flood control. LOTS of scrapers, dump trucks, 'action'.....While you are out, drive down 1st ave and then on to 12th avenue and 5th street to see the new Coralville Center for the Performing Arts (that is so wierd to say that) and commercial/condo/office/retail center.. HUGE!! Skyscraper! A real downtown is being built before our eyes. A town so on the move yet we still are small enough to have Mayor's Cleanup Week.. I like it.
Don't forget that this little town is FULL of great people. We have lots of friendly folks who like living here. Whenever the town needs volunteers all kinds of people show up. Great enthusiasm. Hey, let's all get started on plans to do special floats or entries for the 2011 July 4th parade. Let's really do it BIG. Get the neighborhood to do something, march, decorate the neighbor's pickup, throw the kids in and drive IN the parade!!
I am working with a group that is doing just that!! FUN stuff!

Long as I am expounding, why don't you stop in to Burger King, or Iowa River Power/Flanagan's and spend a little $. The traffic can't be conducive to good business.. I will buy you a beer at Flanagan's when you see me THERE and tell me you read this blog!

Geez, all of a sudden it is Fall..What's the deal,, the calendar ALMOST says October, and instantly the temperature drops....Can't it wait until late November or something..IF you have not driven past the HUGE new Commercial/Theater/Office/Condo building going UP (6 stories!) at the corner of 5th street and 12th avenue, you should do so. LOTS of guys working, 2 big cranes, tons of trucks, bricklayers, cement pumps....., wait, there is MORE construction on 1st avenue!! Man, what a mess, BUT it is progress. If you have a street in front of your house or business, then you and other suffered thru the mess of construction.. This 1st Ave Project will be nice when done.. until then,,, what a mess...Since I am at the IOWA football games on gameday I have no idea on the traffic challenges on 1st avenue, but to be honest, I have not heard a word..When I was a kid in Coralville, we just walked to the games. MANY times I met up with Ronnie Kron, Steve Seemuth, Danny Lenoch and others, and we just walked to Kinnick Stadium. In the 50s it was just Iowa Stadium... We sometimes sold pop at the games.. I bought a Diet Coke at the Ball State game and I THINK it was $4 or $4.50.. When I sold pop it was .15......!! The change in our nail aprons was sticky, and messy... Oh well, we made anywhere from $5-6-7-$8 or more on a game..
NICE days ahead to get out and drive around Coralville if you have time.. NO, take time, this is a great town and make sure you stop and get a pop or something and enjoy it...The Coralville Drive Inn Theater opened 58 years ago....................................

Is it FALL?

Can't be! It was JUST the 4th of July! The Coralville Parade was great, and we had fireworks! NOW Labor Day is gone too!! Man......Sure seems like the days, weeks, months, and yes, years go by quickly....Faster pace, faster traffic, MORE information, NOW, NOW, NOW,, get used to it or get out of the way I guess.
Have you ever seen a construction/war zone like 1st avenue in Coralvillle? Now THAT is a construction zone.. IF you take your eyes off the road or make a tiny move in the steering wheel, you are over the edge! BE careful.. Cement trucks going into and out of the Hawkeye Cement plant, the normal/regular 1st ave traffic, ...I met an incoming ambulance the other day. I was north bound and 'he' was southbound..He was running 'hot' so I drove into the parking lot (what's left of it) of the brickyard.. Say, did you know the brickyard is moving to Iowa City? Yep, the City of Coralville bought the brickyard...Hmm, great place for a hotel, fast food, ..etc, but I think the land will be part of the big master plan to build a river edge park, community area etc. Should be neat!
I was out of town for the longest period in my life since 1974. I spent 2 weeks at the Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia in late July and early August. 40,000 Scouts!! I worked on Staff and had a great time. 2 weeks of sleeping in an Army tent, on an Army cot, and in heat of the da anywhere from 102, 105 and up to 108 degrees..and to think I VOLUNTEERED and PAID to get this opportunity!!!.....................brain lapse..I had FUN!!

More soon!

NICE and HOT today! Mid July and I love it. Don't gripe,, can you remember the -20 last winter and the God awful winds, drifts, etc. FORGET IT!! I like it HOT!

Reminds me of when I was a kid. Hot days mean 'swimming or water' in any town.. Well, in Coralville that meant, Iowa River....There was no pool at that time. We DID ride our bikes to the Iowa City pool a lot. Lots of fun. The hill on Rocky Shore/Park Road was steep going TO the pool, but great and downhill on the way home! We would go down as fast as we could, then NOT pedal and see how far we could go. Our next 'stop' was the Zesto Ice Cream store, right where the old Tom Riley Law Firm building is today. (next to the train trestle) We could get a cone and hang around, then get on the bikes and pedal home, KNOWING that we had to ride on the north side of the Strip.. This allowed us to ride into the driveway of all the businesses!! We would zoom thru the overhang at the Alamo Motel, just outside the Manager's Office, across the narrow drive of the Dog N Suds, then the BIG wide open driveway of the Hudson Oil Station, down and across the 'dinger' at the Cities Service station (making sure we rang the bell) then around the corner and across the skinny, narrow little bridge across Clear Creek. NOT the one that is there today, but an older 1.5 lane streel span with planks that was moved to this site in the 20s.. That bridge was there until the early 70s or so.....NOW it is being widened to 4 lanes!!...THEN we made it to Koser's Store on the NW corner of 1st Ave and 5th street for a cold bottle of Red Rock Cola.. FIVE CENTS for 7 oz bottle.....We did this same thing a MILLION times!! If we did not want to ride bikes to Iowa City we went swimming in the Iowa River...so many stories, so much fun, so long ago..........................................

JUST had fun at an event that is pretty cool.. I helped again in the annual 'flag up' job at the Coralville Cemetery. The Coralville American Legion erects approx 150 flags on poles AND places approx 125 flags on the graves of our heroic Veterans. Today was the day, in anticipation of Memorial Day, 2010 Ceremony at 11:15 on Monday, May 31.
Take time out of your day to think about our Veterans and to just say 'Thanks" to our Veterans.. Kind of a hard time for me at the Cemetery. Lots of my Family are there and lots of my old friends are there. There is certain certain piece and solitude as earned by those there that exudes....Kinda heavy stuff, but trust me, we will all be there someday. ( but not now!!)

Stand TALL for our Veterans and the U.S. Flag.!!!

Finally, some good old-fashioned hot weather. I love it! Way better than -10 or -20 and big winds and drifts....That really is BAD!!
Makes me HOPE that all these road projects can get a good start and stay started. We need a long dry spell with some heat! Reminds me of the summers here in Coralville when I was a kid. Nobody had a/c that I can recall. At our house at 701 8th street, we used the fan system. My Dad, Brandy, had it all figured out.. He bought a nice 'box fan', (but is was more of a cage fan, with NO box around it).. It came with a frame. He would open up the window, (slide it up) put the frame IN the window opening, hang the fan on the frame, and point the fan OUT.. Yes out...His theory was the fan would suck the 'hot' air out of the house, and cause 'cooler' air from the outside BACK into any open window in the house.. Once the fan was cranked up, he would go to both bedrooms (2 br house) and open one window in each room. VOILA!, instead of hot, stale air in the house, we now had a nice 'cool' breeze all nite long...Remember, 'cool air' can be misleading.. You usually laid there in a sweat until 2 or 3 in the morning, then fell asleep under your own drowziness... This was our a/c until we moved to 702 11th avenue in 1962 or so. Our 'new house' had central air!! WOW!!.............but, but, but, it was an older setup. Instead of sending the condensate water down the floor drain, my dad hooked the line up to a garden hose and whenever the a/c would run, we would be automatically watering the grass. Pretty neat huh? Not really. My brother and I had to CONSTANTLY move the stupid house and attached sprinkler ALL THE TIME. If we left it in one spot, Dad would see it, and we got our butts kicked. So on on nice, hot, summer day back in the 60s, we either roasted to death, OR we had central air with the sprinkler job........We all survived and now with today's a/c units, it is easy living! I asked my Dad, and Mom, how they handled it back in the 20s, 30s, 40s etc.. They said they slept outside sometimes, on the lower level of the house, in the basement, etc. BTW, I went to Coralville Elementary (Coralville Central these days) I attended grades K-9 there, with NO a/c. NONE. There was a window unit in the Principal's Office....Today's kids have it made........

Ah yes, flowers, rhubarb, mushrooms, gas prices UP, Coralville streep sweeper creating more dust than good....SPRING!! A sure sign of Spring when I was a kid here in Coralville was 'messing' around down at the Iowa River.. Yep, same spot as you see today. The old 'catwalk' was cool. Kind of shaky, but nobody seemed to notice. The catwalk today is new, sleek, strong, and serves as a nice trail link with Iowa City.. Before this new one, the old one served as a great fishing platform. On a Saturday morning in Spring, Summer, there would be AT LEAST 10-15 guys lined up along the catwalk, fishing. They all had their tackle boxes, minnow buckets, poles, etc. They would lean forward on their elbows on the steel rail, and 'watch' their line! ALL SUMMER LONG.. When you walked across the catwalk to the east end, you had to be careful not to trip over their gear, or touch their pole. YES they caught fish. The fish of choice was the channel cat, with great hopes of landing a big flathead. IT happened all the time. Now, at the east end you could make your way down to the river. The water swerved around to the east and created a real shallow, ripply, water flow. You just walked out into the water with your boots on, or most usually just your tennis shoes and got wet, (who cared) and walked out to the "Island'. The Island was south of the catwalk, (down river) about 30 yds. LOTS of kids (mainly) would wade out there, cast our bait up TO the water coming over the dam, and let our bait sink, HOPING to get a big cat or flathead. The island was all rocks. We would turn over rocks and grab little shellfish for bait. We did this ALL the time. We caught lots of carp, cat, flatheads, maybe a striped bass once in a while, AND some walleyes! Caution.. On the back side of the Island (which was about 50' by 100', was a deep hole. It was deep!..More on the Iowa River soon!

Here it is, the day AFTER tax day.. And to think, the paper says I have been working for Uncle Sam full time since January 1..Makes me sick!....Finally some nice weather. Actually it has been nice for a couple weeks. Lots of buds, birds, dust, green grass, golfers, a few convertibles, etc. Get out and get the 'stink blown off' as my Dad would say. I gotta tell ya, the BIG hole a the corner of 5th street and 12th ave IS A HUGE HOLE! I guess that is what a $20million dollar hole SHOULD look like. Park in the Library lot and walk to the edge of the hole some evening and take a look down inside..WHILE you are there, TRY to return a book to the handy dandy 'driveup book return' at the newly remodeled Coralville Library. Impossible. I HOPE the Library Committee and our City Council has NOT paid for this. NOT good. Clearly sold to the voters as part of the $8million bond issue was a 'driveup' book return. YOU be the judge. Now 1st avenue bridge over Clear Creek is half demolished. We have to weather the construction to get to the new bridge..Just think, people will come to a game this year and say, 'geez, they 'got a new bridge',,,, NEVER having to suffer thru the traffic snarls like the rest of us! Coralville will ride herd on these guys and get it done. MORE shuffling coming on the Strip and on 1st Avenue. UIHC has announced a HUGE new hospitial project in River Landing. If I recall 2 large hospital buildings with a total of 200,000sqft. (a HUGE amount) will be built, and the City of Coralville will build and leaseback ( I think) another parking ramp on that site. ANY town in Iowa or even the Midwest would do this in order to attract a rock solid business like a huge hospital. IT is time to ENJOY summer in Coralville. Have you eaten at the Brown Deer Golf Course? Take some friends some evening and have a cold 'drink' and a burger on the BIG patio, or get in the carbon burning ( I love it!) car and head to C.R. to see a Kernel's game. WE go there a lot! E-Z to go and also enjoy baseball....Walk across the Iowa River at the Iowa River Power Restaurant. STOP in the middle of the bridge and envision the 'long ago' grist mill on the site of the restaurant, horses, men working, etc.....THIS is the epicenter of the City of Coralville. ..Drive out to IHOP on the west end of the Strip, park your car, and walk part of the Clear Creek Trail System. ..Walk from Hy-Vee east to 1st avenue and back....Long walk, but this is Old U.S. Highway 6, Boston to L.A., right thru Coralville..Take time to see the Old School, the 'bend in the road' , the 'Mormon Rock', the Duck Pond, and more!! ...Open the windows in your house and let the wind blow thru!!!

IT is a great day in Coralville!!.........ALL days are great in Coralville.

Geez, all of a sudden the ice is gone from the pond next to Coralville City Hall, and immediately the ducks are back. Go figure. JUST took some photos of the 'setup' of the HUGE crane at the corner of 5th street and 12th avenue. This will really be a BIG project. It will be the home the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. (ala a community theater ish ONLY better!) Kind of 'different' for a town our size to have something like this of this magnitude, but it is under construction as we speak.....I surmise that the corner of 5th street and 12th avenue will be re-engineered at some point. There will be a LOT ( LOT ) of traffic on this corner during construction AND once all owners of the residential condos move in ( prices start over $200K) and of course the commercial/retail/business traffic for the offices, stores etc, AND for the cars/traffic/people who will visit the offices, businesses, performances etc.. Do you get the feeling that people will be parking 'everywhere'....?? I do....I am not convinced that the parking will work, however I just might have a plan to help....maybe....I will offer it when the time comes. My real estate office is just east about 1 block. ..In the HEART of the Coralville Financial District!My next door neighbors include Hills Bank, UI Credit Union, West Bank, Regions Bank, stockbrokers, attorneys, doctors, etc...then there is me!! Maybe someone will 'have to have' my office building.. I hate it when that happens!!..I have NO plans or thoughts to move or sell my office building. I have two great tenants. Miller Chiropractic ( Dr. Ryan Miller) and Iowa Audiology/Hearing Center ( Dr. Jason Aird)...This is a busy little office building in the middle of the 'action'!! .................I will have a new blog up soon.. AN ALL NEW BLOG...Seems I have made the committment to attend a 'once every four year event' in July/August of this summer. What is it?? Keep watching for my new blog, I will let you know!!

Winter and Tax blues

It is a bright, shiny, glary, but a little cold day here in Coralville. Sure it looks nice, but the weatherman still says, 'high 20s, low 30s'...' I am HOPING that 30s and 40s are SOON! It is almost March 1.. This global warming is not going well. It has been cold everywhere in the U.S. I thought the glow and inner warmth gained by watching IOWA win the Orange Bowl would carry me thru,, but on January 5 or 6 I got just a cold as I was BEFORE the game. I encouage all of you faithful readers to really make sure you watch your driving here in Coralville. Potholes are really hard on a car. REAL hard. You can blow a tire and bend a rim real easy, AND throw your car out of alignment very easily. Watch it.. Can't help but HOPE that the recent announcement by UIHC will be a HUGE economic gain for Coralville and the Area, but for the people who visit as well.. Did you know that Coralville will be building a parking ramp next to the new UIHC near the Marriott? You do now...Did you know that Coralville's budget will RAISE property taxes by about $20/$1000 assessed value.. NOT good. NOT cheap. NOT Happy.. Coralville needs to realize, and SOON, that jobs, programs, .....MIGHT need to be cut. We are a dynamic town, a progressive town, a town that is in good financial shape, a great future, great things ahead, but we are also in the high tax business. City leaders should THINK about the future..I KNOW they do, I think they do a great job, we have a real good staff and employees. We DON"T have a bottomless pit of money. Keep an eye on Cablevision Channel 5 for budget hearings!.

Mr. Groundhog has spoken

So will it be true? 6 more weeks of Winter..Think of this,, since Christmas, and mostly in January, we Coralville'ians have been treated to: Snow, wind, drifts, ice storm, rain, thunder, no sunshine, fog, whiteout conditions, below normal temps, below 0 temps, and more!! Can't stand it to even try to think of 'more'.. When I was a kid up on 8th street in Coralville, say, mid-50s, the Town of Coralville owned a road grader, (remember those?) AND a little Ford "N' tractor with a canvas top that had plastic windows...When we got snow, the GIANT road grader would go all around town grading the streets. Now remember, NONE of the streets were paved,, just chip and seal, and they were open ditches everywhere. The road grader operator, Ray Kinsinger who lived in the 700 block of 7th avenue, would push/grade the snow into the ditches. Along behind the grader would come Ray's brother, Wally Kinsinger, (he lived in Kalona) on/in the Ford tractor. Wally had a plow/blade on the back, and he kind of 'cleaned up' the snow not handled by the road grader..This grader was cool, as Ray could make it 'lean to the right or left! The whole big thing would lean! Ray also operated this big monstracity standing UP. It had about 10 handles next to the steering wheel.. Up, down, left, right, angle, raise, lower,, etc. It was fun to watch! The tractor followed right behind the grader, so if you lived on the other end of town, you had to wait all day! Too bad! Take heart when you see Coralville's snow crews these days, as I think they do a good job! .....No roadgraders though!!