In the words of Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO John Hall, it was another great day in Marshalltown on Thursday evening as business leaders and local officials gathered at the Midnight Gardens to celebrate the successes of the past year during the 125th Chamber Annual Banquet.

“I’m getting the opportunity to say that more and more, and I truly believe it’s pretty indicative of the momentum we’re seeing here in our community,” Hall said.

After thanking the evening’s sponsors and Midnight Gardens Owner Luisa Ortega for hosting, Hall highlighted the theme of “Revitalize over Restore” and how it ties in with keynote speaker Jeff Siegler’s mantra of “Revitalize or Die” and one of the pillars of the recently unveiled Arts and Culture Master Plan. He also alluded to the Chamber’s upcoming downtown move and said he would be “out spraying weeds” every Friday morning at 5 a.m.

“We take great pride in downtown, and we’re worthy of having our downtown look pristine. So I challenge each of you to find ways to improve the beauty of the neighborhood whether (for) work or personal as we set the stage for who we want to be, and don’t settle. We are worth it, and you are all worth it,” Hall said.

He ran through the annual report with some key points including the State Esports commitment to hosting in Marshalltown, the relaunch of the Leadership Marshalltown course and the community’s selection to participate in the Kansas Leadership Center’s “Heartland Together” pilot program for entrepreneurship.

Like last year’s keynote speaker, Siegler, a writer and consultant, hails from Ohio and, as a result, has plenty of experience with watching small and midsize communities deteriorate over time. He grew up in Lima, a city of about 36,000 in the northwest part of the state, and shared stories of communities where the downtown areas had fallen into disrepair — one town, East Liverpool, was pejoratively described as “The Depression Belt” — and how that negatively affects overall civic pride and contributes to larger problems like the opioid epidemic.

“It sort of dawned on me that I feel worse when I’m here for four hours. What must it be like to call that home? How would it affect a person? How would it change somebody? How would it lead to distrust? How would it lead to negativity and pessimism and even mental health issues?” he asked.

According to Siegler, who now resides in the Pittsburgh area, the buildings that housed the businesses his grandparents once owned had become eyesores in Lima, and his parents didn’t believe he could ever have the same opportunities they once did by staying in his hometown.

He did not offer any quick fixes to the problem but instead asked those in attendance to work toward small changes one piece at a time: raising standards, prioritizing local business ownership and development, creating beauty, building a sense of community through cleanup events and block parties, stepping up code enforcement, encouraging historic preservation, recruiting high quality board members, avoiding shortcuts to progress and not simply accepting any investment as good investment.

“If your investment doesn’t make your town better, you’re spending money on getting worse, and there’s so much downward pressure from the economy, from the national chains, from whoever to say ‘You’ll take this project. This investment is good for you,’ and so our standards have dropped precipitously,” Siegler said.

Accompanied by Hall, City Planner Hector Hernandez Morales, Marshalltown Central Business District Executive Director Deb Millizer and other local leaders, Siegler spent most of his day Thursday touring the downtown area and various buildings, some with established businesses and others still in development, and he wrapped up his keynote address with an indication that he was impressed with the progress he had seen.

“Things keep getting better. Keep up the momentum, and everything can be fixed,” he said. “It takes a little time. It takes a lot of investment, but there is money available. Keep on the path. Keep going because every person in this room is affected by that downtown. Every baby that’s born in this community is going to have a different life depending on how this town looks and how it feels. It’s really true that our trajectory is defined by the towns that we live in and how people feel about them and our self worth and our sense of self identity.”

Before the banquet was adjourned, outgoing Chamber Board Chair Mike Miller presented the Community Impact Award to JP and Jennifer Howard, the owners of the Tremont on Main Restaurant, Tremont Grille and Tremont Inn and recounted the community support they received in their early days, from the opening of Muddy Waters coffee shop in 1993 to the launch of the Tremont on Main in 1998, the Tremont Grille in 2003 and the hotel in 2005.

“This is the easiest award or speech for something like this, this is the easiest one I’ve ever had to do because I’m basically winging it,” Miller said. “These people, Jennifer and JP, have given more to our town than nearly anybody… I’m really proud to stand up here and recognize and memorialize that that spirit, that stubbornness, that perseverance and mostly that love for our town.”

JP Howard was succinct as he stepped forward to accept the recognition.

“All I did was what you told me to do,” he said.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.