T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Marshalltown Mayor Mike Ladehoff stopped by Woodbury Elementary School on Friday morning to ask first grade students about their big ideas for the future of the community.

Marshalltown Mayor Mike Ladehoff made a special appearance inside Mrs. Meling’s first grade classroom at Woodbury Elementary School on Friday morning, and he was there for a reason — he needed students’ help.

After explaining some of the basic functions of city government and its various departments, Ladehoff said he had “a problem.”

“I’m getting kind of old, OK? And I’ve been doing this mayor/city council thing for a long time, and if you have a problem or need something, what do you do? You ask for help, right? That’s what you should do. You ask for help from your parents, your teachers, your friends, everybody like that,” he said. “So I tried to come up with some new things for Marshalltown. It’s your city because you live here. You should be proud of Marshalltown just like you should be proud of Woodbury School and your family… The problem that I have is I can’t think of anything that would be neat in Marshalltown or something neat to do. What should we have?”

The mayor then asked the students for their ideas, whether they blurted them out on the spot or took some time to think about them, and promised to communicate with their teacher once they have all been collected. The floodgates then opened as the students began to share their thoughts — they wanted everything from a jump/trampoline park to a rollercoaster to an aquarium to even another school.

“When ideas start coming up, what happens? More ideas start coming up,” Ladehoff said.

The mayor took the opportunity to inform the students of the soon-to-be-opened Water Plaza at Mega-10 Park, which is slated to be operational by this summer.

“That just started with an idea, and it took us four years from doing the idea to do everything,” he said.

He also let the kids know that a big Fourth of July fireworks show is planned to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Ladehoff concluded with some thoughts on his favorite animals and reiterated his ask that the students write down their ideas and share them with their teacher, noting that they may someday be shared in the newspaper, on the radio or on TV.

Ladehoff said he planned to visit the Marshalltown Community School District’s (MCSD’s) other elementary schools to make a similar pitch before sharing the results of his fact-finding mission. Afterwards, Iker Alvarez told the T-R he would like to see a truly one-of-a-kind hybrid: a waterpark-aquarium-zoo combination, and Evelynn Sanchez suggested an outdoor trampoline park.

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

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.