T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY During Wednesday morning’s regular meeting, Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO John Hall, left, and Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) Executive Director Danielle Lekin, right, address the Marshall County Board of Supervisors about potential use of county grounds including the courthouse property as part of the upcoming RAGBRAI overnight stop in Marshalltown.

As planning discussions ramp up for the upcoming Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) overnight stop in Marshalltown on Wednesday, July 22, Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO John Hall and Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) Executive Director Danielle Lekin came before the board of supervisors on Wednesday morning to discuss the potential use of the courthouse grounds and other county properties for the one-day event.

Hall, who is serving as one of two Marshalltown RAGBRAI co-chairs along with Kyley Leger, addressed the board with the caveat that plans are continuously changing based on new information and working with various partners and organizations.

“There’s been no attempt at trying to subvert any requests or come to you at a later time when plans are set. It’s really a reflection of ensuring that we are a little bit more finite in our plans before we come and start making a bunch of requests so that we don’t have to keep coming back and forth if things are changing,” he said. “So today, what I really wanted to open up a discussion about was use of not only (the) courthouse lawn but potentially other county properties as well related to the RAGBRAI events coming through on the 22nd — specifically, the downtown area for the entertainment and events activities.”

The tentative plan is to center the entertainment around the downtown area and the space around the courthouse lawn with the main stage likely to be situated at the intersection of Center and Main streets. The bus stop on the south side of the courthouse is set to serve as the transportation dropoff for the three different shuttle routes that will be running through town.

Hall also acknowledged that the Marshall County Veterans Affairs (VA) department intends to use the Veterans Memorial space on the southwest side of the courthouse grounds for its outreach efforts, and the potential use of the horseshoe parking lot on the south side will depend on whether court proceedings are held that day.

The final discussion piece Hall addressed is the use of the east parking lot off of 1st Avenue, which is usually reserved for county employees.

“We recognize that this is an inconvenience, but it is an inconvenience for one day with a pretty tremendous economic impact back to the community and the county,” Hall said. “Our vendors that are gonna be placed throughout town are in need of closer parking if available… If we can minimize traffic on that road, utilizing it or leveraging it for something like vendor parking, that’ll minimize the coming and going traffic on that route and provide some closer access for them to get to their vehicles if they should need it.”

He suggested that having county employees park south of Church Street for the day would make for an easier time coming and going. Lekin, who is serving on the RAGBRAI Marshalltown executive committee and chairing the events and entertainment committee, then joined Hall at the podium and, in response to a question from Supervisor Carol Hibbs, said the vendors would be setting up the night before (Tuesday, July 21), and the intention is to close all of the side streets from 1st Avenue to 2nd Street along with closing Main Street from 1st Avenue to 3rd Street.

The music will start at 1 or 2 p.m., and the beer garden will open at 11 a.m. Hall then wrapped up their initial remarks by noting that they didn’t have a formal request prepared yet, but they wanted to be proactive and gauge the board’s initial reaction.

Lekin said Marshalltown City Clerk Alicia Hunter has reached out to court officials for information about any proceedings that day but hasn’t heard anything back yet. County Buildings and Grounds Director Lucas Baedke, who is involved with a pair of RAGBRAI committees himself including electrical, spoke to the board by phone and indicated that he didn’t have any issues with the tentative layouts and plans.

“Danielle and I have talked about what vendors, kind of, can go in the yard and what needs to be pushed to the sidewalk or the street, so I think we have a lot of that kind of handled on the back end, and I don’t think it’s really necessarily for approval in this aspect. I think I’m pretty happy with it,” Baedke said.

He acknowledged that asking employees to park elsewhere that day would be a temporary inconvenience, but he also stressed the importance of supporting downtown events.

“If our employees have to walk a little ways, I am in support of that, I guess,” he said.

“It’s a wellness program,” Marshall County Auditor/Recorder Nan Benson joked.

Lekin added that the tentative plan is to start shutting down the downtown roads on the Tuesday evening before the RAGBRAI stop once restaurants have wrapped up their business for the night, and she and Baedke discussed maintaining parking options for Zeno’s Pizza customers. The courthouse grounds event space is set to be completed by May 27 for the first MCBD event there, according to Lekin.

Board Chairman Jarret Heil did not feel that any official action was necessary on Wednesday morning, but Hall reiterated the desire to engage in conversations with county officials proactively.

“It sounds like, generally, there’s consensus around the utilization of (county grounds), but the final plans need to be worked through. The formal application needs to be submitted, and then we’ll plan to bring that back,” Hall said. “We recognize all this is subject to change on our end, and certainly, there’s some pending questions about court operations and things like that, but we’ll work to finalize that. But we appreciate the support on this.”

“Sounds like we’re on the right track,” Heil added.

Lekin stayed at the podium for the next agenda item pertaining to a series of upcoming MCBD events involving the courthouse grounds, including which ones will feature alcohol being served.

“All of our events really focus on music, food and fun and just having something for the community to do. It gets people down here. They can see all the new businesses that we have downtown. It gets people into the restaurants. It gets people into the stores,” she said. “The goal of our events is always to increase foot traffic and have a significant economic impact on our downtown businesses.”

The intention, she noted, is to close Main Street for all of the events along with a larger area during Ridiculous Day in July. A motion to approve the proposal for said events passed by a unanimous vote. Heil described the slate of events as “exciting” and an opportunity to get downtown “hopping.”

“Our theory is ‘You built it, so we’ll use it,'” Lekin said. “We appreciate your support, and we’re excited about our schedule this year.”

The event schedule is as follows: Rev Up Downtown on May 27 from 5 to 7 p.m., Live After Five on June 12, July 17 and Aug. 7 from 5:30 to 7 p.m., the Taco Throwdown on June 24 from 5 to 7 p.m., Ridiculous Day on July 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Rally Around Downtown on Aug. 19 from 5 to 7 p.m. and Haunt the Block on Oct. 22 from 4 to 6 p.m.

In other business, the board:

Heard proclamations for Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Heard an update from Phil Summers of the Marshall County Emergency Medical Services Association (MCEMSA), who indicated that the organization supports the effort to make EMS an essential service in Marshall County.

Approved the quarterly transfer of $750,000 from the Rural Services Fund to the Secondary Road Fund.

Set the public hearings on the proposed 2025-2026 Marshall County budget amendment, the proposed 2025-2026 Marshall County decrease in appropriations and the proposed 2026-2027 Marshall County budget for the next regular meeting on April 22 at 9 a.m.

Approved an agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) for the Revitalize Iowa’s Sound Economy (RISE) program in relation to the Marshall Ridge Farms expansion near State Center.

Approved the agreement for payment of maintenance expenses on the 2026 Summit Street maintenance project.

Approved the vacation of the alley lying in Block 6 of the unincorporated town of Quarry after a brief public hearing with no comments.