Bringing home with me

October 1, 2017

Let me paint a picture for you: A 27-year-old dreamer, leaves his parents’ home where he had just spent the night enjoying a football game, a nice home-cooked dinner, and the camaraderie that one can only find at home. As he begins the short journey to his house, tears begin to well up in his eyes. At first he tries to hold in the emotion. “A 27 year old man can’t be crying driving down the road.” Eventually however, the feelings take their toll. Tears fall down in a way that is difficult to discuss. In the dark of night, the man sits in his driveway and tries to wrap his head ...

Help shape Marshalltown’s destiny

September 10, 2017

This Tuesday provides another opportunity for all of us to exercise our right to vote and to shape our destiny as a community. Sept. 12 is the date of school board elections throughout the state of Iowa. Here in Marshalltown we have four people that will be elected/re-elected to fill the important role of school board member. In my humble opinion, there is nothing more important than education to a community’s prospects of a strong economic development record. Businesses and parents of all stripes and all walks of life study a community’s educational prowess when considering ...

Yes Mia, education is economic development!

September 2, 2017

Even though my sophomore daughter at Marshalltown High School, Mia, may not agree with me, this is a pretty exciting time for me and for our community ... school’s back in session! Although you may have heard me say this a number of times before, I’ll say it again … education and what comes along with it, is the No. 1 driver of strong economic development in a community. A community with a strong and advancing education system is a community that will be strong and advancing itself, now and in the future. We are fortunate here in Marshalltown to have some strong education systems ...

Iowans should be wary of AHCA

June 4, 2017

The American Health Care Act (AHCA), the bill recently passed by the U.S. House, is a storm rolling in from Washington, DC. Obscured by foggy notions of improved fiscal flexibility for states and broader insurance choices for individuals, the AHCA will in fact hamstring state budgets and wipe out coverage in ways that endanger the health of thousands of Iowans and the financial viability of the 118 community hospitals they count on. AHCA would effectively end the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion and radically restructure the entire Medicaid program through a per capita ...

Honor our ‘True Blue Warriors’

May 15, 2017

“Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” — Matthew 5:9 National Police Week (May 15-19) is a time for my fellow law enforcement officers to reflect on the loss of fellow officers nationwide. It is a time to honor the sacrifice those officers gave to their communities and to recognize the work that officers continue to do daily. I have been a police officer 28 years, 20 of those years serving as police chief for the City of State Center. In all my years, I have never seen the climate of hatred toward law enforcement so prevalent. Police are under ...

Fighting back against sexual assault

April 9, 2017

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and is a good time to focus public attention on the epidemic of sexual violence that plagues our communities. The natural inclination for most of us is to say that these problems occur somewhere else, in much larger communities. This type of thinking could not be further from the truth. Sexual assault is a common problem that all police departments in Iowa deal with on a far too regular basis. In 2015, the Marshalltown Police Department investigated 49 crimes related to sexual abuse, exploitation or sexual violence. So far in 2016, the police ...