Small Town Solutions: Staying Vital in Rural Iowa

Coalville, Iowa, fine with growth without city government

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COALVILLE, Iowa – Ask people who live in Coalville if they see a need to incorporate this town of 651 residents southeast of Fort Dodge. They’ll say no. With support from the Solutions Journalism Network

Doing so would mean setting up city government with, at minimum, a city council. “We have all the services and amenities that we want,” Webster County Supervisor Chairman Mark Campbell, who lives between Coalville and Otho, said. “And, we can easily run in (to Fort Dodge) and, yet, get to go home and relax with a country setting.”

The lack of city government has not lessened interest in living in Coalville.

Iowa History

How One Egg Sparked A Romance In Iowa 117 Years Ago

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“Lizzie Gilday, Fort Dodge, Ia. May this reach my true love.” The message was written on an egg that Charles Percy H. Smith held in his hands in his office in Guines, Cuba, in 1900. It came to him in an unusual way, and his curiosity led him to a woman who might have been his true love. Iowa History, a weekly column, appears at IowaWatch on Saturdays. Cheryl Mullenbach is a former history teacher, newspaper editor, and public television project manager.

Iowa's Opportunity Gap

IowaWatch Connection Report: Closing Iowa’s Opportunity Gap

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White Iowans made strong gains in high school and college graduation rates, poverty, median family income and home ownership from 1960-2010 but black and Latino achievements in these areas grew far more slowly, or in some cases declined. This IowaWatch Connection radio podcast looks at ways some are trying to level the playing field.

A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy

Moves In Iowa Are Aimed At Reducing The State’s Black Imprisonment Rate

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Dave Selmon says there is no right way to do wrong. “It will catch up with you sooner or later,” the 56-year-old Burlington man said, tapping a lifetime of personal experiences. “I think we have too many young black men walking in darkness. A life of crime and trying to get things the easy way is not the answer.”

He didn’t always think that way. In the early 1990s Selmon was into selling and using drugs.