Three social studies teachers at the middle school worked on curriculum development during a professional development day while students had the day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Hawkeye Community College is asking voters in 22 school districts to approve a $25 million bond to fund expansions and renovations at the college over the next 20 years. The bond would replace outdated facilities and allow the college to continue job training programs. If approved, the average homeowner would pay $1.10 more per month for every $100,000 of home value.

1. $1.25
VOLUME 157,
ISSUE 3
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ANELIA K. DIMITROVA PHOTO
Social studies teachers Miranda Haugen, Whitney Dahlgren and Jason Groth worked on the curriculum
during a professional development day at the middle school on Monday. Students were home on Martin
Luther King’s Day. Wartburg student Jordan Manning also worked with the group.
Independent
Bremer county
by ANELIA K. DIMITROVA
editorcft@gmail.com
V
oters in 22 school districts
will be heading to the polls
on Feb. 3 to decide whether
Hawkeye Community
College could move forward with a
planned expansion.
Residents of 10 counties, including
Bremer and Black Hawk, are being
asked to approve a $25-million bond
so that the college can continue to
address workforce development
issues and cater to the needs of the
communities it serves.
A previous 10-year measure is
ending, creating the need for the new
bond referendum since community
colleges in Iowa are primarily funded
by issuing general obligation bonds.
If the bond is approved, the average
homeowner will continue to pay
$1.10 per month for $100,000 home.
The college, which is going to be
marking its 50th birthday next year, is
seeking to build two new centers,
renovate another, and continue to
expand job training programs in area
high schools.
In three overlapping phases, over
the next 20 years, the college plans to
build an $8-million adult education
center. The 40,000-square-foot state-
of-the-art facility will replace two
outdated facilities in Waterloo, the
Metro Center at 844 West Fourth
Street in Waterloo, built in 1962, and
the MLK Jr Center at 515 Beech St.
Additionally, a 75,000-square-foot,
$15-million Health Sciences
Technology Center will create a com-
mon roof for nursing, dental, physical
therapy and EMS, and provide space
for new programs.
Hawkeye Community College
President Linda Allen stopped at
Waverly Newspapers office on Friday
to explain the issues on the bond and
discuss the college’s strategic plan.
Allen talked about Iowa’s challeng-
es in recruiting and retaining skilled
The Neighborhood
Closet, located under the
water tower on Bremer Ave.
in Waverly, has been busy
making lots of changes.
In the last year, the store
has expanded from 7,000
square feet to over 10,000
square feet. Additionally, the
local can redemption facility
moved next to Dollar
General allowing
Neighborhood Closet to use
thatspacefora4,000-square-
foot warehouse.
“Our furniture and mat-
tress business grew to a
point where we have several
semis of merchandise com-
ing in every week, and our
physical space had to
expand,” said store manager
Erica Brand, “We hear from
many customers who come
in from a friend referral that
we have the lowest prices.
Hearing this from customers
is a great testament to our
team that we are doing an
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
GO-HAWKS STAY
UNDEFEATED
PAGE A10
County roads need fixing Gigabit internet
sounds great but
most won’t use it
Council holds
budget session
Hawkeye Community College
president explains bond issue
by DOROTHY DE
SOUZA GUEDES
editorcft@gmail.com
Gigabit internet speed
sounds great but is largely
unnecessary for the typical
home or business internet
user, experts explain.
“It sounds really nice and
makes a lot of good political
talk but it’s really wasted
bandwidth,” said Rich
McBurney, CEO of Butler-
Bremer Communications
based in Plainfield.
For about a year, the
company has offered speed
up to 50 mbps. By next year,
McBurney expects to offer
speeds up to
100 mbps.
One consider-
ation for
i n c r e a s i n g
s p e e d s
beyond that is
most elec-
tronics, such
as WiFi rout-
ers, max out
at 100 mbps, he said.
His company provides
services to about 2,700 resi-
dents in six Bremer and
Butler county communities.
About 60 percent now have
access to next-generation
broadband with speeds up
Neighborhood closet
celebrates re-opening
See GIGABIT, A18
See RE-OPENING, A18See COLLEGE, A18
PREPPING FOR SCHOOL
ANELIA K. DIMITROVA PHOTO
President Linda Allen came to the Waverly paper to explain the colleges
vision over the next decade.
ANELIA K. DIMITROVA PHOTO
The Neighborhood Closet is expanding its model of
serving the community.
RICH
MCBURNEY
CEO
by CHRIS DEBACK
news1@waverlynewspapers.com
The Waverly City Council
held a budget session meet-
ing to discuss the 2015-2016
plan Saturday morning.
This was the first of two
meetings about the City of
Waverly’s budget on sequen-
tial Saturdays. They also
held a budget meeting at
5:30 p.m. before the normal
City Council meeting yes-
terday.
Department heads pre-
sented their proposed bud-
get and answered questions
from the council.
Currently, the proposed
budget is $5,804,997, but
that will change between
now and when the budget is
finalized. It is a balanced
budget which is required by
state law.
“This budget, like I have
said a number of times, has
very minimal changes,” City
Administrator Phil Jones
said, “The reason we are
doing that because we want
to see where the state tax
level goes in the future, were
the property tax value grows
in the future.”
Since the meeting on
Saturday, the ambulance,
under public safety, has
increased their budget by
$135,000 from $43,000 to
by ANELIA K.
DIMITROVA
editorcft@gmail.com
This winter, as county
roads get bumpier and
drivers grumpier, patching
up potholes may not be a
sustainable way to fix the
roads.
The Bremer County
Board of Supervisors on
Jan. 12
signed a res-
olution urg-
ing the
Legislature
to find a
l o n g - t e r m
solution to
the county’s
deteriorat-
ing roads.
The motion, proposed
by District 2 Supervisor
Tim O’Neil, and seconded
by District 1 Supervisor
Ken Kammeyer, is similar
to the decisions made by
other supervisors in the
state at the request of the
Iowa State Association of
County Supervisors, which
wants to shed light on the
importance of a good
transportation system as a
catalyst for economic
growth.
The state’s Road Use Tax
Fund, which is generated
through the fuel tax and
vehicle registration, has
not increased significantly
since 1989, according to
experts.
In 2011, Gov. Terry
Branstand’s Transportation
2020 Citizen Advisory
Council found that the
state would need at least
$215 million per year of
increased funding over the
next 20 years, in addition to
the funding being provided
by the TIME-21 revenues,
just to meet the most criti-
cal needs of the state’s
See COUNCIL, A18
DUANE
HILDEBRANDT
SUPERVISOR
See ROADS, A18
www.waverlynewspapers.comWAVERLY, IOWA
Supervisors send
message to legislators

2. A18 NEWS TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015
WAVERLY DEMOCRAT
www.waverlynewspapers.com
Supervisors affirm need
for road funds to keep
critical infrastructure
CONTINUED FROM A1
$178,000 to include the purchase of a new ambulance.
That additional money is coming from a reserve account
that the city had been putting money into for such
events.
Public Safety, without reflecting the purchase of the
new ambulance, has a budget of $1,880,440 with police
asking for $1,686,724 and fire $150,716. That reflects 32.4
percent of the overall budget.
The police have budgeted for the purchase of Ford
Police Interceptor Utility while replacing the outdated
patrol in-car cameras with a new system.
The council members questioned Waverly Police
Chief Rich Pursell about why his department needed the
Interceptor Utility.
Pursell responded that it provides increased space in
the back seat. Police have sometimes, for bigger sus-
pects, had to lay people down in their back seat rather
than strap them in properly, he explained. It also receives
slightly better gas mileage on top of some other posi-
tives.
“We spend a lot of time inside the vehicle, so the
ergonomics of the vehicle was an important factor,”
Pursell said during the meeting. “The ergonomics of the
front seat and the rear seat. They come from a study that
Michigan State does annually.”
The city will tap into about $6,000 in Local Option
Sales Tax funds for the replacement of the vehicles.
Council member Dan McKenzie said that the issue was
discussed last year.
“I think the idea that we have with that is, that is a
funding source available, to make it available it needs to
be for capital items, not on going salaries and commu-
nity obligations,” Jones said.
Public Works, which includes public works adminis-
tration ($0), engineering ($0), streets ($307,685) and
equipment services ($90,605), has proposed a budget of
$398,290.
Health and Social Services is asking for $11,750.
Culture and Recreation, which includes the public
library ($861,266), leisure service administration
($172,216), parks ($342,927), Harlington Cemetery
($146,957), golf course and pro shop ($545,046), aquat-
ics ($93,273) and city hall and civic center ($135,881), is
asking for a total budget of $2,297,566. That reflects 39.6
percent of the total budget.
Community and Economic Development, which
includes economic development ($120,378), communi-
ty development and zoning ($148,931) and other agency
contributions ($63,968), for a total budget of $333,277.
General Government, which includes legislative and
legal ($112,395), executive administration ($290,204)
and account and billing ($386,075), for a total budget of
$788,674.
Lastly, the city has budgeted $95,00 for liability insur-
ance.
CONTINUED FROM A1
transportation infrastructure, according to the resolu-
tion.
While the county supervisors understand that
their resolution is largely symbolic in nature, they
hope their voice would help enhance the overall cho-
rus of voices making the case to the governor and the
legislators that a long-term solution is urgent.
Specifically, the resolution says, the motor fuel tax
revenues need to be increased to cover the $215 mil-
lion required to meet the critical needs; that the Iowa
Department of Transportation needs to be in a posi-
tion to provide state funds to counties and cities in
lieu of federal funds; and that the permit fee for over-
size or overweight vehicles needs to be increased.
County Engineer Todd Fonkert thinks some mech-
anism of funding needs to be made available as wait-
ing is a no-win game.
“The longer we wait to find critical funds for trans-
portation, the more expensive it gets,” he said.“One of
the possibilities may be a sales tax or a combination of
a sales tax on price per gallon.”
For FY 2009-10, Bremer County received
$2,278,923.39 from the Road Use Tax fund. For FY
2013-14, Bremer County’s fund totaled $2,685,834.01,
and to date, for FY 2014-15, that number is
$1,694,011.15.
“We are strictly in a maintenance kind of mode,”
Fonkert said.
Bremer County has 720 miles of roads, he added.
“The cost has increased but we’ve got to do more
with the same money,” Fonkert said.“In reality we, are
doing less with the same money because we cannot
afford the materials.We got more projects than we got
money for. Things are going to have to slide back or
stay stagnant for a while.”
Board Chairman Dewey Hildebrandt noted that
there are no easy solutions.
“Nobody likes to have a tax increase but some of
the roads we are driving on are beyond the point that
need patching,” Hildebrandt said. “The road leading
into Readlyn is atrocious.”
He added that railroad overpass north of Wapsie
Valley, which is also a county road, is also in bad
shape.
“It almost knocks the fillings out of your teeth,”
Hildebrandt said.
“If you want to get the bottom side of your car
clean, drive on it,” quipped Neil.
Gigabit speed is wasted bandwidth
CONTINUED FROM A1
to 50 mbps. Most choose
packages with speeds of 10
or 20 Mbps, McBurney said.
The higher speeds are
possible because the more
than 100-year-old company
has been gradually replacing
older, slower copper cable
with higher speed fiber-optic
cable. So far Shell Rock,
Tripoli and parts of
Clarksville have fiber optics
installed, with ongoing
installation in Clarksville.
“The fiber is just a better
alternative to provide these
high bandwidth services,”
McBurney said.
The company periodical-
ly evaluates the customer’s
need for increased internet
speed. Potential speed is
contingent on the technical
capabilities of the lines and
equipment linking custom-
ers to the internet. The older
copper lines can handle up
to 8 mbps, McBurney said.
Copper and fiber-optic lines
cost about the same so it just
made sense to replace aging
copper lines with fiber-optic,
he said.
It costs B-B about $3,200
per premise to run fiber optic
to the outside of a home –
and that’s why not every
company is doing it,
McBurney said.
For a town of 2,000 to
3,000 people the investment
could be about $5 million,
said Dave Duncan, CEO,
Iowa Communications
Alliance. “For one town.”
High-speed broadband
and the affordability of
expansion is a hot topic at
the Des Moines-based Iowa
Communications Alliance,
which represents more than
130 community-based tele-
communications providers,
such as Butler-Bremer
Communications.
The good news is there
are already incentives in
place to offset costs, Duncan
said.
For starters, there’s the
Universal Service Fund: A fee
on every phone bill goes into
this fund. Money is redistrib-
uted to high-cost service
areas because providers are
required to provide phone
service to all customers with-
in their service area. The
fund is being expanded to
include internet service,
Duncan said.
“USSF has been used to
build broadband networks to
many, many communities,”
Duncan said.
Other incentives include
the U.S. Department of
Agriculture broadband loan
program and federal stimu-
lus dollars – billions of dol-
lars – distributed between
2009-2014 for broadband
deployment.
“You’ve got all the differ-
ent programs…but they’re
not enough because it’s so
expensive,” Duncan said.
Unlike Butler-Bremer
Communications custom-
ers, not everyone in Iowa has
access to next-generation
broadband, which Duncan
defined as speeds of 25
mbps and up. But the Iowa
Legislature, Governor
Branstad and President
Barack Obama are talking
about ways to expand incen-
tives to offset costs, Duncan
said. The governor is looking
at ways to create incentives
for providers to “edge out” –
build access to more rural
customers, he said.
“If it was cheap or easy…
everybody would have
access – but it’s not,” said
Duncan.
Fiber-optic cable is not
the only cost. There is also
electronics costs on both
ends, sender and receiver.
For a home or business to
receive a fiber-optic signal,
electronic equipment is
attached outdoors that reads
fiber-optic pulses and splits
it between internet, televi-
sion, and telephone, Duncan
explained. On the other end
there is specialized equip-
ment that changes a signal to
light pulses over the fiber-
optic.
“Copper networks use
electrical pulses to transmit
sound, images, data, etc., via
switched networks. Fiber
optic networks use light
pulses to transmit sound,
images, data, etc. A single
voice call or a video or a data
message might traverse mul-
tiple networks and be con-
verted to and from electric
signals to light pulses,”
Duncan explained.
There’s just no substitu-
tion for fiber optics for the
best and fastest broadband
connection, he said. Duncan
and McBurney agree that
there are communities other
than Cedar Falls with gigabit-
speed capability. The equip-
ment used by Cedar Falls is
commonly used by local
telephone companies. As
soon as there is demand for
gigabit service those compa-
nies can fairly easily offer the
fastest internet speeds.
“So far their consumers
aren’t asking for it,” Duncan
said.
Communities offering
super high-speed broadband
have the most demand from
schools, sometimes due to
one-on-one laptop pro-
grams, and health care facili-
ties, due to the constant
transfer of large amounts of
medical data, Duncan said.
But requests for super-
fast internet speeds often
come on the entertainment
side, especially from people
who do live online gaming:
faster speed means, well,
faster shooting, Duncan said.
“The person with the fast-
est connection is going to
win,” he said.
Council holds
budget session
Neighborhood closet expands
CONTINUED FROM A1
excellent job in customer service.”
Samantha Speicher, who is the company’s marketing director,
said the company took a hard look at the mattress line. “In addi-
tion to the several mattresses we already offer that are under
$100, we wanted to find the highest quality low price mattress
that we could,” Speicher said.
The company visited with several manufacturers and decided
that it would make the most sense to create the Refreshed
Collection.
“As aWartburg alum, I have experienced the importance of the
Waverly Community and we wanted to bring community into
this mattress line,” Speicher said. “We have four mattresses which
are named after places that are local and that are important to the
community.”
The mattresses in the Refreshed Collection are the Kohlmann
Firm, Waverly Plush, Wapsipinicon Pillow Top, and Cedar Gel
Hybrid. Neighborhood Closet wanted to offer the highest quality
standard and these beds have some of the longest warranties in
the industry, the Cedar Gel Hybrid, for example has a 25 year war-
ranty.”
“Though several things changed at Neighborhood Closet,
many things are still the same,” said owner Amy Schneider. “We
improved our children and women’s categories by expanding the
space in those categories and working with our consignors and
suppliers to get even more great merchandise.”
Neighborhood Closet opened a Mattress & Furniture Outlet in
December.
That store is now doing its formal grand opening. Schneider
said,“WithallthechangesitmadesensetodoaGrandRe-Opening
in Waverly, in conjunction with the Grand Opening in Evansdale.
We are planning to open several large format Neighborhood
Closet stores as great people and qualified real estate become
available.”
CONTINUED FROM A1
for further economic devel-
opment in a competitive
global economy.
In the field of nursing, for
instance, she said that close
to half of Iowa’s nurses are
over 50 years old, and are
looking for opportunities to
retrain because they can no
longer handle the physical
work.
Providing opportunities
for health-related jobs for
them is essential, Allen
added.
“This allows us to increase
capacity in high-demand
programs such as nursing,”
she said.
The college will also use
the money to update Grundy
Hall, which was built in 1983,
to the tune of $2 million. The
upgraded 67,700-square-foot
building will allow for tech-
nology improvements and
customized lab spaces,
among other things.
And while the facilities
inventory is being upgraded,
the college will also expand
its high school career acade-
mies at an estimated cost of
$1.5 million. The academies,
which are intended to bridge
high school and academic
careers, will be hosted at
strategic locations through-
out the counties so they can
serve the needs of learners
most efficiently.
Allen said that more than
18,000 people each year go
through programs and ser-
vices offered by HCC.
The regional economic
impact, she added, translates
in $106 million and 1,348
jobs.
“Ninety-four percent of
our graduates stay in Iowa,”
she said.
Allen joked about visiting
with Waverly Mayor Chuck
Infelt and discussing with
him the prospect of a new
location for the college’s
Waverly branch.
“He wore off my high
heels,” she joked.
Hawkeye Community College
president explains bond issue
COURTESY PHOTO
Amy Schneider, the store’s co-owner, says the furniture busi-
ness has grown fast.
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