Kalona celebrates grand opening of downtown Saturday

The city of Kalona will hold a grand opening celebration of its downtown renovation Saturday afternoon. The day will feature music, food, bike rides, a fun run and a free movie.

Nearly all of the events take place at the intersection of B Avenue and Fifth Street. The bike rides begin at 3 p.m. from that intersection. One group of riders will go on a 3-mile long route through Pleasant View Home. Mayor Jerry Kauffman will lead another group of riders on a 1-mile journey, which will stay south of Highway 22. There will also be a fun run at that time. One group will run 5 kilometers and another group will run a mile.

The live entertainment also starts at 3 p.m. Scott Cochran and Flannel is the first act to perform. David Zollo and the Body Electric performs at 5 p.m. The Morning After rounds out the musical acts with a performance from 8 to 11 p.m.

There is a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 6 p.m. Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh said the people, civic groups and businesses who made the downtown revitalization possible will be honored at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

?During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Mark Schneider of the Mid-Prairie School District will speak,? Schlabaugh said. ?We?ll also recognize groups such as Vision Iowa, the board of supervisors, the Kalona Downtown Revitalization Committee, the Quilt Block Committee, the Kalona Chamber of Commerce and the downtown merchants.?

Schlabaugh said there will be eight food vendors downtown and an open area beer garden. The day concludes with an outdoor kids? movie on the east lawn of the public library.

?The kids haven?t told me what we?re going to play yet,? said Schlabaugh.

He said the money raised Saturday will go toward financing the Bunker Mill Trail, which would connect Kalona to Richmond via Nutmeg Avenue south of Kalona. The bridge along the trail, Bunker Mill Bridge, was closed to traffic in 2004 and has remained closed since then. An engineering study was conducted in 2007 which stated that the bridge could be converted to a trail bridge for $130,000. Informational kiosks will be built in the plaza areas at the Kalona City Park and Richmond Park. A shelter structure will be built that will overlook the English River and provide users with a clear view of the bridge.

Kalona?s downtown revitalization consisted of installing a storm sewer system in its downtown. That meant the city had to tear up its streets. Schlabaugh said that, since the streets had to be torn up anyway, the residents decided to remodel the whole downtown. In addition to new streets, the city received new sidewalks. The sidewalks feature large blocks that are colored to look like quilts. There are 42 quilt blocks in all, mostly along B Avenue and Fifth Street but also on a few side streets. One giant quilt block spans the intersection of Fifth Street and B Avenue.

The city has produced a brochure that contains a picture of each quilt block, an explanation of the design and a map indicating where each one is located.

The downtown also sports new benches and new energy-efficient lighting. There are now upward of 30 LED poles in the downtown.

?Obviously, we?ve had a lot of good comments about the downtown,? Schlabaugh said. ?The infrastructure is exactly what we hoped it would be. It is now a more walkable downtown. People like the amenities that have been put out. We?ll continue to tweak it as we listen to comments and as the months and years go by.?