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Washington Evening Journal
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Students building house in Kalona
Project is second of its kind in as many years
KALONA — A handful of area students are spending this summer working in construction, building a market-ready house from start to finish close to downtown Kalona. Project organizers called the effort a slam dunk for education, workforce recruitment and the local housing market.
"It’s rare when you have a project that is a public project — and we’re using public funds to start the seed money to make it sustainable — that it is met with almost 100% positivity in the community,“ Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh said. ”And I have yet to have anybody approach me and say, ‘I don’t think that’s a great project.’“
The project is a collaboration between the city, the Greater Iowa City Area Home Builders Association, a wide array of supporting sponsors, local businesses and students of Durant, Washington, Mid-Prairie and Highland schools. With some city startup money, the site is both a source of paying work experience, and a future affordable home for incoming Kalona residents.
Schlabaugh said the city bought as much of the building material as possible from local suppliers, and often lined up participants for related jobs in the community. The effort has drawn abundant praise from those businesses, as well as from nearby schools and area elected officials.
The city administrator said he hoped to make the student-built housing initiative an annual affair.
“We’ve met with (City) Council, and we’d like to make it sustainable, to where we can continue this,” he said. “We’ve had great success with students, we’ve had great success with the community. So yeah, I think we’d continue to look at what properties we could remove, and put something different on.”
Last year, students worked to restore a neglected house in Kalona. This summer, they’re building a duplex from the ground up on the lot of the former oldest house in town.
“This is just something I can’t do in my own school,” said Project Supervisor Tim Rouse, an industrial arts teacher from Durant. “It’s an opportunity to build a house, or the majority of the house, with kids. And it’s in the summertime, instead of during the school year … the kids get to work right alongside the plumbers, the electricians, the brick and block layers.”
Rouse said each student gained immeasurable construction skills and a network of peers over the course of the project.
“It’s amazing to see the growth, even in 10, 11 weeks,” he said. “Some of them struggle, the first few days, to just pound a nail in straight, and that kind of stuff. Or use a tool, and know what a tool is … and a lot of these kids, they’ve never met each other before. And by the time the summer’s over, they’re friends and they communicate back and forth.”
Kyan Nash, a recent graduate from Mid-Prairie, said he worked on last year’s project before returning for round two this summer.
“It’s what I’m going to college for, plus I enjoyed it and it was fun last year,” he said. “When they told us it was going to be more to do, I was interested.”
Andrew Shepherd, a Washington home-school student, said he found the experience insightful as well.
“I designed the trusses and the outside walls, and I thought it was really neat to be able to put everything up while doing it,” he said. “I liked putting up the walls, mainly on the main floor … that was super fun to start off with.”
Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com
