Community Viewpoints: MarenGO is on the move

Hello from Marengo Community Development!

We are excited to tell you about some of the great things happening in our community. As many of you may know, we have had several new businesses open or that are opening soon in Marengo in the last few months. We have welcomed Family Dollar/ Dollar Tree, Kinfolk Hair Salon, Farm Bureau Financial Services, Blackbird Boutique, Lizzie’s Dining Car and Caboose Bar, Corn Fed Frags.

In addition, DG Market moved to their new location and The Back Porch moved to a new location with an added coffee shop. We also have a few more businesses working on making Marengo their home.

We cannot thank our amazing landlords in this community enough for working with us and our new businesses on coming to the community. This would not be possible without them. Beyond the excitement of our business growth, we are delighted to see the community come together to get the bond passed on our new pool and the bond passed to improve our school.

We had record turnouts for our events last year, and we this year plan to add a farmers market, food truck Friday and movies in the park to our current event list of July 3rd, Fall Festival and Jingle around the Square. Last year was our first year for The Gateway Challenge Triathlon, and Marengo Community Development was involved in planning this event. It is confirmed we will host it again this year, on Sept. 16.

Other exciting news for the summer is Marengo’s selection as a RAGBRAI meeting town on Friday, July 28. Being a meeting town means riders will have lunch here and meet up with their support vehicles. (See separate RAGBRAI story on page 1 for more details about how to get involved.)

Thanks to everyone for all the continued support and efforts you give the community each day.

(Leaders through Iowa County have been asked to share updates and outlooks for their organizations as they relate to the communities they serve in this weekly column. Our hope is to provide a forum for towns to share progress and success from different viewpoints. We are still in the process of scheduling columnists and will continue reaching out to connect with school, municipal, economic, tourism, youth and other community leaders. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Melinda Wichmann, editor, Hometown Current, at (319) 654-4740 or email Melinda.Wichmann@Southeastiowaunion.com.)