Welcome to the Black Hawk County Iowa News Page!

If you have any good news for Black Hawk County and the Greater Waterloo Area, just it to us and we will post it here, giving full credit to you, the originator of the information. Remember this entire site is rated P.G.
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John Deere announces a 20 million dollar renovation of its Waterloo Foundry and the creation of an additional 400 new jobs to be filled in the next three years.

The SBA announced that according to their records Waterloo has the lowest default rate
of ANY of the larger Iowa Cities.

The 1st Cinco de Mayo celebration to be held at the National Cattle Congress grounds in Waterloo. Festivities begin Thursday 5/1/97

John Eveland just started the largest residential housing project in downtown Waterloo, construction should run in excess of 600,000.00.

Plans move ahead on the construction next month on the first building on the Cedar Valley Arboretum located in south Waterloo near HCC.

US West will hire an additional 40 new personnel for their new directory assistance center in Waterloo. These are in addition to the 90 new jobs created last year by the new center.

Waterloo Police will increase speed enforcement under orders of Mayor John Rooff

Greater Waterloo area given outstanding reviews after NCAA Wrestling Championship. More than 90,000 people , six sessions and everything went off without a hitch.

R.J. McElroy Trust of Waterloo has pledged 500,000.00 in support of Wartburg College in Waverly. The money is earmarked for the fund for the new campus library.

Waterloo Woman is awarded the 1997 Salute Award. Michelle Temeyer of Waterloo was given the award by the NorthEast Iowa Chapter of the Association for Women in communications.

Waterloo Museum of Art's Haitian Art exhibit is the result of a 20 year collecting program and it is now the largest collection in the United States

The USS The Sullivans, a US naval destroyer will be welcomed into New York Harbor by a flotilla for a week long series of ceremonies and activities. The ship is named for the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, who died together on board a naval ship during W.W.II.

The city of Waterloo is possibly in the running for $10 million dollar new computer software service center. If the bid by the city is successful it would be located in the rapidly expanding MidPort America Industrial Park near the Waterloo airport.

John Deere donates $25,000.00 to the Junior Achievement of Black Hawk Land Inc. to help the continuing excellent business educational programs here locally.

Iowa Board of Regents approved an eight million dollar replacement roof for the UNI-Dome.

Governor Terry Branstad appointed two Waterloo residents to the 14 member Iowa Commission on Educational Excellence.

Enrollment at Hawkeye Community College rises from 1,900 in 1992 to around 3,500 today. HCC is able to keep tuition rates steady because of enrollment increase.

Crossroads store Home Depot is undergoing a 1.1 million remodeling and increasing its workforce by a full 20%.

1.4 million in new construction for new strip mall in Waterloo in December, Over 700,000 for Cedar Falls.

Its back to the drawing board for the Black Hawk County Compensation Board after an outcry of public sentiment over the 64% pay increases recommended for the Board of Supervisors and the 23% increases for the county auditor, attorney, recorder and treasurer.

Peoples Community Health Clinic has been approved for a $1.5 million federal grant to build a new downtown Waterloo facility.

Over 1,700 Homes sold in 1996 in the Greater Waterloo Area, the best sales since 1980!

Waterloo tractor production will be increased by 19.5 % stated in a report in "Stark's Truck & Off-Highway Ledger"

According to 1996 Statistics violent crime went down 3% in Waterloo says Bernal Koehrsen, city police chief

Waterloo - 2.7 Million office building for Van G. Miller & Associates
Waterloo - 67 Million upgrade of sewage treatment plant
Cedar Falls - 1.4 million Cedar Falls Industrial Park - Team Technologies
Waterloo - 8.3 Million Dillard's department store - Crossroads Center
Waterloo - 6.8 Million warehouse - Ryder Integrated Logistics - MidPort America industrial Park
Waterloo - 1 Million health-care facility - Medical Associates of Cedar Falls
Cedar Falls - 4.5 Million retirement center - Holiday Retirement Corp.
Waterloo - 5 Million upgrade to facilities - GMAC

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: They announced that they would pay 75 percent of the 5.2 million cost of constructing a mile long earthen levee in downtown Cedar Falls Iowa. The estimated completion date is unknown. This will help the area a great deal after its completed and will remove the flood plain designation from much of the area.

3.6% jump in Black Hawk County's tax base from 1995 to 1996!. La Porte City leads the way!
(Figures are from Black Hawk County Auditor's Office)

Area	% Change	1996 Taxable Value Change (rounded to nearest thousand)
La Porte City	8.8	+ $ 2,220,000
Rural Townships	4.3	+ $ 16,437,000
Waterloo	4.2	+ $ 54,157,000
Evansdale	4.0	+ $ 1,7,21,000
Dunkerton	2.6	+ $ 270,000
Elk Run Heights	2.6	+ $ 311,000
Raymond	2.3	+ $ 175,000
Cedar Falls	2.1	+ $ 11,687,000
Gilbertville	.03	+ $ 27,000
Janesville	-.04	- $ 11,000
Hudson	-.08	- $ 266,000
County Total	3.6	+ $ 86,727,000

15.6 % Jump in farm land Values - based on statistics released by the Iowa State University from a survey of farm real estate brokers.

Waterloo School Superintendent Arlis Swartzendruber is nominated by the other area school districts for the Iowa Superintendent of the Year Award.

Tax Break is Approved by Waterloo City Council for Downtown Development. All taxes that result from any new development will be returned to the Developer for up to 10 years!. Taxes paid on the current property (before the new development) will continue to be assessed and paid for as normal.

It was announced that the Waterloo Museum of Art received Major Grant funds from the Iowa Humanities Board. The Iowa Humanities Board is a non-profit private organization that is affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Waterloo School Officials have kept their promise to reform the district's finances. Gretchen Tegeler, director of the Department of Management said "You've done a number of things that can set the tone for other school districts around the state. I really commend you. You've made a lot of progress"

Cedar Falls School System plan on redrawing boundaries and should be finished by next summer. This should have an impact on efficiency of operating a number of buildings.

GMAC Mortgage Corp. a division of General Motors announced a Five Million dollar upgrade to their offices in Waterloo on Hammond Ave. It will add an estimated 200 new jobs to the approx. 800 already employed. It will put GMAC into the top four private employers in the County. The others include John Deere, IBP & Hy-Vee. Final approval is expected from the Board of Directors of GMAC Mortgage Corp. shortly.

Local City and County Debt
City	1995	1996	% Increase/Decrease
Waterloo	84,468,512	87,548,264	+ 3.64
Cedar Falls	24,705,000	30,870,000	+ 24.95
La Porte City	360,000	1,114,650	** new sewer treatment system
Elk Run Heights	650,561	593,808	- 8.72
Janesville	514,550	499.091	- 3.10
Raymond	428,217	470,663	+ 9.91
Evansdale	496,269	286,542	- 42.26
Dunkerton	135,731	100,000	- 26.32
Hudson	65,000	35,000	- 46.15
Gilbertville	0	0	0

Black Hawk County	16,775,000	22,737,383	+ 35.54 ** new 911 system
Source for data is State of Iowa - Treasurer's Office

Cheddar's Inc., based in Texas is planning on building a "Cheddar's Casual Cafe" near Crossroads Mall in Waterloo. This is pending site approval and zoning approval from the City of Waterloo.

The Waterloo Metro area was selected to be a beta test site for a new governmental program that will let people check their own Social Security Records. Two locations are available, The Waterloo Public Library and the Cedar Falls Public Library.

Enrollment increases in all Iowa's University's, including the University of Northern Iowa here in the metro area. Fastest growing of all in the educational arena, are the community colleges such as in Hawkeye Community College in south Waterloo.

Ron Weber & Associates will be opening a satellite office in Cedar Falls. This new office will employ up to 150 new workers. The part-time jobs will pay $5.75 per hour. Waterloo serves as the regional headquarters for Davenport, Mason City and Waterloo. The company is Connecticut based.

Waterloo was chosen for the new home of a new multi-million dollar plant for Hunt-Wesson. It will be located at the Waterloo MidPort America industrial Park.

An official at John Deere's Waterloo Operations confirmed that John Deere will be hiring machinists and assembly workers for the first time since the late 1970's.

20.4 MILLION DOLLARS issued for building permits during the first quarter of the Fiscal Year.

"If we keep going at this pace and there's every indication that we will, it would put us on a pace for an absolute record year" - said a Waterloo building official.

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GOOD NEWS FOR BLACK HAWK COUNTY, IOWA

GOOD NEWS FOR
BLACK HAWK COUNTY, IOWA