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Iowa’s rural communities: A decade of change Building a new pool, expanding park and recreation facilities and “streetscaping” Main Street have changed St. Ansgar since 1994. In Sheffield, a few new industries, a golf course and supper club, and a housing development highlight a decade of changes there. Since 1994, increased child care capacity and an annual raspberry festival have been added to Webster City’s social and economic capital. Residents of these three Iowa communities, and residents of 97 other communities with populations between 500 and 10,000, were surveyed by Iowa State University sociologists in 1994 about the quality of life in their communities. Now ISU researchers are going back to those communities to determine how the quality of life and citizen involvement have changed.
“This study gives us an opportunity to learn how events of the past decade impacted small town life,” said Terry Besser, an ISU rural sociologist. “This knowledge will be useful to rural community leaders and residents as they shape their future.” Residents again will be asked to rate community services and facilities and government services, and comment on local purchasing patterns and the friendliness and community support in their town. Influencing some 2004 responses will be changes that came about after ISU Extension reports from the 1994 survey were made available to communities. Webster City was one community that found 1994 survey results supporting the need to conduct the ISU Extension program “Building Communities for Tomorrow.” Recognizable changes have followed the community visioning exercises and committee work carried out to address identified needs. “A child care coalition was formed to address community child care issues and increase awareness of the issues,” said Colette Bertran, of Webster City Daycare. “Through the work of the coalition and partnering with the city and local industry, we have been able to increase the capacity of child care in Webster City significantly.” It was obvious to St. Ansgar city council members before the 1994 ISU Extension survey report that the old leaky public swimming pool was a community concern. But when more than half of that community’s survey respondents rated shopping, recreation, entertainment and youth programs fair to poor, the council members had research to back them. They offered citizens the opportunity to put a local options tax in place that would fund construction of a pool and improve parks and park-related facilities. “Today, we have a new pool and a new four-diamond baseball/softball complex funded by the local option tax income,” said Diane Collier, city clerk. “We have youth activities at the diamonds four nights a week, a summer youth program that includes a youth garden and a summer fine arts program.” ISU researchers also are conducting personal interviews in the 100 communities to gather supplemental data that will provide information on community “economic shocks” — things such as plant closings, old swimming pools or sewer systems needing to be replaced and annexation issues. Results of the interviews will be used to determine the opportunities and problems present in small towns and the influence community social capital has on resolving such issues. The interview and mail survey results together can provide community leaders with a guide for future community development efforts. |
The Extension Connection is a quarterly publication of Iowa State University Extension. Laura Sternweis, editor, lsternwe@iastate.edu Nondiscrimination statement and information disclosures Last update: July 2004
* Biosafety Institute asks questions, finds answers * Peer groups offer a new way of neighboring * Iowa gardeners get 'in the zone' * Master Gardeners volunteer more than 80,000 hours |
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new city sign is evidence of change in Sheffield, one
surveyed community.