KALONA

“I had somebody ask me, ‘What kind of brings this group together?’ and I said, ‘It’s really good people doing great things,’” Kalona’s city administrator, Ryan Schlabaugh, said of this year’s Community Award winners.

It’s nearly impossible to imagine Kalona without these six individuals – Jim and Mary Ann Hauth, Clayton and Tina Hershberger, Dave Hochstedler, Jack Pope – and the Washington County Riverboat Foundation.

From acts of kindness that touched people on a personal level to funding million-dollar facilities that people use every day, this year’s Community Award winners have made an impact in Kalona and beyond.

Jim & Mary Ann Hauth
Clayton & Tina Hershberger

When Jim and Mary Ann Hauth received the call from Ryan Schlabaugh letting them know they would be recognized with a Community Award,

“We were certainly surprised,” Mary Ann said. “We really don’t feel like we did anything extraordinary.”

Clayton and Tina Hershberger echoed that thought. “I was shocked,” Tina said. “I didn’t think we did that much,” Clayton added.

Yet for those whose lives they affected, their helpfulness in delivering meals during COVID left an enduring impression.

“The Hauths and Hershbergers were so caring in taking time out of their schedules to help deliver hot meals to myself and other seniors during COVID,” a community member wrote on their nomination form. “It was a highlight of my week knowing that they would be stopping by for a few minutes to deliver my meal.”

During that period in 2020, the City of Kalona partnered with Goodwin Dining Center in Wellman to deliver 60-80 meals, three days a week, to those who were homebound. The Hauths and Hershbergers – friends and neighbors – volunteered to help make those deliveries.

“Jim and MA Hauth and Clayton and Tina Hershberger were the most consistent group I’ve probably ever worked with, and they were here every day doing it,” Schlabaugh said. “They really stepped up in a time that there were a lot of unknowns, and they did it with kindness and grace and compassion to those that needed it.”

For both the Hauths and Hershbergers, helping out when they could seemed the natural thing to do. Not only did they find it gratifying, but they also genuinely enjoyed stopping to visit with the folks on their delivery routes.

“It gave us a chance to not only help [provide meals], but to talk to these people and meet new people,” Mary Ann said. “We met so many new people, and everybody was so gracious and so grateful. And we also could connect with some individuals that we knew, but obviously hadn’t been in contact with because of COVID, so it was nice reconnecting with them as well.”

Tina concurs; she remembers delivering to a few people who she and Clayton hadn’t seen in a while, such as parents of their friends or their kids’ former teachers.

“It was just nice to catch up with them and reminisce with them while we were delivering the meals,” she said. “It was nice seeing them on that weekly basis. . . We really enjoyed it.”

There was really only one problem, Mary Ann pointed out: they often couldn’t visit as long as they would have liked.

“We had to keep going on our route, because the food was hot,” she said.

A hot meal, delivered with a side of warm conversation, during a trying time. Simple kindnesses like these are those we value and remember.


David Hochstetler

When you’ve been the member of a community for decades, you get to watch something fascinating unfold: growth over time.

David Hochstetler, who retired from Hills Bank after a 27-year career during which he also served on boards for the Kalona Rotary, Kalona Economic Development Group, Kalona Chamber, Mid-Prairie Community Schools Foundation, and Pleasantview, has had a front row seat for viewing that growth. Having a hand in it is one of the things he is most proud of as he looks back.

When it comes to Hills Bank, that progress is easy to track. When he began his position there, one of his first tasks was to help establish the Kalona office. But the bank had no intention of stopping there.

“We had visions back 20 years ago of being in Wellman, Washington, and Williamsburg,” Hochstetler said. “The first two got done, which I got to be a part of. Now, the third one is going on in Williamsburg. So that vision’s been there for a long time.”

Hochstetler isn’t sure how he found the time to be a part of so many other organizations over the years, especially as he and wife Jan raised their children. But when things are important, “you just find a way to get it done,” he said.

His commitment to Kalona has not gone unnoticed.

“Having worked closely with Dave on numerous committees and service organizations, it was always apparent that Dave worked hard to make Kalona a place that people could be proud of,” a community member wrote, nominating Hochstetler for a 2024 Community Award. “From his time at Hills Bank as a business banker in Rotary and his time helping with the Kalona Economic Development Group, he has always worked hard to promote and move Kalona forward.”

Hochstetler was “honored” to find out he would receive a Community Award. He has, indeed, always looked to move Kalona forward.

“I was in a position at the bank to kind of understand what was going on it a lot of regards, so I could bring some value, I think, to these organizations because of that,” he said.

As a banker, he explained, he had a lot of training.

“We sat in on loan committees in Iowa City, so we weren’t only seeing our businesses. I was seeing businesses from Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Mount Vernon. I could see what was going on there, what was successful there."

That training made Hochstetler a sought-after advisor for area businesses and would-be start-ups. With an understanding of what was needed to make a business successful – a solid business plan, knowledge of the industry, financial backing, and willingness to work hard, among others -- he could guide those with visions they wanted to make reality.

“Probably 50% of my job was advising and 50% was making loans,” he said.

Hills Bank encourages employees to serve their communities outside of work, and Hochstetler “took that and went above and beyond it,” Ryan Schlabaugh said. “He was very consistent, a very caring individual in how he conducted himself in the business world and in the volunteer side,” always the first to sign up to help and willing to share his time.

In addition to seeing Kalona bloom over the years, Hochstetler also found personal meaning in each of the groups he participated in, from the Economic Development Group to Rotary.

“All these organizations were outstanding. Every one of them. I wouldn’t have gotten involved if I didn’t think they were.”


Jack Pope

City administrators, clerks, and councils may come and go, but the city engineer stays the same.

“Sometimes we are the only constant in some of the cities we go to,” Jack Pope, Kalona’s city engineer, said of himself and his colleagues at Garden and Associates.

Having served the city since the 1991, starting with a storm sewer project, he’s seen plenty of personnel changes.

“It’s always unique to us, to be the consistent process through all that,” he said.

Pope is the only city engineer that Ryan Schlabaugh has worked with in his capacity as city administrator.

“He’s one of my favorite people,” Schlabaugh said. “He’s listened to me, over the 15 years I’ve been here, say, ‘This is probably a stupid question,’ but then he’ll, with kindness, walk me through why it was a stupid question, but make me feel good about it.”

Pope works with about 25 communities including Kalona; his task is to make sure the cities’ wastewater, water treatment, sewer treatment, sanitary sewer, water mains, streets, and storm sewers are all up to code and meeting the cities’ requirements.

For the most part, his work is invisible to the average resident.

“Streets and sidewalks, it’s always good to do those, because you get to see a final product,” Pope said. “When you do a water main, all you see is a hydrant.”

A city’s infrastructure may be hidden underground, but for Pope, the original appeal of being a civil engineer was that he would get to be outdoors.
And he’s good at what he does.

“He is what civil engineers on the municipal side should strive to be,” Schlabaugh said. “He is just consistent in his ability to provide good opinions, and the quality of work has always been there for the community. I think a testament to him is he’s not here very often.”

Now the oldest civil engineer at his firm, having watched his seniors retire before him, Pope is ready to make that life change himself; he looks forward to his retirement in January 2025.

Before he goes, however, the City of Kalona chose to recognize his service with a 2024 Community Award, an honor he finds “humbling.”

“I don’t take anything for granted. I’ve enjoyed working here,” Pope said. “There’s a lot of pride here. . . I think the city in general is progressive and keeps moving forward.”


Washington County Riverboat Foundation

Almost exactly 20 years ago, in 2004, a gambling referendum passed in Washington County with just 52% of the vote. In Kalona, voter turnout was high; the majority opposed a new casino in Riverside. At Murphy’s Bar and Grill in Riverside, people cheered and hugged when they heard the results. The issue was polarizing.

Today, it is nearly impossible to imagine what life in Washington County would be like without the Washington County Riverboat Foundation (WCRF), the nonprofit license holder of the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort.

Looking at Kalona alone, over $600,000 dollars has been awarded in grants to the Kalona Fire Department and First Responders, providing them with protective gear, an emergency vehicle, front-line fire truck and pumper/tanker.

The Kalona Historical Village has received nearly $1 million in grant funds, allowing it to add on to the Visitors Center, create a new railcar exhibit, obtain a historical barn, and make myriad repairs and upgrades to the property.

The Mid-Prairie school district and its foundation have been awarded over $1.5 million in grants, allowing the schools to purchase cutting-edge educational technology; upgrade band uniforms and instruments; build a greenhouse, culinary lab, and athletic complex; transform the library; renovate the central office and baseball field; as well as complete many other projects.

And the City of Kalona itself? Awarded over $4.2 million in competitive and municipal grant funds since 2006, contributing to upgrades at City Park; improvement of the Community Center, including a new gym and exercise equipment; and the creation of Vista Park recreational area in Southtown, as well as a host of other projects too numerous to list.

The City flipped the usual arrangement this month when instead of receiving awards from the WCRF, they gave the organization one.

When Ryan Schlabaugh told Executive Director Patty Koller that the foundation had been nominated for a 2024 Community Award, she was “pretty surprised.”

“I think it’s really nice because our board is all volunteer, and they put a lot of time and effort into reading all the grant applications and making the decisions,” she said. “It’s nice to be recognized for that.”

Twice a year, spring and fall, the WCRF accepts applications for grants. On each occasion, some 50-75 applications are submitted, and it takes hours to review all of them, never mind attend committee meetings to determine who will receive grants and for what amount. Board members aren’t compensated for the substantial time they commit to this process.

What is the board thinking about when they determine grant awards each cycle?

“It’s quality of life,” Koller said.

When they fund playground equipment, or new recreational areas, or upgrades to school athletic facilities, “it’s good for families, and good families are good for our community,” she said. “Quality of life is what I think it’s all about.”

For school districts, the WCRF likes “to give them something that they otherwise didn’t or couldn’t have in their budget because it’s too new and expensive,” Koller said. When it comes to the stunning new Vista Park in Southtown, with its dog parks and giant splash pad, “that will draw people from all around, and it is really exciting to have that in Washington County.”

Koller notes that the WCRF doesn’t typically fund projects 100%; they put a “large portion of money into it, and then it opens up people to want to donate.” By ensuring a project will come to fruition, “it gets people involved.” The WCRF starts a chain reaction of generosity in our communities.

The WCRF funds projects throughout Washington and nearby counties. Since 2016, they have funded in excess of $70 million in grants. All of this, thanks to a casino.

“Because of the Riverside Casino, we have state of the art, modern facilities that we would not otherwise have,” Koller said.

Today, it’s hard to imagine life without them.

The 2024 Kalona Community Awards will be presented at Kalona Fall Festival on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 3:20 p.m. on the main stage.