Over the last decade, downtown Wellman’s potential has been quashed by debt.  Storm water was infiltrating the city’s wastewater system, and a new water main system had to be installed.  Permits on the city’s sewer plant expired, and the state mandated two large projects that forced the city to borrow money to stay compliant. 

“When you don’t have a choice like that, to go out and borrow $2.5 million, as a small town, that’s a lot of money.  It also takes away from other things in town that we would like to do,” said Kelly Litwiller, Wellman City Administrator. 

But the winds are beginning to change.  The city has paid down a lot of its debt.  Its population has grown more than 8% in the last decade.  Residents and businesses have expressed interest in living and working downtown.

In 2021, the city was approached by a party interested in rehabbing the Starbeck-Miller building located at 119 8th Avenue, which the city owns and was considering demolishing. 

“I had gone to a nuisance conference that the state had held in Washington in regards to how to clean up your downtown,” Litwiller recalled.  “I got some ideas from that conference.  When the Starbeck-Miller building got brought up and somebody was interested in rehabbing it, I was like, if they’re going to bring in a new business, let’s try to fix up something to try to get the people downtown interested in it too.”

This summer, Litwiller proposed to City Council the idea of allocating $50,000 of local option sales tax funds as grants to businesses for making improvements to downtown spaces.  The Council subsequently approved making grants of up to $10,000 with a 50/50 match available. 

Without any official announcement or prompting, five businesses came to the city with plans for downtown improvements.  After receiving the approval of the city council, they were all awarded grants, and nearly all the city’s $50,000 has been allocated.

“One of them is Southeast Iowa Insurance.  They’re going to redo the front of their building,” Litwiller said.  “Buckwalter Motors is the same way.  They want to do some upgrades to their building as well.”

JFH Metal Signs and Fabrication is the third existing downtown business that will be making improvements; they will add on to the former gas station building they repurposed in recent years.

The Rediger community building will be fixed up by a local entrepreneur who had been working out of her home.  “She’s been doing a lot of online sales and then going to shows,” Litwiller said.  “It’s just gotten to the point where its large enough where she feels like she needs to open a storefront.” 

An outside renovation, starting with the upper brickwork and then working down, is slated for the former Driscoll Studio building.  The party taking on this project hopes to attract a new business to the storefront. 

Litwiller hopes this is just the beginning for downtown revitalization.  She anticipates bringing ideas to the city council for new sidewalks, curbs, and lighting.  She hopes the downtown improvement grants could be offered again next year for another set of businesses. 

She sees so much potential for new businesses downtown.   She would like to see coffee and pastries for sale, another restaurant to dine in, a boutique, a veterinarian and groomer, and a dentist in those vacant storefronts.  She would like to see attractive apartments above the shops that would appeal to professionals.

“I think the more that we can offer here, the more its going to bring people here.  We have a great YMCA, we have a great school district, we have a great grocery store,” Litwiller said.  “We have the medical side of things.  [We’d like to] get a few more services to cater to those people in town.”

“Also, with the retail shops and those types of things, it brings in local option sales tax for the City of Wellman,” she adds.  “That can go for the fun and exciting projects in town.  In the past, local option sales tax helped fund the skate rink and the senior center, both things that are good for the community that haven’t always thrived in the way that they should, but we want to offer those services.”

For those who are interested in buying or leasing space in downtown Wellman, Litwiller encourages them to contact City Hall. 

“They can call me,” Litwiller said.  “If they want to come to town, we’ll figure it out.”

The City of Wellman can be reached at (319) 646-2154; City Hall is located at 316 8th Avenue SW.  More information is available online at cityofwellman.com.