Villisca receives Main Street Iowa grant

The City of Villisca is looking at ways to make improvements that will make the community even better.
 Villisca resident and head of the Villisca Community Betterment Association, Alex Burton, said Villisca is one of a group of select communities, including Red Oak, that has been chosen to take part in the Main Street Iowa program. Burton and his wife were both born and raised in Villisca, and after moving to the Glenwood area for about eight years, they returned to Villisca a couple of years ago.
The Main Street Iowa program works with communities that successfully complete a competitive application process and commit to exceptionally high standards for downtown economic development. As a part of the Main Street America Coordinating Program, over 50 communities in Iowa are connected to a network of 40 programs across the country representing over 1,200 communities.
“Main Street Iowa is giving us a technical grant. They’re providing background assistance.  The grant is facilitated through Main Street America. It’s meant to help Villisca grow its background. Main Street America is partnering with our regional partners like the Southwest Iowa Planning Council, Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, and groups like that and bringing things down to the local level. They’re using the comprehensive plan that we’re currently working on with SWIPCO to guide us towards what we need help with,” commented Burton.
Discussions have also been taking place on improvements to a key piece of the community’s infrastructure, the bridge on the east end of town by the Villisca Municipal Pool.
“It lands in the city limits by about one foot. It will need replaced. A lot of discussion has been focused on how we can get more grant money and help tell the story of what the need is. We’ve got a school district that is divided by that bridge. A lot of people live in Nodaway and come to Villisca every day. Also, we have fire department and EMS services utilizing that bridge,” advised Burton. “Of utmost importance to the overall economy for our area is the farmers. The farmers use that bridge to bring grain to the Co-op. If we cannot get it fixed and the capacity continues to get downgraded, we’ll be in a pickle.”
Complicating matters is the potential cost facing the city to do a full replacement of the bridge.
“The city is working on a partial grant. When the city started the project, they thought it would be a million dollar project. Now it’s become a few million dollar project. Because of the way the bidding goes, there’s not an actual number yet, but we know it’s big, so ideally, we’ll have additional grant money as well,” commented Burton.
Another thing Burton said Villisca is looking at is following the example of communities like Malvern that host music in the street events.
“That’s the kind of stuff that really turned Malvern around. They were kind of stagnant and declining about 15 years ago, and now when you drive through, the number of houses in disrepair have declined dramatically. Stanton is also doing a concert series during the summer as well. They’re quite heavily attended. We don’t have those events in Villisca right now. We know we need to provide those types of events for the enhancement of our current residents. It’s also a huge key for people wanting to live in Villisca. If we don’t have things people want to do, and they have to drive to other communities to do those things, they’re more likely to move elsewhere or not move here in the first place.”
Efforts to demolish the former Rialto theater, Burton said, will possibly create opportunities for an outdoor venue in the community.
“It’s certainly in the bigger picture for the kinds of things we can do with Main Street America. Ideally, we can gain some additional funding. Demolishing the building removes the danger of the building and its lack of visual appeal, and the end result would be a multi-use space for an open air farmers market and a performance area,” Burton said.
Creating a space is just one piece of the puzzle. Burton said the city also needed involved and engaged citizens to hold the event, which is where his work with the Villisca Community Betterment Association comes into play.
“We do baseline events like having the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, but we also know that’s the bare minimum. My vision for the betterment association is to keep doing those things, maybe do them more efficiently, and grow to where we can do more community events. Those things will bring the community together. Hopefully, that will also make Villisca less of an island. The betterment association, the Villisca Alumni Association, and the interchurch group are each kind of working independently. The more we can do these events, we can partner and share the effort and stop any redundancy,” Burton explained.
Burton started attending the betterment association roughly a year ago, when the secretary and treasurer were a combined role, and there was a president. Burton said he moved into an officer role and then took over as head.
“I started out as the secretary through the end of 2023, and then we held an election and I was elected president. Our former president, Sandy Rossander, is  now the vice president, and we have a separate secretary and we’re a little more established. We’re trying to build up the foundation to take on the bigger picture things. We’ve got a lot of work ahead. We’re in the process of updating bylaws and trying to get the 501(c)(3) status which will make us eligible for grants and make it easier for people to donate directly to us and use that as a tax deduction instead of the current 504 status,” stated Burton.
Burton feels communities like Stanton and Red Oak are doing exactly what they need to do, and the burden is on Villisca.
“It’s up to us to learn from other communities in the area. We need to treat that relationship less like a competition to garner business from local citizens, and instead, we should be going to the events Stanton, Red Oak, Corning, and other places hold, learn from them, and take notes and ask questions so we can move forward. It’s a win-win when all of the area communities do better. That’s one of the things that can be missed in the big picture and get minds out of a bubble,” Burton said.
Burton also said he’s enjoying his new role heading the Villisca Community Betterment Association, saying until it happened, he didn’t realize how much he wanted to serve a role in the community.
“Before moving back, I was involved in organizations in my local community, and those were fine, but it’s a different feeling when you can be in your hometown rolling you sleeves up and making a difference. It takes the whole community. Knowing now that I’m able to help in that way and helping to bring in more people for the common good, it’s a great feeling when I can see the results of what we’ve been able to accomplish so far just with the partnering we’ve done so far, and we’ve barely gotten started. My goal is to be able to look back years from now and say here’s where we’re at, but you wouldn’t believe where we started.”
The overarching goal is to create a place where Villisca kids graduating from high school have to pause and ask if they want to move away or stay, or for kids who go off to college decide they want to come back.
“We have to have community pride and the community feeling, and have the same events and amenities as a larger place, and establish that this is a good place to raise your kids. Right now, we’re kind of struggling with that,” Burton commented.
As is typical with organizations such as these, not only would they like more involvement, they also want people to sound off.
“We need feedback whether that’s people in Villisca, or rural Villisca, or even feedback from areas outside the community. We know there are things we can be doing better. Ultimately, the more feedback we can get, the better off we are. We have to keep getting better in the way that we communicate and do our events, and we also need help within the organization. We need a variety of talent. What we’re doing for Facebook and marketing is okay, but somewhere out there I know there’s somebody with a passion for those kinds of things,” Burton stated.
Coming down the pike is Villisca’s Heritage Days celebration, taking place in July, which will take some organization and planning, before they start digging further into other community events.
“We need to decide what events to focus on. We have a member with three or four pages of ideas. We know we can’t finalize and accomplish all those things. We also want to hear from the community about the things most important to them that they want us to be doing, and then we can go out and do those things, and do them in conjunction with what the council is accomplishing with Main Street America,” Burton said.
One idea involves creating a green space where they have torn down buildings, specifically a location next to city hall.
“We would have two buildings with green space in between. It would be a city-owned lot, and the city could work with the Betterment Association and Main Street America to create a mural wall. A lot of communities do a postcard wall. That would be a good location as it’s on the square, and we know we need to improve our downtown and create spaces where people want to be,” Burton explained. “We can do a mural wall on one side, and have tables set up and we have a food truck that parks right there. That would be a nice way of bringing people together.”
Burton said all of these ideas were just the beginning, and it was up to the betterment association to circle back and create events for the space.
“It might just be a quick event that people get together for something brief, or it could be an ongoing event,” commented Burton.
To learn more about the Villisca Community Betterment Association or offer ideas, visit the Facebook page at facebook.com/VCBAIA/. The betterment association has also launched a brand-new website at villiscabetterment.com.
“It’s a very big website. As we expand that, we’re hoping for it to be the landing spot for caledar events, be that something for the library or local churches or a community event. We want to include all of that on our new website,” Burton said.
Also, Burton said they can be contacted by email at Villiscacba@gmail.com.