On Thursday, Oct. 7, the Iowa City Press Citizen published responses to a questionnaire sent to the seven Solon School board candidates. Because of technical challenges with Twitter and Facebook, I am posting a printed version from the online newspaper to which I subscribe here.
I will have comments on the candidates once the responses to Journey Home and the Solon Economist are in. For now the Press Citizen responses can stand on their own. I will point out that the circulation of the Solon Economist is less than 1,000, and there are 3,541 registered, active voters in the school district. Those who didn’t respond to the Press Citizen may have missed an opportunity on their way to 500 votes on Nov. 2.
Click here for all of my coverage of the Solon School Board Election.
Most everyone was affected by the six-hour outage of Facebook on Monday, Oct. 4. Being offline with the social media network had limited impact on my daily life, although globally, many people rely on WhatsApp which was also down along with Instagram.
I discovered the outage while logging in to read the Facebook pages of school board candidates. The research was not critical so I worked on something else when I couldn’t get in. Like with any interruption, it was hard to get back to the project even when Facebook returned.
When former Facebook data scientist and whistleblower Frances Haugen was testifying before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection on Tuesday, it got wall-to-wall media coverage. For someone plugged into the internet like I often am, it could not be ignored. By the end of the day, Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg had responded to the proceedings on his social media site. The endgame here is two things. When billions of people participate in an online social media platform there will be problems. Facebook and other social media applications should be regulated more than they are. Now it’s time for the Congress to do their work.
I joined Facebook in March 2008, the spring after our daughter graduated from college. It was a way to stay in touch. Over the years Facebook was eclipsed in our relationship by other social media apps and today I gain insight on Twitch, and to some extent Tik Tok. The migration of the millennial generation from Facebook has to be bad for the company’s bottom line.
I don’t use WhatsApp. I make a post on Instagram every day or two and cross post it to Facebook. My time on Facebook is reading notifications, wishing friends a happy birthday, being admin for two private groups (high school classmates and neighbors), and posting selected writing from this blog. I store some information on the platform yet my main biographical information is on LinkedIn. Facebook serves a function in my life yet could easily be replaced.
We hear about advertising on Facebook a lot. I don’t recall seeing many ads, and that’s likely because I rarely scroll my time line and when I do, my ad settings are to show me the most generic types of ads selected by the platform based on demographics they know. I get a lot of ads about medicines, the names of which I can’t pronounce. They are easily dismissed without reading. I am not looking to buy something when on Facebook so I pay little attention to ads.
My visits to Facebook are brief and with purpose. I save my scrolling time for Twitter where I maintain lists of users in whom I have interest. Facebook decided what posts I should see and occasionally I see something that is of genuine interest. Not often, though. Not often enough to spend much time there.
I’m agnostic about Facebook and its related companies. I use the application when it brings value. Otherwise I don’t open it and don’t have it installed on my mobile device. When there is a hiccup on the internet we all hear it. With time, it becomes part of the background noise and out of sight. I’m okay with that.
Mariannette Miller-Meeks on the Iowa State Fair Political Soapbox on Aug. 13, 2010. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.
The Republican approach to oversight of our military is curious and ineffective. On the one hand they vehemently criticize the administration’s handling of our country’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. On the other, Senator Tom Cotton sponsored legislation ending U.S. funding for Afghan refugees brought here as a result of the withdrawal, something they said they wanted. Cotton was joined by the 49 other Republican senators, yet their measure failed.
Republicans, and some Democrats, don’t think twice about spending $7.7 trillion on the U.S. military over 10 years without scrutinizing details of where the money goes. They reject an audit of the Pentagon. At the same time, Republicans reject the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act which would help everyday Americans at half the price.
Cotton appeared with Second District congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks at her re-election announcement fundraiser in Iowa City.They then co-wrote an op-ed piece for the Des Moines Register in which they laid out their grievances about the Afghanistan withdrawal. It was pure politics in our red state. As far as I’m concerned, Senator Cotton should resign and return to Arkansas to peddle snake oil. Apparently that’s what he might be good at.
Mariannette Miller-Meeks was an ophthalmologist during military service. How does that qualify her to evaluate the Biden administration on military and foreign affairs? It doesn’t.
Unlike Democrats who are held to a higher standard of truth, Miller-Meeks can spew anything that comes to mind without regard to accuracy. If what she says is unhinged from reality, she thought it, asserted it with confidence, and therefore among Republicans it must be right. As a freshman in congress she’s proving to be little more than a parrot for what the moneyed class seeks: destruction of American democracy.
Whatever flaws the administration may have in military and foreign affairs, Joe Biden himself doesn’t have many vulnerabilities going into the midterm elections. First of all, he’s not on the ballot. More importantly, the man got the most votes of any candidate for president ever, 81,268,924 votes and 7,052,770 more than the next closest candidate. Despite the mad raving of pillow merchants and such, it was the most secure election ever. The results are not in doubt.
What galls me about members of congress like Miller-Meeks and Cotton is they have no respect for the authority embodied in the presidency that transcends administrations. We all get it. When they grandstand, it’s to make some political point rather than solve any of our pressing problems.
Neither respects the chain of command in civilian leadership of our military. They daily disrespect the president. Chain of command is a lesson both should have learned while serving in the Army. They assert what they present as factual about the military when the fact is they spin a yarn that ventures from the truth from its beginnings. Life in the military and management of foreign affairs is more complicated than the sawdust laden beef they peddle as hamburger.
A majority of Americans like Biden’s policies. The American Rescue Plan Act, which Miller-Meeks voted against, provided needed relief during the run up to distributing a viable vaccine for the coronavirus. Miller-Meeks did her part to add to quackery about the vaccine, including support for hydroxychloroquine treatment and misstatements about children getting sick with COVID-19.
We need members of congress with a grip on reality. Not those like Miller-Meeks who would say anything that comes to mind without regard for truth and logic. If she wants to opine about military and foreign affairs, that’s her right. She should stop taking talking points from conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, do her own homework, and level with the American people.
Conventional wisdom in the Solon Community School District board election is there is a certain way of doing things. Call it a “Solon way” if you need a name for it.
From the filing deadline on Sept. 16 until election day on Nov. 2 there is not a lot of time. Candidates have to contact voters in a way that convinces about 500 of them they are the best person for the school board.
For the most part, conventional campaigns go something like this:
Planning, including finance and yard signs.
Strategy, including web presence, alliances with other candidates.
Filing.
Voter outreach via personal networking, U.S. Postal Service, in-person, and internet.
Submit information to organizations via questionnaire: League of Women Voters, Solon Economist, and others.
One large candidate forum, this year on Oct. 20.
Get out the vote.
There is an economy to conventional wisdom in that energy can be focused on a limited number of tasks. If one performs them all well, they have their best foot forward. If they don’t win, they can say they did their best and garner some satisfaction for having run.
Being on the school board doesn’t come with financial consideration, i.e. no pay. Most candidates have lives filled with work that needs doing to support themselves. There is not a lot of time for nuance in a campaign. Conventional wisdom supports busy people in that campaigns run by it have a well-worn path to conclusion, if not to winning.
Because of conventional wisdom, it is difficult for a candidate to break out from the herd. This year there are seven candidates, Billerbeck, Brown, Coons, Edmonds, Neuerburg, Munson and Rochholz. Brown and Coons are incumbents, each of whom was elected multiple times. The opening for a non-incumbent was created when Rick Jedlicka decided not to run for another term. In a calcified school board election environment, the competition would be for that one seat, assuming Brown and Coons would dominate because of their incumbency. It doesn’t have to be that way.
As I do the work to understand the seven 2021 candidates, I reflect on the campaign of Jami Wolf, who I view as a breakout candidate among six who ran for two seats in 2019. More than others, she devoted time and resources to networking throughout the community. She had a natural connection with school board election voters in that she volunteered at the school. She is outgoing and friendly. Her career in real estate reinforces qualities needed in a campaign: realism, public speaking, and poise. She was open to meeting with almost anyone. While she had a Facebook page, it appeared to me her focus was on person-to-person contact. She won the open seat on the board.
Who will be the breakout candidate in 2021? I don’t know. What worked for Wolf may not work for candidates with a different personality style. Effective voter outreach will make the difference on Nov. 2.
A lot has been made of the district’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic. Little in conventional wisdom about campaigns covers a public health crisis during a pandemic. Some like what the school administration has done. Others do not. It seems unlikely that the single issue of number of instances of COVID-19, managing outbreaks, and communication about COVID-19 cases in the schools will be the deciding factor in this election. Cassie Rochholz and Erika Billerbeck were quoted by KCRG on Sept. 29 in reaction to the district experiencing 67 positive COVID-19 cases in a single week. Their comments typify the division around the pandemic:
Some parents in the school district think the rapid increase in cases is a direct result of not requiring masks for students or staff.
“That’s in a population of about 1,500 students. And when you compare it to a system like Iowa City where they are requiring masks, right now I believe they have 36 active cases in a school system that’s 9 times the size of Solon,” Erika Billerbeck, a school district parent, said.
Billerbeck said, at the very least, she wants better communication from the school.
“I won’t find out until Monday evening what the statistics were for the previous week,” Billerbeck said. “So as a parent trying to make a decision day-to-day, we’re not receiving that information to make a good choice for our kids.”
Other parents, like Cassie Rochholz, say families and students should have a choice when it comes to mask-wearing.
“Parents need the option to choose what is best for their child, and no child fits squarely into a box, no child is the same as one another,” Rochholz said.
It is not hard to line up the candidates for and against administration policy and its practice regarding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
If conventional wisdom makes it easier to manage a campaign, it does not assure winning. Innovative strategies and effective outreach to voters beyond one’s personal circle will be what decides the election. If the electorate is of a mood to replace the current board, three newcomers could win. We’ll see the mood of the electorate in the coming four weeks.
Click here for all of my coverage of the Solon School Board Election.
A fine mist of rain began just as I finished tilling the garlic patch. It felt good as I cleaned the electric rototiller tines. I’m not sure I found all the Bur Oak acorns squirrels buried in the plot. We’ll see this spring.
Garlic is in the ground the longest time of anything I plant. Three months the first year and the six or seven more next. It doesn’t take a lot of effort yet there is a specific skill set to getting good results. I learned from one of Iowa’s experts.
I set aside the best garlic heads from the last crop for seed. Last year I planted about 75 cloves and this year about 100. As I broke open the heads and separated the cloves, some had a bad spot. Those were set aside to be trimmed and used in cooking. A gardener wants seed garlic to be free of defects if that’s possible.
A lot of the seconds of garlic will go into a batch of Guajillo chili sauce using fresh chili pods. I also have dried Guajillo chili pods that need to be used up and I’ll use that to make taco filling with kale. The garlic will all get used.
There is a lot going on in the kitchen garden in October. Every minute presents an opportunity to get something done.
Reverse side: Abraham Lincoln from New Salem. This bronze statue by Avard Fairbanks was given to the State of Illinois by the Sons of Utah Pioneers in 1954. It is located at the top of the hill in New Salem State Park near the entrance to the village. Published by Color-View, Inc., 208 N. Main St., Rockford, Ill. Postmarked May 17, 1962 in Rochelle, Ill. with a note from Father.
I grew up in Davenport, Iowa. Iowa is not the land of Lincoln. That is across the Mississippi River in Illinois.
Father sent this postcard from Rochelle, Ill. where he presumably attended a meeting for the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America. I don’t recall. I was ten years old. The message on the back was, “I’ll be home before the card gets there so I’m saying goodbye to Rochelle.”
We stopped by Father’s step-mother’s place in Rock Island one time. She wasn’t home. Gladys was grandfather’s second wife after Ina Elizabeth died young of food poisoning. Grandfather died of complications from surgery. According to her obituary, Gladys owned and operated Deaton’s Diner for 35 years. She kept the family name, adding two additional husbands by hyphenation after grandfather died. She told me, in the only letter I have from her, that the marriage into the Deaton family was a business proposition. All three of her husbands are buried next to her in a Rock Island Cemetery we visited decades ago. The cemetery sexton knew “Mrs. Deaton” well.
In high school, we took the bus downtown then walked across the Centennial Bridge to Rock Island where a movie theater was screening a serialized story of The Batman made by Columbia Pictures in 1943. After the television program debuted in 1966, I was all about the Batman. All 15 serial episodes were screened one after another. It was a long walk to see them, but we felt it important to include the serial in our Batman fandom.
On my trip back to Iowa from military service I stopped and stayed with friends in Springfield, Ill. for a couple of days. During that trip we visited Lincoln’s tomb and his house, which had been opened to the public. I recall a number of book shops displaying various Lincoln books in street-facing windows. Many words have been written about the 16th president. He felt more real to me after that visit.
I spent the most time in Illinois when we lived in Indiana. Work took me all over. I got to know Chicago and the suburbs, as well as most other parts of the state. I went anywhere with an opportunity to recruit truck drivers.
I’m lucky to have this postcard. It’s one of the few notes Father sent me. It could easily have disappeared with my comic book and baseball card collections left in Mother’s attic when I moved from home in 1970 to attend college. I don’t think of Father much these days. When I do, it’s comforting to have things I know he touched as well. It is part of making a life in the time of the coronavirus.
Typical of off grid communications that go on during a school board election, I found out by happenstance the Solon Economist will host a candidate forum for the Solon School Board election on Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 6:30 p.m. at the Solon Center for the Arts. If you can, please attend. Thankfully the forum was moved to a larger venue than in 2019. This is the only announced forum to date and it’s typically the big one.
This blog is planning to cover the forum, and I expect will get to press before the larger, more clunky news organizations with printing presses, cutoff times, and such.
The significance of the date is this: Oct. 18 is the last day to request an absentee ballot from the Johnson County Auditor’s office. When candidates and their canvassers are talking to voters, they shouldn’t wait until the forum to get an absentee ballot. Request one now. The completed, mailed ballot is due into the auditor’s office by 8 p.m. on election day.
The auditor’s office indicated a petition was received for satellite voting at Solon High School. Details to come once it is announced. Monday, Oct. 4, is the deadline for petitions for satellite voting.
This is a good time to mention other election deadlines. These are copied and pasted from the auditor’s website:
Dates and deadlines
Tuesday, August 24: First day auditor’s office can accept requests for mailed absentee ballots, 70 days before election day.
Tuesday, October 5: There will be no City Primary Election in Iowa City or University Heights. (Other cities do not have a primary requirement.)
Monday, October 11: Johnson County does not observe the federal Columbus Day holiday and our office will be open.
Wednesday, October 13: First day absentee ballots can be mailed and first day in person early voting is allowed by state law. Note that ballots are not required to be ready by this date. More information on when voting will start will be available closer to Election Day.
Monday, October 18: Voter pre-registration deadline and deadline to request mailed ballot, 5 PM. In person early voting and election day registration are still available after this deadline.
Monday, November 1: Last day for in person early voting at auditor’s office.
Tuesday, November 2: Election Day. Polls open 7 AM to 8 PM. Vote at regular polling places. All domestic mailed absentee ballots must arrive at auditor’s office before the polls close at 8 PM in order to be counted.
Click here for all of my coverage of the Solon School Board Election.
View of Trail Ridge Estates on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021.
It was two weeks before the local newspaper published an explanation of heavy equipment activity on a 130-acre farm field off Highway 382. On Sept. 15, the Watts Group received unanimous approval of a developer’s agreement and preliminary plat from the Solon City Council. The city annexed the area and approved residential zoning this summer, according to Margaret Stevens, editor of the Solon Economist.
The population of the City of Solon grew from 2,037 in 2010 to 3,018 in the 2020 U.S. Census. The new subdivision proposed 220 parcels and 2.43 people lived in an average American household during the Census. Trail Ridge Estates, as it is called, will add population of roughly 535 people once it is built out. I expect the subdivision to be built out quickly.
The farmer who previously owned the field grew commodity crops, mostly corn and soybeans. That agricultural production won’t be missed. The challenge of building rural subdivisions like Trail Ridge Estates is they presume residents will drive for jobs, provisions, church, school and social activities. They further the culture of automobiles.
There will be a multi-use concrete pad installed for basketball and possibly pickle ball, according to the plans. There will be a fenced dog park. The subdivision has access to the state park trail from which I took the photo. Children could conceivably walk to school along the trail, but I predict busing and individual vehicles will provide most of that transportation.
I believe people will spend more time indoors and build generously-sized homes to accommodate indoor activities. Two and three car garages will be popular. The parcels could average about a half acre, which is plenty of room for a vegetable garden. Whatever sociologists call the current pattern of “nesting,” there would be lots of that going on.
The point of describing this subdivision is to say old-style urban sprawl is ongoing. While larger cities slowly work toward sustainable buildings, in rural cities, old-style, inefficient housing continues to be built. There is clearly a market for it. The amenities of a well-maintained K-12 school infrastructure, three churches, a large sports and recreation complex, and proximity to Big Ten sports, an airport, and diverse shopping make it attractive to certain types of young conservative couples. With relatively low gasoline prices ($3.09 per gallon today), commuting for work to Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, the Quad-Cities, and even to Des Moines is affordable if one can tolerate the windshield time.
The area is turning from Democratic to Republican as it grows. That’s true of Iowa’s Democratic enclaves more generally. There is a culture of civic engagement in which people do not discuss party politics, even if it is constantly in the news that comes in from Cedar Rapids, cable television, radio, and beyond. Plenty of Democrats, Republicans, and No-Party voters work side-by-side in organizations that support a variety of social engagement activities. Politics is considered something to discuss only with family and like-minded others. We’ve become insular in our politics and that reinforces a culture that gives rise to urban sprawl like Trail Ridge Estates.
Among the causes to which I dedicate my time, urban sprawl is low on my list of priorities. If farm field owners insist on growing commodity crops and livestock, then one farm more or less doesn’t matter. The better question is whether lives lived in insulated islands like this are worth living. One assumes people who pay a quarter million dollars and more for a home on half an acre would say they are. I guess that’s the reality we have to accept before social change is made.
Like many, I don’t like the build-out of the area to which we moved in 1993. It wasn’t inevitable although the growth is welcomed by the city. The three convenience stores in town do a booming business. The local grocery store has made it thus far, despite big box store competition nearby. We have a vibrant restaurant scene and there are loads of school-related activities. The Catholic and Methodist churches have little risk of consolidation. The annual town festival turns out hundreds of people to watch the parade and hay bale toss.
With the cultural life of Iowa deteriorating under Republican leadership, I know few who would seek out this new subdivision. Maybe I’m just out of touch with that segment of society. As I adjust to post-pandemic life, assuming the pandemic will eventually end, I’ll have to work harder to stay engaged with diverse people. In the meanwhile, observing new construction is an activity as old as human civilization and I’m there for it.
Observing updates in the new subdivision gives me a reason to take my daily exercise walking to town. It’s a longer walk, although sometimes I need that.
While working on my election coverage, I found six of seven candidates for three positions on the Solon School Board are campaigning or have pages devoted to school board on Facebook.
Incumbent Dan Coons does not have a public Facebook page, so readers can watch for coverage of his campaign in the Solon Economist or at the upcoming public forum.
Here is an alphabetical list of candidates and their Facebook pages:
Editor’s Note: The plan for Solon School Board election coverage is to post at least one weekly article on Saturdays until the election. I am looking at data provided by the county and will have an analysis soon. I’ve been told there will be a candidate forum and like in 2019 I plan to attend and cover it. Both the Solon Economist and Iowa City Press Citizen indicated they will provide some coverage of the campaigns. All of my posts about the 2021 school board election can be found here.
I encourage readers to participate in the Nov. 2 Solon School Board Election. In 2019 we had record voter turnout. It would be great if voter turnout improved this year.
The seven candidates are Erika Billerbeck, Tim Brown, Dan Coons, Kelly Edmonds, Stacey Munson, Michael Neuerburg, and Cassie Rochholz. Their addresses, emails and telephone numbers were posted on the Johnson County Auditor’s website. We increasingly live in a do-it-yourself news environment so I recommend if you have questions about policy, go directly to the candidates.
The main controversy in the district has been handling of the coronavirus pandemic by school administration. The board hired Davis Eidahl as superintendent in 2015 and renewed his contract at least once. Eidahl and his predecessor Sam Miller spent time together as principals in the Davis County school district near Ottumwa. Based on their common background it is clear continuity has been important to the school board. COVID-19 threw administration a curve ball and the fallout has not finished. Will this be a change election? That depends upon participation.
What the school board does is important whether or not we have children of school age. One thing is certain: Solon cares about school board elections.
~ Published by the Solon Economist on Oct. 7, 2021.
Journey Home 
You must be logged in to post a comment.