It might not be flashy, but sometimes progress means replacing 100-year-old infrastructure and reversing course on decades of apathy. City administrator Kelly Litwiller and mayor Ryan Miller talked with Cheryl Allen about what it takes to keep the city moving forward.

The News: What does ‘progress’ mean to you, and to Wellman?

Kelly Litwiller: To me it means moving forward in the right direction, looking at the future of the city, what needs to be done. It’s making sure that you’re looking out for the best interest of the residents of the community. I feel like we do a good job of making sure that we are doing that and spending funds the way that they should be.

The News: Do you, or the council, have a goal or vision for Wellman?

Litwiller: I would say our goal is to make sure that everything in the community is running as it should, looking every day at daily operations and doing the best thing that we can for the community.

Right now we’re looking at doing a huge water main update, and that is one thing that has been on the radar for years. Tim [Garret], our water guy, has pushed this for the last several years, and we’ve finally gotten to the point where that is one thing that needs to be done, and that’s been a major goal, and we are finally there.

We have other projects that we’re working on. We’re looking at doing a downtown cityscape at some point, with improvements downtown with infrastructure, redoing sidewalks. We’re going to look at doing a veterans/fire memorial. Those are the major projects we have going on.

I would say, overall, every day we look at things to improve in the city, whether it’s here at City Hall, whether it’s the guys looking at stuff to be doing around town that can improve things. Council is always looking at ways to improve things.

The News: What are three priority areas where you want to see progress in the city?

Litwiller: The water main project is the main one right now. The [9th Avenue/Gingko] bridge is a huge project we’re working on right now. The veterans memorial is one that has been in the works and people have wanted to see for a long time.

I’d love to see road improvements, but funding is a huge issue right now. We only get so much road use money, and it only goes so far. Continuing to maintain what we have right now is all we can really do, but I’d love to be able to do some road surfacing. I don’t foresee that anytime soon, but as a long-term goal, I’d love to see something done with that.

Ryan Miller: We’re more patching areas right now that had water main breaks and things like that. The things underground are the things that need to be taken care of first, and then everything above that. We need to make sure that for the next generation we get things taken care of underground. Those things aren’t pretty, but it needs to be done. It’s been neglected.

Litwiller: There’s only so much money to go around.

Miller: There are so many small towns, especially in Iowa and across the country, that have that same problem.

As for other long-term goals, it would be nice to have some land to actually expand. We’re kind of landlocked because of the farmland around us. We need to find somebody who’s willing to give up some of their land for future home use. We are getting new homes in town, and people are repairing homes, but we just need more space to build.

We’ve also tried to figure out how to get a sidewalk from the elementary to the high school.

Litwiller: It’s really difficult with the golf course there, and also with the ditches so steep on the south side of the highway. But there are a lot of kids that travel that. It seems like there’s more now than there has ever been, along with a lot of cross-country kids.

Miller: It would be nice, from a safety standpoint, to have more trails or more sidewalks, along with repairing what we have.

The News: You had the Iowa Downtown Resource Center (IDRC) do an assessment here in June. What are you doing with that information?

Litwiller: We had some engineers come in. They’ve given us an estimate and a preliminary sketch of what we could do. Starting at Highway 22 would be new sidewalks and new lighting going into downtown, and then we would go both directions on Third Street and Second Street, one block each way, with new sidewalks. We would do an overlay of 8th Avenue.

Curb stops are really bad downtown, so we would take care of those, putting in an extra handicap accessible entrance halfway down the downtown area, right around the Hills Bank area on both sides of the road. Right now, there’s only one on the west side of the road.

Miller: That’s the biggest thing we’re working on right now, the intersection at the end of Main Street, to make that a little more accessible. Since the Cadys remodeled the building at the end of Main Street and redid the sidewalk down there [now the site of Simple Happiness boutique], that was kind of the first step toward making everything consistent and congruent. Putting in new lighting would make it more friendly, unlike the industrial-looking lights that we have now.

The News: The IDRC made fun of Main Street downtown being one-way for a single block. Are you going to keep it one-way?

Litwiller: It will stay one-way.

Miller: You could have it two-way with parking on both sides, but the sidewalks would have to be a lot narrower, and then it’s not walkable. Everybody’s used to one-way.

The News: What kind of timeline are you looking at for downtown improvements?

Litwiller: It will be a few years before we’ll have set aside enough money to do it. The memorial opportunity came up a bit sooner than we expected, but we’re hoping that maybe by using that lot [on 8th Avenue and Highway 22], it will direct some traffic to the downtown area too.

The News: In the past couple of years, the city has incentivized people to upgrade storefronts and bring new businesses to downtown with grants, and that was effective. Do you plan to keep that going?

Litwiller: Absolutely. Last year [2023-24] was the year that we did the grants with the five businesses owners, and then the Cadys did the large overhaul of their building. We haven’t really pushed anything this fiscal year, and we haven’t talked about next fiscal year yet, but anybody’s always welcome to come to council and ask if they have an idea or need funding. I’m never opposed to discussing it if someone needs funding. We’re always open to new businesses and ideas.

Miller: We had the medical office that closed downtown [when Meagan Squires moved her practice to the Kalona Clinic], so we’ve been trying to find another healthcare provider to go in there, whether it be a medical office or dental office or optometrist or something, but nothing has materialized yet.

The News: Tell me a little bit more about the veterans/first responders memorial you’re working on. What inspired that idea?

Litwiller: That flag started flying on the Fourth of July that Townsend’s Crane put up, and that’s kind of where we got the vision. People were like, how cool would it be if we had a flag there flying all the time? Hopefully that’s what will end up happening, a large flag flying all the time. You can see it from both directions when you’re coming in on Highway 22.

Miller: We want it to incorporate not only the veterans but first responders also. The fire department is 125 years old now. Ambulance is coming up on 50 years. We want to make sure to include those people because these are all volunteers. They don’t have to do this, but they put in an incredible amount of time and effort.

We’re trying to get a bigger group together to come up with ideas for what we want to have included and then see if the architect can come up with some ideas for us. Then we can go out to the public and finalize it from that standpoint.

The News: Do you imagine just a monument, or would there be benches so people could spend time reflecting?

Miller: There would be some parking up there and some benches, and then also blocks or pavers that people can donate and have their names, or their loved ones, or their family’s names on.

The News: You’ve started fundraising for it with the Soup Supper on Jan. 22.

Litwiller: Yes. Rotary really wanted to be a part of it, so that’s where they wanted to launch raising money for it.

Miller: It sounds like, just from people I encounter in the public, that everybody seems excited about it. They mentioned that we’re the only community in the county that doesn’t have one.

The News: To wrap up, when you look back, are there any projects you’ve worked on that you’re especially proud of?

Litwiller: I think the biggest one this last year was the splash pad. That was something that had been on the radar from a few years, and we got that accomplished. Everybody in the community was happy about that.

One day we were up there testing it, and there were a couple of kids up there walking around with their mom. I said, you can run through it. Later on, I was doing something at the Y and they came up and said thank you. There was a lot of joy.

Miller: One thing that we might not get to appreciate much, but I’m hoping our next generation will, is that we planted 75 trees throughout the park and along the roads when the ash trees were taken out.

For me, the biggest thing I spent maybe 10 years of my life working on was getting Parkside built. That was a big one when that opened up, and we still see people utilizing it. The YMCA is doing great, Sunrise Childcare is doing great, Jet Physical Therapy is doing great, so it’s just nice to see that as part of the community.

It spurred Kalona into doing something different with their community center, and Riverside is talking about what they’re going to be doing. Washington built the new Y, and it’s just a fantastic facility.

Litwiller: It’s a great partnership. I would say overall [I’m proud of] the partnerships that have come about between all the communities, even between the county and the cities, like the Y, WEDG, those things, the communities coming together to help each other.

Miller: I’m a part of four different county boards, and everybody works well together. Representatives from every community in the county all work together for a common goal, and it’s nice to see. It wasn’t always that way.

The fact that Wellman and Kalona can share equipment and if we need something we can ask – I don’t know if a generation ago that would have occurred.

Litwiller: County contracts with law enforcement have changed over the years. Wellman, Kalona and Riverside worked really closely together to make that stronger for the entire county as a whole. Ambulance too, trying to improve the system there. The three northern communities really came together to make that happen and make it stronger.

The News: New emergency sirens were something you’ve all worked together on. Are those up and running?

Miller: They should be installed by the end of March, before tornado season.

The News: And Wellman’s new communications tower – is that functioning yet?

Miller: They’re still putting some other equipment up there and are doing some testing, but it won’t be long.

The News: From my standpoint, it does look like Kalona, Riverside and Wellman have a friendly rivalry. There’s always a question of who is going to get the stray cats.

Litwiller: Kalona will still get them.

Miller: We’re waiting for somebody to give us 700 acres that we can develop.

That [Southtown development] is wonderful for Kalona, though, and for the Mid-Prairie community. That’s the other thing – the schools are wonderful. For Wellman and Kalona, we do have that common goal for the school district.

Litwiller: That is a really good way of looking at it. If one community is excelling, it really is benefitting all of us. We’re all benefitting from it.