Back in October, the City of Kalona purchased a pair of properties located at 313 and 315 C Avenue.  On Nov. 28, they were destroyed.

A giant yellow Komatsu demolition excavator reached its monster claw into each house, gutting its insides, tearing out insulation and load-bearing beams, leaving a trail of wiring dangling from its teeth.  Then it bit into the fragile outer shell and collapsed it into a growing pile of debris.  Within a couple of hours, all that was left of the two homes was food for the landfill.

The ravaging by this modern-day hydraulic Godzilla was by invitation, not accident.  The houses were “long past their useful life,” City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh said, and could not be salvaged.  Instead, they were intentionally demolished to create a blank slate for a whole new Student-Built house project set to begin in Spring 2023. 

This time, a new multi-family home will be built from the ground up by a fresh team of area students and contractors.  The City of Kalona will start laying out their plans for the project at a scheduled work session before their regular meeting on Dec. 19.

Disposable homes that can have their doors beat down and their walls shot up are a valuable resource for law enforcement, so the city invited area police departments and sheriff’s offices to conduct training exercises in the structures before they were destroyed.  On Nov. 15, SWAT teams from Washington County and Iowa City accepted that invitation.

Special Weapons and Tactics teams use specialized equipment and tactics in high-risk situations; they are most often deployed to serve search warrants, mostly for narcotics.  They may find themselves in violent confrontations with criminals and in hostage-taking situations.

Inside the houses in Kalona, the SWAT teams acted out “real-life” scenarios as part of their training exercises. 

The News’s reporter Giovanni Coronel was allowed inside to observe.  He reports:

Wearing helmets, eye protection, and heavy-duty vests while carrying shields and fake guns, they would approach the house’s front door cautiously.   After knocking loudly and announcing, just as loudly, that they were law enforcement, they would kick down the door and enter the house.

This was followed by a loud bang, and they would attempt to subdue the ‘homeowners’ who were instructed to perform specific actions based on which scenario they were running.  Actions like messing with the blinds, trying to escape, or even barricading themselves up in a room while armed with a fake weapon.

This would lead to stalemates where the SWAT team would have to decide what is the best course of action to take to make sure things are settled without any added turmoil. They would have discussion and try different tactics until the scenario was called off. Then they would exit the house for a debriefing.

At their regular meeting on Nov. 21, Sergeant Aaron Gould thanked the Kalona City Council for the opportunity.

“Thank you, guys, for letting us train at those houses.  We don’t get realistic training like that, so to do realistic training, breaching techniques, is very beneficial for us,” he said. 

“With the training you guys let us have with those houses, we use real flashbangs to get used to hearing them.  We have new guys on our team, so getting them to hear and feel that percussion and stuff is really beneficial,” he added.

The City of Kalona maximized the usefulness of their new project properties before having them knocked down and cleared away.  Now a new chapter begins, and we can look forward to watching it unfold in the seasons to come.