“One thing we always like to start with on these visits is we try to be brutally honest,” James Engle told the group gathered at MERGE in Iowa City on Wednesday afternoon.  “We try to be honest, sometimes it’s brutal.”

Oh, it was.  

Earlier in the week the Iowa Downtown Resource Center (IDRC), of which Engle is director, performed mini downtown assessments of five rural communities in Johnson County: Hills, Lone Tree, Oxford, Swisher, and Tiffin.  This involved some reconnaissance beforehand, with members of Engle’s team visiting each downtown, taking photos, and making some preliminary assessments. On March 13 and 14, they met with a steering group from each town for an hour, and then took a 45-minute downtown tour. On Wednesday, they presented their findings.

For each town, the IDRC team reviewed strengths and challenges, and then made recommendations, complete with a sample illustration by Dennis Reynolds.

For Lone Tree, the assessment must have been tough to hear.

Jim Thompson began the presentation by stating what it is he does: initially, “I find money for projects,” and then elaborated, “I exclusively work with progressive communities that choose to save themselves.”

“When we’re thinking about Lone Tree now, just so you guys know, it’s never my intention to ever offend anyone,” he said.  “But if you ask me a direct question, you’re going to get a direct answer.”

Rather than lead off gently with a list of the things Lone Tree is doing right, Thompson jumped right in with his first impression of the town: “The water tower needs cleaned.”

“The City of Lone Tree needs to set the standard for the community.  If you’re going to allow underperforming properties, and they’re yours that you control as a city, that’s the example you’re setting for the rest of the town,” he said.

“As we drove around and looked at some of the neighborhoods, they did not like it when I said, ‘Oh, some of your neighborhoods are underperforming,’” Thompson continued.  “Please get in a car, drive around your town, look at your neighborhoods, walk your downtowns.  Because when you take your rose-colored glasses off, you will see the same things that we saw.”

One of the highlights of IDRC’s visit to Lone Tree was Julie’s Fountain of Flowers, a floral shop.  Owner Julie Poeltler told the group that the city had a list of suggestions for improvements from 2006, provided by Iowa Living Roadways.  

“As a group to get things done in Lone Tree, please start with those recommendations,” Thompson beseeched the county and city.

He then got around to Lone Tree’s strengths, which included the K-12 school and wellness center, of which he remarked, “How could you live in Lone Tree and not be proud of that school system?”

The existence of a local foundation, chamber of commerce, and active American Legion made the list of positives.  Events such as Art in the Park, the Farmer’s Market, and Julie’s Winter Market also got a mention, as did Deeply Rooted Beauty and Boutique – “really, really cool interior rehab and a great business model” – and the butterfly benches to be installed downtown.

On the challenges list: the grocery store sign, garbage bins downtown, and the need for building rehab.

“Driving into town, we saw this sign at the former grocery store that half of it is blown off,” Thompson said, referring to LT’s Fine Grocery, which has been closed for four years.  “This is your first impression!  Something needs to be done with this. . . That property owner needs to be on Lone Tree’s speed dial.  They need to be saying, ‘We’ve got to fix this up, because we look like crap when people come to town.’”

On the blue garbage bins lined up downtown, Thompson said, “That needs to just be a conversation.  [I’m] glad people live upstairs, but your first impression shouldn’t be trash containers sitting in front of vacant space that you want to occupy. A whole lot of space in downtown Lone Tree is underperforming.  And it needs to be better.”

Regarding the need for downtown buildings to be rehabbed, he pointed to the funeral home, the upstairs of which is in rough shape.  “Housing is critical in every rural community I work in, and here’s an opportunity with that square footage that’s underperforming.  We need to figure out how to get you money to do that project.  We have grant money to help pay for that, so property owners get a better return on investment when their whole building is income producing.  That’s just math.”

On the whole, however, Thompson concluded, “Lone Tree, unfortunately, has had really bad building rehab advice.  You roll into town and you see a whole lot of metal.  Ugly.  You see a whole lot of mansard roofs.  . . including on City Hall.”

He later added, “Some of the best buildings that you have are along Commercial Street.  And if something’s not done, we call this demolition by neglect.  These buildings are going to fall down if they’re not improved.”

Although many of his findings were negative, Thompson ended his presentation on Lone Tree on a positive note.

“I’m super excited about what you guys could do here,” he said.  “This could be the example at a county level for the State of Iowa.  That’s right in front of you, so let’s figure out how to do it.  I want to help.”

IDRC will provide a written document of their findings from all five rural communities to Johnson County officials in about six weeks.  

The assessment team repeatedly remarked how impressed they were that all five Johnson County Supervisors attended the walk-arounds and noted that they provide this service all over the state, but have never had that level of engagement from supervisors.

“I truly believe Johnson County could be an example for the state,” Thompson concluded at the end of the presentation.