THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2025 • VOLUME N0. 124 • ISSUE NO. 31 • 1 SECTION • 8 PAGES
Serving Colfax • Mingo • Baxter • Western Jasper County
Art with a purpose gain a lot of momentum until RAGBRAI made its way through Colfax. With thousands of cyclists visiting the community it was easy to see they were missing that kind of infrastructure. According to Patterson, one of Colfax Main Street’s “Transformation Strategies” — overarching strategies for the program based on community input and market data to help achieve goals for the downtown over the next few years — is to “create a vibrant, walkable downtown district through improving the downtown street scape and pedestrian amenities.” The bike rack project is meant to promote the use of alternative and “green” transportation to visit downtown Colfax in an effort to reduce the amount of vehicle traffic moving through town and making it a more pedestrian-friendly business district.
By Jamee A. Pierson Jasper County Tribune Oftentimes amenities needed in cities don’t always add to the aesthetic of the community. Fortunately for Colfax, adding bike racks to downtown not only gives cyclists a place to rest their ride but brings fun sculptures to town, as well. “Our program had been discussing adding street furniture and other amenities to downtown Colfax for about six years,” Colfax Main Street Director Stuart Patterson said. “A few years ago we added eight memorial benches to the downtown so that there was more seating for people to hang out. We had noticed that kids and adults would use bikes to come downtown, but not have a great place to put them when visiting businesses.” The idea of adding bike racks was tossed around but didn’t
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Colfax Main Street adds colorful bike racks throughout the downtown district
Jamee A. Pierson/Jasper County Tribune Victorian penny-farthing bicycles serve a bike racks in downtown Colfax adding functional art to the city.
Learning, growing, gaining An ‘Egg-celent’ Serving more kids than ever, the Jasper County Youth Track and Field Club looks to have another successful season in 2025 By Jamee A. Pierson Jasper County Tribune Three years ago PCM teacher and former track star Bridget Martin had an idea: She wanted to give younger kids the opportunity to learn about track and field before they reached the middle school team. The idea led to a youth track team for the PCM community and soon expanded the next year to the Jasper County Youth Track and Field Club. Encompassing all kids throughout the county, the club holds practices at PCM High School and Colfax High School throughout April, May and June, and it gives kids the chance to compete in a wide variety of meets across Central Iowa. “I’m excited to see the program continue to gain momentum in the county,” Martin said. “There are so many fundamentals to track and field, so to get a head start on those will be great to watch as these athletes progress into junior high and
With a huge grin across his face and an old tattered map tucked underneath his arm, Joe Otto was one peg leg and an eye patch away from looking like he was ready to search for buried treasure somewhere in the Seven Seas. For him though the true treasure was the map, but it didn’t lead to a chest of riches. Instead, it was an old drainage district map of Jasper County. Otto requested the board of supervisors lend him the document so that he may digitize it and
Kids fill up their baskets and bags with goodies during the Colfax Easter Egg Hunt April 19
Jamee A. Pierson/Jasper County Tribune The Jasper County Youth Track and Field Club is back in its third year looking to help families learn about the sport of track and field in a fun, low-key environment.
high school track and field.” In her first year, Martin had more than 100 kids show up the first day of practice, about double what she anticipated. Since then, the club has only grown.
Any current first graders through 12th graders can join, with the older kids starting after the completion of their school TRACK | 3
MAP QUEST By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune
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then turn over the digital file to the county. Afterwards he will give the map back and that will be the end of it. He didn’t even ask for a fee. Well, not this time at least. “It’s kind of like at what point does something become historically valuable? This is the map of the Skunk River before it was channelized, so it’s the very last image of what it looked like before it was channelized,” Otto, of Colfax, said. “…I’ve never seen it unrolled but I think it’s like 10 feet long. It’s pretty big.” Supervisor Brandon Talsma pointed to the rolled up map sitting across from Otto CONTACT US
Jamee A. Pierson/Jasper County Tribune
Jasper County citizen to digitize historic drainage district map of Skunk River before it was channelized
in the board room. Talsma remarked that it was a “pretty cool map,” and he marveled at its hand-drawn etchings. He said the engineer’s office might have unrolled the map at the least once in recent years. Otto heard stories from the museum that the drainage district maps used to hang on the walls of the courthouse 40 or 50 years ago. At the time, the channeling of Shaw Media the Skunk River was the biggest infrastructure project Jasper County had ever seen. Otto estimated the channelChristopher Braunschweig/Jasper County Tribune ing was conducted in the Joe Otto unrolls a large drainage district map, which he plans to digest. 1851
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itize and provide a digital copy to Jasper County at no cost. The map is more than a 100 years old.
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