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Iowa City Noon Kiwanis

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Iowa City Noon Kiwanis

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Meeting every Tuesday at noon at the Iowa City Pizza Ranch.

10/21/2026

ZOOM simulcast meeting (for those not able to attend in-person) at Pizza Ranch (located at 171 Hwy 1 W in I.C.) with Andy Piro, Special Volunteer Assistant to the UU Athletic Director, who spoke in-person to give us his annual UI Athletics update. The current annual UI Athletic Budget is $183M with just under 50% of that as media income revenue and @$23M as revenue sharing expense paid to student athletes (football and both basketball teams payer receiving the bulk of that amount in addition to scholarships, room & board expense, etc. He talked about the major donations of Fritz and Mary Lou Duda to the Finkbine Clubhouse, the Finkbine Golf Course and to the Spirit & Cheer Building. He also told of a new building for the Women’s Field Hockey team and major $70M revisions scheduled for Carver Hawkeye Arena

10/14/2026

ZOOM simulcast meeting (for those not able to attend in-person) at Pizza Ranch (located at 171 Hwy 1 W in I.C.) with Cami Rasmussen, City Administrator of Solon IA, who spoke in-person about the growth and development of her town. “A Place to Put Down Roots” is the city slogan and reflects the city council zoning focus of mainly residential. It is a bedroom community of 3,800 people with most of them working out of town. The largest employer is the school district. There are four active residential developments: Saddleback Estates, Trail Ridge Estate, Old Mil Creek and Windmill Estates. She has held positions of City Clerk/ Treasurer, City Council member, Mayor and her current job as Administrator ( an appointee of the council). There are four city departments: City Hall, Public Works (she acts as Director), Recreation and Library. Because they are so small they contract outside services: Engineering, Attorney, JoCo Sheriff and fire protection through the district based in Solon. The new fire station building cost $5M but they planning a new Wastewater Treatment Plant that will be $38M.

10/07/2026

ZOOM simulcast meeting (for those not able to attend in-person) at Pizza Ranch (located at 171 Hwy 1 W in I.C.) with Sandra Kessler Host, Curator of Iowa Rural Schools Museum in Odebolt IA, who spoke in-person about the Ioway Indigenous Nation. As a former school teacher, she was curious about how the State of Iowa was named for the Ioway Indigenous Nation. She had previously researched how farms and the one-room schools had gotten started along with their impact on who we are today. In the 1600-1700s, the Nation controlled the hunting grounds of Iowa, NW Missouri and SW Minnesota. They were organized as 7 major clans (Buffalo, Bear, etc.) along family lines. There was no central chief until 1801 when the US required one for treaty purposes. Their language traces it roots to the Siouan root language and they consider the Ho Chunk (Winnebago) in Wisconsin to be their distant ancestors. The Ioway were skilled farmers and used horses to hunt buffalo. Sandy talked about the fur trading, wars waged, and displacement of tribes caused by settlements (down from Canada, west from Illinois and Wisconsin and up from Missouri). There are now the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska on the great Nemaha Reserve near White Club KS established in 1836 and the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma near Perkins OK in 1883. She questioned as to why none of this is taught in Iowa schools today.

10/04/2026

ZOOM simulcast meeting (for those not able to attend in-person) at Pizza Ranch (located at 171 Hwy 1 W in I.C.) with Dan Hudson, a member of this club, presenting Showing & Shooting Guns Part II. The original scheduled speaker had a conflict and has been rescheduled for 10 NOV. Dan spoke about his time after being drafted into the US Army in 1959. He was trained in Signal, sent to an Infantry unit and then on to a Petroleum Services unit but was usually detailed to the pistol marksmanship team. Even though he was an E-3 (the third lowest rank possible in the military) he was able to travel to various competitions including the prestigious National R***e Marksman tournament at Camp Perry OH. Dan has been interested in and participated in shooting for 70+ years. He told how he makes his own lead bullets from used wheel weight lugs or from old linotype. He had several bull-eye targets to show from record winning competitions some of which he broke his own previous records while shooting at 100-200 yards. He belongs to a gun club that owns their own range in Aledo IL and travels there monthly except during their hunting season or when it is too in climate to be firing in the out of doors. He also brought his 1890’s Swiss Army r***e that he frequently uses in competitions.

09/24/2026

ZOOM simulcast meeting (for those not able to attend in-person) at Pizza Ranch (located at 171 Hwy 1 W in I.C.) Anne Mangano, City of Iowa City Public Library(ICL) Director, who spoke in-person about the state of her library and the current difficulties being experienced by libraries throughout IA. She talked about the ICPL Community Values including Access, Belonging, Collaboration, Literacy, Enjoyment and Intellectual Freedom. Using Local Option Sales Tax and Friends of the Library funding they are planning on needed refurbishments including floors, walls & furniture. Later they will be looking at modernizing the HVAC system and doors. Future Planning includes customer needs survey and a strategic 5-10 year plan. ICPL was just one of multiple libraries across the state that was affected when Baker & Taylor Publishing ceased business with less than three weeks notice. Through their state-wide contract they had purchased books, mounted jackets to protect the books, labeled books for shelving, provided cataloging information and more. All that work is now done internally by ICPL and the other affected libraries.

09/17/2026

ZOOM simulcast meeting (for those not able to attend in-person) at Pizza Ranch (located at 171 Hwy 1 W in I.C.) with Justin Harland, PE, City of I.C. Senior Engineer, who spoke in-person about the Burlington Street Project: Building Better Connections. He represents Iowa City in a three-way partnership with Iowa DOT and The U of I. Each of the former owns one of the existing two bridges and the latter owns the dam. The existing bridges are inspected and have been found to be structurally deficient, meaning safe to drive on now but will need replacing. The Riverside Dr/Burlington St/Grandview Ave intersection is the second busiest in Johnson County. Federal funding is available from highway gas tax revenue for the bride although DOT has not yet said they will own the new bridge and US Corps of Engineer funding for dam alterations will be sought because of the river. They want to maintain the pool level of the river for navigation & flood control but want to change the dam to add a fish ladder and small craft transit. They are in the concept and design stage now with actual construction probably beginning in 2029 and lasting for 3-5 years depending on how many stages are planned. Needs and wants are being considered with emphasis being placed on economy, safety, well-being, ADA and emergency services that use it. Will try to design aesthetics that will represent the City and UI. Grand Ave going west from Riverside Dr will end at Melrose Ave, the area between there and the roundabout will become greenspace and , Melrose will be redesigned to become two-way traffic around the Law Library. Because the Hwy 6 bridge needs to be replaced this will impact on the Burlington St bridge so that both are no happening simultaneously.

09/10/2026

ZOOM simulcast meeting (for those not able to attend in-person) at IC Pizza Ranch (located at 171 Hwy 1 W) with Mike Rocca speaking in-person about his hobby “Blacksmithing”. Mike told about how his various jobs influenced his decision to learn about Blacksmithing. He had worked as a tool & die maker for GE, had worked in the UI Physics & Astronomy and in the UIHC Medical Labs. He started learning the skill about 50 years ago but then could concentrate on it more after he retired. He took classes and watched videos to perfect it. He began his presentation with a 5 minute video on constructing the proper fire including using the correct bituminous coal from West Virginia (doesn’t have as many impurities as other types of coal and will coke), placement of the element to be heated in the “sweet” spot and proper use of forced air to increase/decrease the temperature (range of 1200 to 1800 degrees F is best). He labels himself more an artistic, ornamental smithy rather than a functional one, though he manufactured 60 kitchen cabinet drawer & door handles for himself when doing a kitchen remodel. Mike brought with him boxes of his work including items made from steel & copper scrap such as wall sconce, flowers, candlestick holders and more. He is a member of the Cedar County Historical Society and has substituted as the Blacksmith at the Hoover National Library & Museum.

09/02/2026

ZOOM simulcast meeting (for those not able to attend in-person) at IC Pizza Ranch (located at 171 Hwy 1 W) with Dan Hudson, a member of this club, who spoke in-person about collecting, shooting and showing r***es. Dan first got interested in r***es in high school in the 1950s when he helped a neighbor to get one repaired. He got the bug and has been collecting, trading, selling and showing ever since. He will focus on one particular brand & model to learn everything possible about its history and then will collect multiple r***es of that style. He has not stuck to just one style but has multiple types in his collection. He talked about traveling to shows around our nation and one of his traveling companions was Bill Furnish, a member of this club until his death. Due to technical A/V issues he was unable to show his slide show but will be back to tell us more, especially about shooting matches.

08/31/2026

Please Join the
IOWA CITY NOON KIWANIS Club
for a COMMUNITY FUNDRAISER at
HUDSON’S SOUTHSIDE TAP & GRILL
482 HWY 1 W IOWA CITY
Wednesday 02 SEP 2026
4 – 9 p.m.

Hudson’s will share a generous portion of profits!!

08/19/2026

ZOOM simulcast meeting (for those not able to attend in-person) at Pizza Ranch (located at 171 Hwy 1 W. in I.C.) with Damien Ihrig, MA, MLIS, Curator of John Martin Rare Book Room & Collection Management of Hardin Library for the Health Sciences , who spoke in-person about The John Martin Rare Book Room: A History of Medicine Collection. He gave us the history of John Martin, M.D. (1904-1996)and how he began to be a rare medical book collector at the end of WWII. Martin was a neurosurgeon serving in the US Army and came across his first book in Europe. By the time he retired he had accumulated 1,5050 rare books that he offered to NW University, but they rejected his donation. He had moved to be with relatives in Clarinda IA and became an Adjunct Professor in the UI College of Medicine, so it was logical that his next offer of his collection was to the newly planned Hardin Library for Health Sciences at UI. He also donated funds to The John Martin Rare Book Room to install fire prevention, improved air quality and an endowment for a curator. By the time of his death the collection had grown to 3,000 books and now is about 6,500 books. The oldest book is from 1470 A.D. Books can be rare based upon their subject matter, scarcity, medical subject matter importance, typeface, illustrations and condition.

Address

Iowa City, IA
52240

Opening Hours

12pm - 1pm

Telephone

+13195417575

Website

facebook.com

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