The puppy mill bill, HSB604, passed the House Public Safety committee last week here in our great state of Iowa.

Unfortunately, it is another completely partisan bill. Every “yes” a Democrat, every “no” a Republican.

Warning – this blog post is bi-partisan, so if you’re one of my liberal friends hoping I’m going to bash conservatives – sorry. And if you’re one of my conservative friends waiting for a good fight – no dice.

I’m writing because I’m just sick of politics in the US as it stands today and this bill is a perfect example of what just makes me want to hurl.

Here is the basic focus of the bill (which by the way WAS supported by Representative Curt Hanson)  “We need and deserve better oversight of the USDA-licensed breeders in our state. This law will not mandate additional inspections. It will only make it possible for the IA Dept of Ag to inspect upon receipt of a complaint. The breeders’ fee increases will offset any additional costs to implement this.”

Did all the Republicans who voted “no” really want to send the message to their constituents that they are not in favor of protecting puppies? Of course not. What they did is put politics before the people, well in this case the animals, and that’s not going to get this country anywhere but worse off than it is now.

I can’t help but think that the two-party system is coming to an end. Not because it isn’t good in theory, but because what it is turning into is a battleground of rhetoric and wills. One that has little to do with what is best for the country, and EVERYTHING to do with what is best for one of the parties. Sickening… Maddening…

This post is not meant to be a rant, rather, a question to us and our government. What are we going to do to get our country get back on track? How are we going to work TOGETHER, to do what the PEOPLE want and expect, and NOT just what is going to look good to the rest of the party or some talk show host?

Help me out here, anybody. Am I nuts or are what seem to be a majority of our representatives more interested in their jobs and keeping their party in power than in what is best for these United States?

Indeed, I may be seen as generalizing, but when I see votes like this, it is really, really hard to imagine that there is something so dreadfully wrong with saving puppies that it would incite every Republican to vote no.

Well, unless what I don’t know is that the people whom these folks represent actually prefer to torture puppies…

Fairfield is filled with interesting people, many of whom you may recognize but can never put your finger on exactly who they are.

One of those people may be Buddy Biancalana, this week’s Fairfield Story.

Buddy grew up in California where he was a baseball prodigy.  He attended High School in Larkspur and was drafted by the Royals in the first round (25th overall pick) of the 1978 June Regular Phase draft. Biancalana made his Major League Baseball debut on September 12, 1982, and played his final game on October 4, 1987.

After playing for a few years in the minors, Buddy got the call to “the show”, as a member of the Royals team that won the World Series in 1985, where he was an adept fielder but didn’t hit well for average. Yet he managed to win himself an everyday job.  Despite having started only 35 games all season, manager Dick Howser benched regular Onix Concepcion in favor of Biancalana on September 20.  Biancalana started 13 of the next 15 games as the Royals won the American League West division by one game over the California Angels.

Unbeknown to Buddy, or his team, something about that experience enabled Buddy to get into the “zone” – that fabled place that professional athletes talk about where time slows down and they can do no wrong.  He was the starting shortstop for the Royals in all 14 post-season games, playing error-free defense in every game, and was an integral part in several run-scoring innings for the Royals in the World Series. He batted .278 in the series with an on base percentage of .435, both well above his career numbers.

Buddy and his family moved to Fairfield three years ago, attracted by what he had heard about the many opportunities we offer for personal growth – including TM. He had also become familiar with the discovery of Steve Yellin, to quantify the processes in the mind that enable athletes to find and consistently be in the “zone.”  Buddy and Steve formed Perfect Mind-Perfect Motion shortly after his arrival.

What they now teach to athletes in Major League Baseball, the PGA, tennis, and the NBA, is how to consistently find the zone – where time slows down, the intellect shuts down, and the motion becomes more fluid and effortless. Through a three step program, they’ve helped numerous athletes affect the processes in their minds and have built the business strictly by word of mouth.

One such success story is pro golfer Lee Janzen. After winning two US Opens, Lee lost his stride and languished near the middle of the pack. After working with Buddy, Lee came bounding back – making $800,000 last year and is showing signs of his old self. Another recent story involves major league baseball’s Bobby Keppel, the 2001 1^st round pick by the NY Mets who had a 5.50 ERA in AAA. After working with Buddy,  he lowered his ERA to 2.43 pitching 14 scoreless innings in his big league debut, and helping the Minnesota Twins win game 163  – a tie-breaker – that got then into the playoffs in 2009

Very few athletes are naturals like Michael Jordan, or can perform at high levels with the consistency of a Brett Favre. What comes naturally to some is the biggest challenge for most athletes who don’t know how to get back mind body coordination when it breaks down and this, according to Buddy, is the secret to consistency. Through a series of drills and concepts, Buddy asserts that athletes who use this proprietary methodology will avoid slumps. The Perfect Mind-Perfect Motion method is not a philosophy, rather, it implies that Steve and Buddy have uncovered how the mind-body connection works and they can teach it to athletes in any sport.

Buddy, his wife and his boys Alex and Gavin love all that Fairfield has to offer, most notably going to Revelations for Pizza and bike rides on the Jefferson County trails.  He feels that Fairfield is a very powerful place for those who take advantage of its resources. He encourages all of our local athletes to learn more about the benefits of meditation as it is his belief that it strengthens mind-body coordination and any time you can quiet your mind you will be more successful at anything you do.

Forever grateful for “Fairfield’s existence” as Buddy put it, and the way the community has embraced he and his family, he is available to help the community in any way he can. In fact, welcomes the opportunity to help kids in town interested in becoming better at Baseball.

A little known fact about Buddy is what happened during the countdown to Pete Rose breaking Ty Cob hits record in 1985. David Letterman instituted a Buddy Biancalana countdown calendar. Biancalana later appeared as a guest on Late Night with David Letterman, quipping “I’m closer to Cobb than you are to Carson” ( Buddy finished his big-league career with 113 base hits, over four thousand short of Cobb or Rose.)

Our end of year Fairfield story is about Kay Ferguson, born and raised in St. Joesph, MO and relocated to Fairfield in 1984.

Many of you know Kay as the person whose house you went to with your parents where you ate so many of her famous “protein balls” that your mom had to hide the bowl!

Kay is the oldest of 6 siblings and until her Parkinson’s got the best of her, she ran a thriving Shaklee business which is now handled by her son Bob. Kay ran the business out of her home on E. Burlington avenue from 1984-2000 with an employee  who fulfilled orders from her home office.

During that time, Kay held meetings at her home to invigorate her distributors, educate customers, and indoctrinate new distributors. Many of those attendees brought their kids who were only too happy to munch on Kay’s protein balls which she originally created to demonstrate how tasty the products she sold could be while providing the added benefit of instant protein. The balls were kept in a little Chinese box which all of the kids became accustomed to. In fact, Eileen Hawthorne’s kids were so crazy for them that they were on a limit to how many they could have on any given visit!  A combination of honey, fiber crunch, cashew butter and, of course, instant protein, Kay’s protein balls are almost as legendary in Fairfield as Kay herself has become.

Kay also held dinners which typically drew as many as 15 people who would enjoy each others company and tell stories about, well, anything they wanted to including their experiences with Shaklee products that helped them with various ailments. Ann Lamansky from Brighton for example, has fibromyalgia which became debilitating to the extent of not being able to even sit on the floor to play with her kids. Ann started taking Shaklee products and as a result, increased her energy and vigor. She was so impressed with her own success with the products that she became a distributor as well.

What amazed me most as I talked to Kay, who is now 89 and still as vibrant as can be, was how she reminisced about her business and those who attended her dinners as being a part of “the family”. You see, her business and all of those who partook were and still are family to Kay. Obviously, this became a recipe for success, but for Kay, it was simply a natural thing to do. Her belief in the products she sells, and in the friendships she has created is what enabled her, and now her son’s, success in their business. And after doing some extra snooping into the company – Shaklee – I can understand why. Yes, it is a network marketing business. But it really seems to be unlike those that we’re most familiar with. Not unlike Kay’s natural approach to building her business, Shaklee is about creating relationships and spreading the wealth. And although it is not my cup of tea per se, if you are interested in what Shaklee calls “social marketing” , I’d encourage you to find out more about the possibilities here.

Until the time that she was 82, Kay would drive from Fairfield to Boston, Connecticut and all the way to Maine to meet with her distributors and their prospects -  two times a year.  Although she can’t do that drive any longer, and has turned the business over to Bob, Kay continues to use her home as a gathering place. In lieu of business, the Garden Club, writing group, and peer group are where Kay spends most of her time these days.

An avid gardener, Kay grows all of the vegetables she can eat, various fruits, and numerous flowers in her well kept yard. She has so many apples in fact that in addition to barrels and barrels of apple sauce, Kay and her son who lives in Illinois can 50-60 quarts a year that they sell to a Slovakian Strudel maker in Bloomington, IL.

The writing group was started by Kay to preserve her and her friends’ memories of their children’s childhood  so that they are not lost. Many times when these parents tell their children about what they wrote about, the kids hadn’t even recalled what had happened…

The group Kay seems most proud of which also greatly interested me is what she calls the peer group. This group of as many as 27 people are Kay’s peers – vital, active people from 70 to well into their 90’s. Some are retired, many are not. A pot-luck format, Kay always makes a hot casserole and they almost always end up with a complete meal. Each meeting has a theme. The largest this year was when Bob (her son) discussed sustainability with the group. December’s meeting (held after I interviewed Kay) was themed “Christmases I Remember”  where they told stories of Christmas with their families as their kids were growing up.

When asked about her favorite thing to do in Fairfield, Kay’s response was expected. “To help people work as people and to do what she can, where she can, and when she can.” Bob added that it’s hard to go to HyVee with Kay as she is always stopped by old and new friends and acquaintances whose lives that Kay has touched.

Kay loves Fairfield and appreciates small town life. If she had one wish, it would be to “live the way we used to live.” This translates to being more self-sufficient, growing our own food, living off of the land. “Going to the grocery is just not natural” said Kay. Any wonder why she chose a “green” company to represent and has a son who is the committee chair of Fairfield’s sustainability effort?

Next time you see in her in HyVee, say “hi” to one of Fairfield’s true gems, Kay Ferguson.

Welcome back to this week’s installment of Fairfield Stories. This week, we’re featuring the annual Thanksgiving feed held at the First United Methodist Church, just off of the square.

This event has taken place every year for the past 5 years. I first found out about the event from Dave Goehring,  who works for Pierson and Pierson Plumbing, when he was under my sink a few days before Thanksgiving this year. After thanking him profusely for fixing it prior to my company arriving, Dave asked how many people we’d be having for dinner. When I responded with “10″ he chuckled and said, “oh that’s not so many.” That begged the question, “how many are you having Dave?” The answer “Oh, 300 or so.”

With that, I asked Dave to meet me at Second Street for a cup of coffee as I knew that this was a story that needed to be told.

5 years ago the Church sent a group of students on a mission to the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Lame Deer, Montana. After an exhilarating few days helping out in any way they could, one of the students wondered aloud why they have to go so far away to help people. Why couldn’t they do it in their own town? The Thanksgiving Feed was conceived.

That first year they fed 61 people. Associate Pastor Dave Peterson still has a momento of that event that practically brought tears to Dave Goehring’s eyes when he described it to me. It’s a napkin. A napkin with a note written on it from the very first person they fed that evening, expressing his appreciation for the feast.

The feed has grown enormously since that first year. Dave has been running it for two years now and as you’d imagine with giving souls like Dave, his wife Rhonda, his daughter Amy (who is now away at college) and even his parents work with him to plan and execute this amazing local event.

They feed people from “all walks of life” according to Dave. Who, by the way is so humble that he wouldn’t allow me to take a picture of him and he insisted that I give as little credit to him as possible. Surely, it takes a village, and as you’d imagine, he gave Christ his due, but it also takes a leader and IMHO there seems to be no better leader for an endeavor like this than Dave Goehring…

So back to the feed. Not only does First Methodist participate, but so do other congregations from around Fairfield. Volunteers come from as many walks of life as the people who are fed, and they do everything from outreach about the event, to cooking, serving and clean-up. Dave characterized the volunteer effort as a “family reunion” that comes together once the word is put out to local churches. According to Dave “it just happens.”

In 2009, 230 people were fed by Dave and his crew of about 40 volunteers. The meal included numerous turkeys donated by the local Hy-Vee, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce (new this year) and 15-20 different home baked pies served in the “pie room” as Dave referred to it. “Something for everybody.”

The feed doesn’t just serve people at the Church either. A few years ago, they took on Meals-on-Wheels duties on Thanksgiving Day which happened after parishoner Jack Glass who was heaily involved in Meals-on-Wheels passed a few years ago. They also serve other folks who are too feeble to leave their homes and who are not a part of Meals-on Wheels. This effort served about 70 of the 230 people who were served in 2009.

The entire event comes together in about 2-3 weeks. The call goes out and the volunteers just start working. Right up to Thanksgiving day conversations such as “can we use another pie?” occur and another one is delivered to the pie room.  Dave doesn’t ever worry about it coming together – it just does. In fact the only complaint he ever gets is that there’s too much food. So as you’d imagine, there are doggie-bags for all – with extra helpings of pie, of course.

This Thanksgiving feed not only has something for everybody, but is attended by everybody – rich, poor, religious, non-religious, townie, meditator. This year a family of 13 showed up. And as powerful a draw as free, home-cooked food is, Dave believes that most people are showing up for the atmosphere and cameraderie as most stay long after the food stops being served.

As Dave said in closing about his experience with the Thanksgiving feed, “truly a gift” and I do believe that it is.

I was humbled by the number of comments my last post about the Center generated. With that came a request for clarity around the sale of the Center and its finances. Here goes.

With the best of intentions and a solid plan in hand, the original team set out to build a premier convention and performing arts center. As they were about to break ground, they received news that the USDA €“ the guarantor on the facility’s mortgage – required an archeological dig of the site which delayed construction for months. After that was sorted out construction began just as the Katrina rebuilding effort and some additional market pressures decreased supply and increased demand for building materials. This created serious cost overruns that took the final construction cost well beyond the funds raised. As a result, the building was value engineered to reduce costs, and management was forced to lease many building fixtures and much of the equipment necessary to make the facility ready for prime time. These developments, combined with a board of directors and management team that were not experienced in managing this type of facility and did not know its market, created a perfect storm of debt.

Layered on top of the debt was that same management team, determined to promote an ambitious musical theater program in Southeast Iowa – a noble idea IMHO – but they neglected to cultivate the broader base of entertainment required to generate sustainable attendance rates and ticket sales.  Additionally, the construction debt was incurred without reckoning with an immutable principal of non-profit administration: facilities such as this never support debt service and generally require private donations and institutional or governmental underwriting to sustain operations.

This all resulted in $5MM in debt, of which $4MM was an Iowa State Bank mortgage and the balance was equipment leases. Newcomers to the FACC board in early 2009 obtained concessions from the equipment lessors that reduced the other $900k of debt by about half. This left the mortgage as the proverbial elephant in the room. (The rest of the history lesson will be posted on a site that will deliver all of the facts about the Center within the next couple of weeks. So until then, let’s leave history and get to today.)

The mortgage holder, Iowa State Bank is taking steps to minimize any loss it may incur on the mortgage in the course of reorganizing the Center’s finances. This means selling the facility if possible. The parties have determined that significant value only can be obtained from an educational or civic organization that has need of a performing arts center. Significant value probably cannot be realized from conversion of the center to commercial, retail or industrial use.  The listing for sale, if successful, will result in purchase of the center by a deep-pocketed group that needs to continue to cultivate patron and community goodwill. In practice this would mean making the facility available on reasonable terms to community groups.

If the listing does not result in a sale within six months, then FACC, the bank, the city and the county will renew discussions of a public-private partnership to purchase the facility from the bank, which would proceed with foreclosure.

The partnership will attempt to raise up to $2M in cash for purchase of the property free and clear and to retire all debt, from the following sources: $.5M from donations, $650k from the city devoting a currently uncommitted portion of its local option sales tax revenues over 9 years, and $350k from the county devoting a portion of its local option sales tax revenues that is currently applied to reduce county resident property taxes.  This transaction, together with some additional ongoing support for center operations from private sources, should assure the long-term financial stability of the center.

The website, which will launch shortly, will have additional details. I hope this post at least answers the questions raised in comments.

Thanks for the opportunity to respond!

This is the first in a new weekly series of articles about Fairfield. Fairfield Stories will feature people and businesses in town that, well, make good stories! They’ll come from all walks of the community so please, if you know of a person or business with a unique, fun, or impactful story to tell, email me at markhcohen@gmail.com.

Our first story is one that some have heard and others, such as myself, have only recently come to appreciate. That is, the place to “see and be seen” as I had once read in the Iowa Source – Revelations Cafe.

Run by the Howland sisters – Jen, Joan and Julie – and their mom Betsy, Revelations may be best known for it’s books and pizza.

The Howlands came to Fairfield almost 20 years ago because they were looking for a change and Julie and Joan wanted to attend the University. Years later,  younger sister Jen had the idea to start a library where people could read books and hang out – and Revelations was born.

Originally situated in an old auto body shop  just outside of Everybody’s, Revelations was the place to trade books. Walter Dey contributed the box of old science fiction books that got them started and since then, thousands of books have passed from person to person, via Revelations’ shelves. The concept is simple – donate a book and you receive points that you can use towards other books.

While in that old garage, Jen thought it a good idea to serve coffee. Since the health department didn’t like that idea, the sisters brought in a drip pot so that book-traders could read, sip some joe, and chit-chat.

After their first winter in the garage, as the melt cascaded down the walls, across the floor, and into the drain in the middle of the bookstore, the sisters had decided that this wasn’t good for their beloved books and purchased their current building from Fracesco Volponi – whose short-lived Italian restaurant left them with lovely wood floors, tiling and the amazing wood fired pizza oven which came straight from Italy.

They also like to look at their renovations and know the people who helped to bring things to fruition. For example, Duncan McMasters crafted the beautiful front door and cornice in the new space (the picture at the bottom,) Creative Edge created the new sign, and  Victor Orne did the wood grates and trim in the entry.

Today their hard labor is limited to running the place, although that includes cutting their own wood for the pizza oven which has Betsy running the chainsaw and the girls  running the log splitter and loading wood.

Serving food started about 2 years into the new building, with pizza on Saturdays. Revelations appreciates local farmers and their delicious bounty and want to share it with the community. At any given day you could eat local goat and mozzarella cheese on your pizza, drink local milk or eggnog in your latte, or savor local broccoli and cauliflower in one of their homemade soups -  and their sandwiches are now served on locally grown rye or wheat bread.

Revelations also gives back to the community through various volunteer and donation efforts in addition to serving on the Art Walk and Live on the Square Concert Series boards.

Perhaps their biggest challenge is growth. It’s led to growing pains which make for quite a personal/business balancing act and unfortunately, effect service -  which just makes Julie crazy! She and her sisters are well aware of how slow things get, and how even Internet orders seem to get messed up. But they’re committed to finding new ways to balance making everything fresh and “to-order” with the needs of patrons to eat and get back to business. In fact, they are so committed to doing better that they’re always open to your suggestions.

Another thing they’re open to are new menu items and as such, we’re pleased to announce that they’re launching a contest for new pizza combinations! Email Julie with yours and who knows, you may soon be the next great pizza served at Revelations.

The owners of Revelations love that the restaurant has afforded them the opportunity to work together. They appreciate the support they get from the community, and don’t believe they could have been as successful elsewhere. That in conjunction with the Jefferson County Trails and the numerous philanthropic efforts in town make Fairfield the place to thrive for the Howland sisters…

I hope you enjoyed this inaugural installment of Fairfield Stories and will come back next week. As always, let us know what you think!

Our middle-daughter, Lindsay, was in town for the holiday. She is a freshman in college, going to PSU in Oregon. It was great to have her and her older sister Erin at home.

Before she left town on Sunday, Lindsay was checking Facebook and saw some news that disturbed her. Darby Gilbert had been in a car accident and died.

Lindsay hadn’t known Darby all that well, but well enough. By all accounts she was a lovely girl who was well-liked in school and the community. As a senior in High School, the future was hers…

It gets you to thinking, you know? How horrible to lose a friend like this. To lose a child like this. I can’t even imagine what it feels like to be her parents, or the parents of the others who were in the car with her. My heart goes out to them.

Hitting so close to home, it made me step back a bit. To consider where I’ve been, what I have, and where I’m going. It could happen to any one of us, at anytime. We have this precious gift, life, that we don’t know how to handle sometimes. We take it for granted. We don’t to it purposefully, it just happens.

How often do we have tiffs and leave the house angry? Or to be so wrapped up in work that we forget to say goodbye when we leave in the morning? How often do we say things that we really don’t mean in anger and leave in a huff? How often do we have”grass is greener” thoughts without putting additional effort into what we have?

Incidents like this get me to thinking, for the person in that crash could have been the person I neglected to say goodbye to, whom I never saw again…

I’ve been fortunate to not have this happen to me. And I don’t think about our propensity as humans to take things for granted a lot  – although I’m sure I’d be better off if I did.

But I am thinking about it now, and it is a harsh reminder that one of life’s realities is that it is far to easy in this hectic world to let what really matters slip into “take it for granted land.”

A fact not lost on the parents of the three teens in that car.

So take a moment to give that extra hug, won’t you?

As the cars arrived at the center of town, people climbed out of them with a purpose. Many more dressed up than they’ve been for years. Most came in small groups. Parking spaces filled quickly…

You see, MUM brought Steven Covey – business/self-help author and lecturer to the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center. After receiving an award, Dr. Covey wowed the crowd with thoughts around how to grow companies by truly engaging and nurturing employees – what a concept

I watched as people streamed out of the Center, and rushed to my lunch appointment at Revelations. I’d never met the person I was about to meet with before, so I stood near the door. As I did, within less than 10 minutes, the line at the counter had reached the door.

When my appointment arrived, he and I decided to leave since it was so crowded. We walked over to Red Rock Grill which was practically empty. We sat down and ordered, and within minutes, Red Rock too, was a mass of humanity.

My appointment, who hadn’t attended the Covey event, wondered aloud about the crowds. I mentioned that it was due to Steven Covey being at the Center and that launched us into a discussion around the importance of the Center to Fairfield…

Let’s face it, a lot of people were against the Center from day one. Some never understood it. Many misconceptions still guide people’s opinions of it. At the end of the day however, there is no denying that when events are held at the Center with mass appeal, that the crowds come, they stay, and they spend money at local businesses. In the case of Dr. Covey, of course we have to thank MUM, but regardless of who you thank, how many towns in SE Iowa can boast that they hosted Steven Covey, The Second City Comedy troupe, and Paul McCartney’s son all within the matter of a few weeks? Only a town with a facility like the Center.

I know that you’re still out there, people who still believe that building the Center was folly. And perhaps at the time it was. But the fact remains that it is here. There is a beautiful building that is now starting to break even on an operating basis, with new management who is attracting the type of talent to town who appeals to a broad cross-section of attendees – not just Fairfieldians either!

As such, we have two choices as a community. Support it, so that we can derive pleasure and revenue across the board from it, or to let it die, leaving a huge scar on this incredible community that we call home.

When my family and I were deciding to move to Fairfield for a job that I had received an offer for, the Center among other things, was a major factor in our decision. Coming from Denver (and originally from NY) we were used to having a wide range of entertainment options minutes from home. The Center affords us this.

Although I was recently laid off from the job that brought us here, our family has fallen in love with Fairfield and as such, we’re going to stay. And if we’re going to stay I thought, we’re going to support those entities that helped to attract us to Fairfield in the firstplace – one of those being the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center.

What about you?