Tickets are now available for the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Awards Banquet Presented by MidWestOne Bank, happening the evening of March 11 at Best Western Fairfield Inn. Fairfield City Councilman and attorney Myron Gookin returns for an encore performance as the evening’s emcee, as do award presenters Terry Baker and Jane Anne Harl, who will name winners in more than ten award categories.

The slate of programming awaiting those attending the celebration and dinner includes the Business. Community. Pride. Awards, which were first introduced in 2009, as well as time-honored traditions like the naming of the Libertyville Savings Bank Citizen of the Year, said Brent Willett, Chamber executive director.

“Every award we’ll hand out March 11 is designed to recognize investment and innovation on the part of Fairfield business and community institutions,” he said. “Be it capital improvements, resource redeployment, new media, or lifelong accomplishment, the Banquet is about celebrating progress in this community.”

In addition to the Business. Community. Pride. Awards, the Chamber will name a 2010 Citizen of the Year, which is awarded each year to the most outstanding Fairfield citizen. In 2009, Melva Dahl and Dr. Donal Hill were named Co-Citizens of the Year. Past winners of the prestigious honor determine the honoree(s) each year.

Aside from the awards, other Banquet programming will include a report on the City of Fairfield from Mayor Ed Malloy, remarks from Fairfield Economic Development Association President Pat Doyle, a “Night on the Town” basket silent auction and a photo slideshow of winners.

Award winners will be named in the following categories:

• Libertyville Savings Bank Citizen of the Year
  • Outstanding Fairfield citizen
• Cambridge Impact Award
  • Recognizing a longtime Chamber member who has made outstanding contributions to the Chamber and the community
• Progress Award
  • Business improvement or New Young Business of the year
• New Young Business Awards
  • Recognizing those businesses who entered their first year of existence in 2009 and who made marked improvements to their space of operation or product delivery
• Business Improvement Awards
  • Recognizing those businesses which made marked improvements to their space of operation in the last year
• Community Improvement Awards
  • Recognizing those community projects which made marked improvements to their theatre of operation in the last year
• Rising Star Award
  • Chamber member in its second or third year which has made outstanding early contributions to the Fairfield Area
• Chamber of Commerce
  • Adaptation Award
• Business which has redefined itself in the community or its marketplace over the last year. A transformation of purpose or product.
  • Interactive Media Award
• Web site/blog of the year
  • Web site/blog of the year
• President’s Award
  • Recognizing one outstanding contributor to the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce in 2009

The Annual Banquet, which begins with a cocktail hour at 5:45 pm and includes dinner, has sold out for the past several years, and reservations are required. Tickets are $30 and are available at the Chamber office at 204 West Broadway. Contact the Chamber by phone at 641-472-2111 or chamber@fairfieldiowa.com to reserve tickets.

For more information on the Annual Banquet, visit FairfieldIowa.com.

The Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advocacy of its more than 350 member partners. The Chamber produces dozens of community events year-round and works with local, state, regional and national partners to improve the Fairfield’s business environment and quality of life. The Chamber’s 204 West Broadway offices also house the offices of the Fairfield Economic Development Association.

The new Hy-Vee store planned for Fairfield will be the company’s second store built in accordance with LEED certification standards, Hy-Vee officials announced today.

This fantastic news is not only exciting for the quality of service the facility will bring consumers; but means that this site, identified as a priority site for storm water runoff capture, will incorporate best practices in sustainable construction.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the nationally accepted benchmark for environmentally sustainable construction. Developed and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, the LEED certification program provides independent, third-party verification that a building project meets certain standards for lowering operating costs, reducing waste, conserving resources and providing a healthy environment for occupants and visitors.

In October, Hy-Vee opened its first LEED-eligible retail store in Madison, WI and is awaiting word on the status of its LEED certification application, said Jeff Markey, Assistant Vice President, Engineering/Construction for Hy-Vee. Markey said Fairfield will become the company’s second LEED-eligible project when construction on the new store begins this spring.

Hy-Vee previously had announced plans to build a new 64,000-square-foot store (almost double the size of the current store it replaces) at Burlington and South 14th Street, behind the Burger King. Plans for the new store have not been completed, but it is expected to include a pharmacy with drive-up service, a wine & spirits store, a floral shop and a food court with Chinese and Italian departments.

Many conservation groups in town have been eyeing this site with hope and concern. The Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District received a watershed development grant to study the Indian Creek watershed, and Pathfinders RC&D coordinated with the Iowa Conservation Corps to do an urban assessment.

After this six month process the new Hy-Vee location was identified as a top priority site to capture and infiltrate storm water runoff because of its position above a tributary of Indian Creek. Ongoing conversations between the Sustainability Coordinator for Hy-Vee, Mike Smith, and the Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Fairfield, Scott Timm, have built a relationship that highlights the City’s commitment to sustainability as well as the strong dedication of Hy-Vee to engage with our community.

Seeking LEED certification means that design of construction will take into account impact on waterways – thus this is a big win for the city and those who are located downstream of our watershed.

Commenting on the Hy-Vee decision to go LEED Certified, Mayor Malloy stated, “We have all contributed to building an environment where these decisions are made because of the commitment our city has made.”

As an integral part of its ongoing efforts to support the FACC, the “300 for 100” program will raise the $360,000 necessary to supplement 2010 revenues, acquire needed furnishings and equipment, and seed an endowment fund.

“Not unlike similar facilities across the country, the FACC requires  a donor supported annual fund to ensure its sustainability” commented FACC fundraising chairman Bob Ferguson. “The 300 for 100 campaign will go a long way towards enabling the Center to continue to provide its far reaching social and economic benefits to the citizens of Fairfield.”

The campaign seeks to capitalize on the positive momentum the Center has already experienced with fundraising, having raised $460,000 in 2009 from hundreds of businesses, organizations, and individuals.

With an initial focus on those prior donors, the campaign’s goal is to encourage 300 people to donate an average of $100 a month. Primarily through a mailing initiative in December, the Center has already raised $123,000 toward its $360,000 goal.

The FACC board will initiate another phase of the campaign this week by personally contacting prior donors. The campaign will also be supported by: an informational kiosk in the Civic Center lobby, inserts within programs at FACC events, the Center’s Facebook Fan Page, the FACC website, and www.FairfieldCenterInfo.com – which in addition to containing an updated FACC business plan, allows individuals to contribute online.

Image by Guy Harvey

The Fairfield Entrepreneurs Association (FEA), Fairfield Economic Development Association (FEDA) and Fairfield First announced the 2010 Local Economy Stimulus program, including a new micro-enterprise loan and access to equity capital, at the third annual Local Economy Summit held on Saturday, February 13 at Fairfield Public Library and attended by 50 people.

The Community Vitality Center recently awarded a $10,000 matching grant to Pathfinders Resource and Conservation District, FEA, Hometown Harvest of Southeast Iowa, and the Sustainable Living Coalition. The grant will be used to provide micro-enterprise loans for local food and energy-savings entrepreneurs in Southeast Iowa, as well as technical assistance and consulting services for those companies.

Elisabet Humble, local food coordinator for Hometown Harvest of Southeast Iowa, and John Dey, one of the owners of Everybody’s, said market demand was strong for more local food production. Dey suggested adding additional greenhouses in Fairfield to supply the local market.

Part of the CVC grant will be used to complete a feasibility study for a solar-heater hot water revolving loan fund for residents in Fairfield. According, to Lonnie Gamble, Assistant Professor of Sustainable Living at MUM, hot water uses 25% of the energy in an average home.

Dave Neff from Iowa State Bank said that plans are in the works for local bankers to provide renewable energy home improvement loans similar to the Fairfield Revitalization loan program. Neff also stated that Iowa State Bank was encouraging companies to take advantage of SBA loan financing this year because the loan guarantee is 90% with no loan fees for applications submitted prior to September 2010.

Burt Chojnowski reported that he was able to help secure a $6 million investment in a $75 million regional capital fund that will be actively seeking investments in Fairfield-based information technology, web-based, software, and specialty food businesses.

Brett Willett, Vice President of FEDA, reported that he and his staff have been working with Fairfield’s top 40 employers to nurture and support retention and expansion of jobs and training within Fairfield’s existing workforce.

Fairfield’s business sector is expected to see a 20% energy savings this year, according to Fairfield’s Green Business Council President, Ken Ross, CEO of Global ID. The Green Business Council includes manufacturers, office building owners, and non-profit building owners. The group has developed a game plan to audit and apply best technology and conservation practices to save money for local businesses.

Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) revenues have increased annually by 40% since 2001, according to Mayor Ed Malloy. He said the increase was due to the revitalization of Fairfield’s downtown retail economy due to Buy Local campaigns, the Revitalization Loan Program, Fairfield Art Walk, and Fairfield Arts and Convention Center (FACC). When asked it the May 4th election to use 12.5% of the LOST revenues to purchase the FACC would take away from other needed programs, Mayor Malloy said that these funds are discretionary and are not currently allocated for any other use. He also said that the expected purchase price of $1.15 million would be a way to protect the city’s previous investment of $1.6 million. Burt Chojnowski added that the $2.75 million total investment by the city was much less than the $8 million value of the property. Bob Ferguson, in charge of the fund-raising committee for FACC, said they have launched a 300 for $100 program to provide ongoing operational support and sustainability for FACC—and that a new initiative to secure 300 individuals or business pledges of $100 per month was underway.

FEA announced the publication of the 2010 Fairfield Business Review that will include the Fairfield entrepreneurial story and profiles of area businesses. The last Fairfield Business Review was published in 1980, and the 2010 edition will be available in print and online. The benefit for local businesses is to help tell their stories, increase customers, attract employees, and improve Internet search engine placement. Mario Van Dijk, FEA President, also announced a six-month mentoring program in marketing and social media to be led by Mark Cohen of Colloquy beginning in February.

Fairfield 1st Fridays Art Walk Executive Director Jeananne Robins submitted her resignation Monday, citing conflict with the event’s exectuive board of directors.  Robins said the board undermined her ability to perform her roles as the director of the Art Walk.  She likened the situation to too many head chefs in a kitchen. “It’s not fair to the city and the art walk to hire and executive director and have her only do the job of an executive assistant,” Robins said.

“The Art Walk board of directors has accepted the resignation of Jeananne and wishes her well in her future endeavors.  Her leaving is unfortunate yet was inevitable,” said a statement from Terry Baker, president of the board.  “The board is considering its options and formulating a plan that ensures the continuity and success of the Art Walk.  I am very confident in the Art Walk board.  They are a dedicated team and have been committed to working toward the Art Walk’s continued success for many years now,” added Baker.

Robins, who was hired in August, is the third Art Walk director since Cathy Wadsworth was hired as the event’s first professional director in August 2007.  Funding for Wadsworth’s position came from a matching Iowa Community Culture Grant given by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.  Amy Kettenburg and JoBeth Lewer also filled the Art Walk position prior to Robins’ hiring last August.

by Phyllis Khare

During the current fiscal year, the position was funded by $35,000 from Fairfield’s Local Options Sales Tax community betterment fund — that money also went to advertising and event expenses.  Prior to 2007, the event was run entirely by volunteers — a circumstance that Robins believes has contributed to the present state.

“The past board of directors had to act as executive directors.  It’s been hard for them to reverse that level of service, ” Robins said.  Her issues are with the few members of the executive board, who have individually countered her authority while serving on various committees. Robins acknowledged the board’s authority over her when acting as a single entity.  As the Art Walk’s executive director, Robins also felt she was kept out of the loop on too many details.  She cited and upcoming Art Walk that has been almost entirely organized by a board member as an example.

“This is not a club.  We need to sustain ourselves, The way to do that is to implement systems and run the event like a business,” Robins said.

“I don’t know what the solution is at this point.  I love the Art Walk, ” she said, “I just want to see the Art Walk survive, and I don’t think it can the way it is run right now.”

Baker was confident the Art Walk board would handle the matter and ensure the event’s future success. “As many of you can imagine, running an event every month of the year requires special skills and stanima, and I am very proud of this board for its flexibiulity and focus towerd the Art Walk’s continutity,” said Baker.

In case you haven’t picked up on the little nudge-nudge reminders from your sweetheart, Valentine’s Day is this Sunday.  Regardless of whether you subscribe to notions of roses, chocolates, or romantic love, this weekend presents a rare opportunity to dine out in Fairfield on a Sunday evening.

If staying around town is part of the plan, you’ve got options:

Revelations will be open for the occasion and offering a special menu.  Start off with creamy spinach artichoke dip or shrimp cocktail.  Salad options include fresh strawberry, walnut, and goat cheese salad or grapefruit, asiago, and pecan salad and the soup featured will be Greek tomato with couscous and feta.  For your main course, feast on seared chicken breast and mushroom marsala with whipped potatoes, carrots and green beans, seared Alaskan salmon with Moroccan couscous and green beans, grilled eggplant with local ricotta and zesty marinara with orzo pasta or Indian coconut chickpeas over basmati rice.  Satisfy your sweetheart’s sweet tooth with strawberry cheesecake, chocolate mousse or chocolate lovers’ cake.

At Vivo’s, in addition to the full menu, specials include clams oreganata as a starter and for the main course choose from gnocchi in gorgonzola cream sauce topped with herbed pistachios and steamed vegetables, braised tilapia with asparagus risotto, or rosemary chicken with kalamata olives, artichokes and capers with whipped potatoes.  Top it off with the triple chocolate cake dessert special.

More than one special friend to entertain? At Top of the Rock Grill you can enjoy a Valentine’s day menu all weekend long– specials include oriental scallops bruschetta as a starter and entrees of rosemary rack of lamb with potatoes, crab stuffed shrimp over basmati rice, and lobster ravioli in sherry sauce. Heart shaped apple pie headlines the dessert menu.

Café Dodici in Washington is offering specials all weekend as well– Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening as well as a Sunday brunch.  In addition to their regular menu offerings, special entrees include meatloaf wellington, blackened orange roughy, buffalo rib eye, vegetable pot pourri, Alaskan salmon, seafood cannelloni, and butternut squash ravioli.

If you’re prepared to venture a bit further and perhaps try something new.  I highly recommend taking a drive down to Bistro 322 in Burlington.  Featuring a blend of French inspired cuisine with a touch of Asian influence, termed “comfort cuisine,” Bistro 322 is a refreshing and romantic dining experience.  They also feature a variety of wine flights and fun specialty drinks.

There’s still time, make your reservations now! Invite your friends, lovers or neighbors. Who says food isn’t love!

On Thursday, February 11th the Center on Sustainable Communities will bring their entire team to visit Fairfield to scout out the city as a potential site for their summer programming.

The Center on Sustainable Communities had a connection with Fairfield from its inception. Lynnae Hentzen, their Executive Director, moved to Iowa in 2004 and wanted to perform a green upgrade on her “new old home”. She had a difficult time finding anyone who knew what she was talking about – until she came to Fairfield and linked up with Joel Hirschberg at Green Building Supply. She was amazed at the wealth of resources in a town that she considers to be the “greenest spot in Iowa”.

She was a stay at home mom for two years, and began thinking about how she could help create a satellite of green buildings in Des Moines and Iowa. She partnered with Beth Hicks and founded COSC, whose annual budget is now over one million dollars and holds award-winning workshops across the state. The mission of COSC is to “serve as a resource to encourage, promote and educate about sustainable building practices among professionals and homeowners.” They are currently running a free 10-session series in West Union for contractors, subcontractors, planners, architects, appraisers, city officials and other professionals to develop a “comprehensive understanding of green building best practices” – and also to support disaster recovery efforts in Northeast Iowa.

Recently, when the City of Fairfield was awarded an Office of Energy Independence grant to upgrade and retrofit their public buildings – Scott Timm, Sustainability Coordinator for Fairfield, began communicating with Lynnae to see if the City could utilize COSC programming to run educational workshops around those projects or other private projects planned for this summer. Now that it looks very likely that the City will forge this partnership with COSC, we would like to invite businesses and community members who have an interest in COSC to attend the monthly Greendrinks meeting this coming Thursday the 11th at 12pm, upstairs in Revelations.

Lynnae remarked, “We’re just excited to see what role we can play to support the initiatives that are going on down there.” This is a fantastic opportunity to create professional development opportunities for a wide range of Fairfield residents, and we look forward to growing our partnership with COSC!

We’re truly sad to announce that 21st Century Bookstore, an institution in Fairfield since 1984, is closing its doors! It’s doubly sad for us at the Source since 21st Century opened in October 1983, six months before our very first issue!

But for independent bookstores, the writing has been on the wall for some time. Back in 2004, owner Tony Kainauskus and his wife Sharon decided to close and look for jobs out of town. Along came angel investors Len and Dena Oppenheim, who purchased the store, opened in a new location, and allowed Tony and Sharon to continue as managers. Since then, the faltering economy combined with the rise of Amazon and ebooks have made independent bookstores an untenable business, especially in a small town like Fairfield.

21st Century Bookstore founder Tony Kainauskus, his wife Sharon, and owners Len and Dena Oppenheim. They will be open at least through the end of March.

Here’s what Len says: “Thanks to the support of so many of you, both Fairfield residents and our friends and customers all over the country, we have managed to do okay since we re-launched the new store. . . . Unfortunately, during the last two years, given the weakening economy, the increased popularity of electronic media like The Kindle, and of course due to the ever-increasing competition from Amazon, our losses have grown to the point that we finally have to face up to the reality that we cannot continue this endeavor into perpetuity.

“Tony has expressed our predicament perfectly, comparing us to a blacksmith or buggy repair man at the beginning of the 20th century. There is practically no way an independent bookstore can thrive or even survive in our modern society. We are in excellent company, as we close our store, in that we are exiting at about the same time as one of the great spiritual bookstores in America, The Bodhi Tree (located in Los Angeles), is closing its doors.

“I really want to thank Sharon and Tony for having created one of the greatest bookstores on the planet, and for having nursed and nurtured it during its great growth phase and then having carefully taken it into its final retirement.”

From Tony: “To the many customers who ordered through us, when prices at online dealers were often less, thank you, you have helped our business survive as long as it did.

“ And lastly I need to be grateful for the closing of the store as well, as this is another hidden gift. For letting go of someone or something can be our hardest yet greatest spiritual lesson.”