The White Pole Road Development Corporation is celebrating  the 100th anniversary of Iowa’s first registered state route. The White Pole Road (aka Great White Way Highway) was a dirt road that once stretched from Davenport to Council Bluffs and insured motorists a straighter, leveler and shorter route across the state with a town every five miles along the way. The White Pole Road became the first certified state route under the provisions of the then newly-formed Iowa State Highway Commission on July 30, 1914.

Leighton Christiansen, Iowa DOT Librarian, says “There were so many interesting names and road designations that crisscrossed the state at the beginning of the 1900s during the ‘Good Roads’ movement. When the Highway Commission was formed in 1913, they decided to organize these auto trails. The Great White Way Association of Iowa plotted their road on county maps, paid a $5 registration fee and soon became the first official route in Iowa.”

Today, the recreated 26-mile White Pole Road in the West Central part of the state is a tribute to this original road that once connected the five communities of Adair, Casey, Menlo, Stuart and Dexter. This particular stretch of road is also important because it served as the nucleus to Iowa’s first certified route. In the early 1900s, these towns were part of the regional Des Moines-to-Atlantic White Pole Auto Club which held meetings at the halfway point in Menlo. This road promotion then grew from Des Moines to Council Bluffs in 1910 and in the fall of 1912, the road continued on to the east of Des Moines to Davenport. Plans were made to eventually extend this statewide road from Chicago to Denver but by the 1920s the vision was merged with other routes and the name ultimately gave way to highway numbers.

In 2002, the White Pole Road Development Corporation formed with a mission to create a tourism industry that brought new visitors and related revenues in to each of their five communities and improved the quality of life. These community leaders knew the value of a good road running through their towns just like they did 100 years ago and decided to pay tribute to the route. John Fisher, president of the White Pole Road Development Corporation, said “It’s the people who built the original road and it’s the people building it again in spirit. 100 years later we’ve gone full circle and we’re using our old road to help grow and bring vitality back to rural Iowa.”

The group invites you to follow the over 700 telephone poles painted white along its 26-mile stretch on Saturday, July 12th and reflect on all those that have cruised before you. Refreshments will be served outside the Stuart City Hall from 6-8pm. A representative from the Iowa DOT will be present.

(Press Release)

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says price gouging rules are now in effect for all counties designated disaster areas by the governor, and anyone who finds big increases in the prices of materials used in the recovery from storms and flooding should report them. Miller says you also need to protect yourself from those who look to take advantage of you by promising to make repairs. “Scammers, often from out-of-state or certainly from a distance, come in and just happen to be in the neighborhood and knock on your door. I think you have to be particularily careful of those,” Miller says. Miller says take some simple precautions, no matter where the person doing the work is from.

“Get price comparisons or even bids. Get some references where work has been done. When you do decide on an agreement, get it in writing and sign the contract. But before you sign the contract, read it through and make sure that it makes sense,” according to Miller. And he says you should never pay the entire amount of the contract up front, as that’s usually when the contractor takes the money and never completes the work. Miller says you can pay some money ahead of time and the rest once the work has been completed. Over half the counties in the state are now under a state disaster declaration, but Miller hasn’t yet heard of any problems.

“We haven’t had any initial reports, it’s still early in the reconstruction and rehab world. We always try to get out early and warn people,” he says. Miller says the price gouging law is a good one, but he says you have to help by talking precautions.  He says the downside is that it is sometimes hard to find scammers who are out of state and they sometimes spend the money before they are caught. “So it’s really important to follow the guidelines of protection and common sense that I’ve outlined so they don’t get the money in the first place,” Miller says.

You can go to the Attorney General’s website at www.IowaAttorneyGeneral.gov to get more information on preventing scams.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Adams County report an investigation into an accident Thursday evening on the south side of Nodaway resulted in the driver being arrested on a charge of OWI/2nd offense. Authorities say deputies were dispatched to the single-vehicle accident near Birch and 260th Streets at around 7-p.m.  Their investigation determined 30-year old Caiti Bradley, of Nodaway, lost control of her car, which ended-up in the ditch. Bradley was arrested on the OWI charge and brought to the Adams County Jail, where she was being held on $2,000 bond.