This is an update for 2008 and 2009 on the state of your City Iowa Colony.  The city has had a very good year. We have a good number of new citizens that moved into our little city. The city is growing in land size and because of this I’m adding a little history of Iowa Colony.

On October 6, 1908, in Des Moines, Iowa, a group of people assembled at a railroad station waiting to board a train to go to Texas. They were not tourists but home seekers and future residents of the newly organized Iowa Colony, in Brazoria County. The Emigration Land Company sold land (10 acres tracts) with $30.00 cash down payment and $15.00 per month, at a cost of $15.00 to $45.00 per acre, starting in September 1908. My how things has changed.

A note on global warming: December 19, 1924, temperatures dropped to six degrees for three days in Iowa Colony. Heavy winds blew down from the north and devasted the area, and over 80,000 head of cattle in Brazoria County, unused to such bitter cold and having no place to go began to die. Those that didn’t die immediately, contracted pneumonia and died later.

Now a little current history:

Roads:

Repairs to (I.C.) roads (mainly pot holes) are fixed thru an interlocal agreement with Brazoria County. The city calls in the repairs, the county fixes them and they bill the city at the end of the year. The cost for 2007 road repair was $8,000. Because the city doesn’t have a property tax, we repave roads using HUD money, also with an interlocal agreement with the county. We pay for the materials and the county does the work. We receive around $100,000 every two years. This year we plan to repave FCR 48 on the east side from Chocolate Bayou to the railroad tracks on the west.This work must be approved by HUD, and must have enough homes with a certain income level to qualify for HUD funds. In 2006 we built three new concrete bridges. Currently the county is rebuilding the one lane bridge on FCR 63 which is in the county. We should start working to repairing FCR 62, on the west side of SH 288 at a project cost of $34,678.

Signs:

In 2008 the City spent $4,000 on new signs. We lost some signs during Hurricane Ike. Please call if you see any signs that are down. We have put up no thru truck signs and we can add more if needed to keep these heavy trucks off the roads you pay for. The Brazoria County Sheriff Department is starting to issue tickets to these trucks. The way I understand it, if a company that’s not in Iowa Colony has no other way to enter their business we can not stop them. However we can stop  heavy trucks from being driven thru our city to take home.

Trash:

We still have trash and tires being dumped on our roads, if you see anyone dumping these please get there license number and call the number in to city hall. We are trying to get a dumpster for paper recycling at city hall. Councilwoman Mudd is working on this.

Zoning:

In 2000 the city passed an ordinance to zone, mainly to protect the rural way of life that the citizen’s of (I.C.) are used too. We wanted to stop a junk yard, or some other noise, heavy vehicle traffic, open 24 hrs, type from moving in next to our citizen’s homes. And also stopping growth that would hurt your property values. To date it’s working very well. Most of the city is zoned residential, farm and ranch. Property along SH 288 and Hwy 6, are zoned retail or commercial, so as to promote shopping and a tax base. This ordinance has stopped a lot of bad growth from building in our Iowa Colony. Please understand if you had a business when the ordinance was passed and it is not listed in the ordinance in a residential zoned area, you may not be able to grow any larger than at the time the ordinance was passed. Also the only business that can open in the residential are the ones noted in the ordinance. Please report any illegal growth, as the city will red tag any illegal growth. This ordinance has been tested in three courts and has held-up. All well planned cities are zoned. There is a zoning map at city hall.

City Hall:

We have stopped renting city hall because of problem’s related to security, but we let the County, Fire Dept, Lion’s Club, 4-H Club use it at no charge. After the storm we had some water in the offices. We have replaced the 20 year old carpet with a new tile floor, we have bought new council chairs and we are replacing the office chairs. For the last 10 years we have tried to improve the maintenance of city hall.

City Park:

We are very proud to announce that Iowa Colony has purchased three acres behind city hall for a city park and for future growth. This tract of property was being sold and this would be the only chance the city would ever have to add property. Watch for future improvements to this property. We worked out an agreement where as Magnolia Bend subdivision will put their subdivisions sign on the corner of this property and they will put a new park sign at no cost to the city and also will level dirt on park property.

Subdivisions:

Sterling Lake at Iowa Colony on the west side of SH 288 is a gated-subdivision, new building permits has slowed some, but I think it has slowed everywhere. When the subdivision has 500 homes built, the total of 1,101 acres will become annexed in the City of Iowa Colony. We asked them to do this and I asked for a new Fire and EMS building on this property and they have agreed. Sterling Lakes has worked very well with the city to make this a first rate subdivision. About 150 permits for new homes have been pulled so far.

Magnolia Bend Subdivision is behind City Hall. It has just started to sell one acre tracts. These are going to be very nice homes, est. 100 homes, Magnolia Bend has already annexed all of there property in to the City.

Seven Oaks is going to be a huge subdivision. It will start at FCR 56 at SH 288. They will build a new road from the freeway at FCR 56 all the way to Hwy 6 coming out in front of the new Manvel High School. The subdivision will be in Manvel and Iowa Colony. After meeting with these people for almost a year, I truly believe this is going to be a super subdivision, as it is a truly master planned subdivision. All of this property has been annexed into the city. A total of 901 acres so far. Unless there’s a change there will be a est. 50 acre site in Iowa Colony for an elementary school. This is something I have asked for, a large city park that will have future ball fields. The Lions Club is interested in building these fields.  We are still meeting so some things could change.

City Council:

The current city council has all served a long time together. I think this is one of the reasons they work so good together. They are making the tough decisions on the future of the city. A lot of the ordinances the council is passing; gun, fireworks, etc. is being done with an eye to the future. The subdivisions that are building in Iowa Colony have to meet and work thru almost every detail with the council’s approval. As new subdivisions are being built, you will see this in the quality of the subdivisions built. The work of the city council makes my job easy.

Communications:

Iowa Colony has contracted with a company that will call every citizens home phone, and relay any messages like storm evacuation, etc. We will have them send a message to you that this State of The city will be on line but, if you don’t receive on-lines messages, we will have copies at city hall, if you are not able to come by city hall, call and I will deliver a copy to you. We have been advised not to use this service very often, so when you get a call from the city, you will know it about some important. If you want off this list please call city hall and tell us.

City phone: 281-431-2471 City Secretary Geri Frank

City email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

City website: http://www.cityofiowacolony.com

Mayor’s phone: 281-331-8200 Robert Wall

Council Meetings:

We meet the third Monday of the month at 7:00 PM. The last meeting of the year, during a council meeting I had the pleasure to give the 2008 citizens of the year plaque to the Iowa Colony Fire Dept, for those who worked during the storm. They stayed at city hall in case they were needed, they were also the first people out after the storm helping to clear our streets. I also gave awards to each firefighter that worked the storm. The city is now paying a small amount to our firefighters to off set some of thie gas cost in their cars.

And with this information I wish a great 2009 to each and everyone of the citizen’s of Iowa Colony.

Mayor Robert Wall

January. 28, 2009