Sponsored by the Des Moines Register, RAGBRAI is an annual seven-day bicycle ride across the state and holds the title of oldest, largest, and longest bicycle touring event in the world. The overnight stops for the 39th annual RAGBRAI were revealed this evening. Iowa Backroads has a photo from each town:
Glenwood (Mills County)
Glenwood Public Library (Featured August 12, 2010)
Atlantic (Cass County)
Atlantic 1 & 2 Theatres
Though the Marion County communities of Melcher and Dallas merged to form a single community in 1986, they still retain separate zip codes and post offices locations. The pictured Dallas Post Office was officially discontinued in 1989, but the city took over costs and converted the building to a contract post office. The city ceased operations on January 1, 2011.
The 88 citizens in the community of Randalia in Fayette County, Iowa, were ecstatic in 1998 when a new modular post office was installed at the edge of the community. Constructed at the cost of $100,000, the trailer-like facility featured handicap-accessible entrances and a 24-hour lobby. The post office had previously been located in an old bank building that presented accessibility challenges for box-holders and an inefficient layout for customers and staff.
The new office was opened for less than 10 years before service was suspended in 2007. During that time, the number of post office boxes rented had dropped from 41 to 26, and according to a U.S. Postal Service spokesperson quoted in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, “revenues and deliveries [had] continually declined.” Once a final decision was made to permanently close the Randalia office, the modular post office was removed entirely. Only the gravel parking lot and concrete foundation remain.
Less than twenty years ago, the unincorporated town of Toddville had a Post Office located in the above building. Since it was closed in 1994 following concerns raised in a Linn County Health Department inspection, the building has fallen further into disrepair. While the post office closure was blasted by residents at the time, the Cedar Rapids Gazette checked on the community a year later to find residents had adjusted to the changes. Local Reverend Jim Price indicated the Postal Service made “some pretty good provisions,” and some residents preferred having mail delivered to their homes versus picking up from a post office with limited hours.
A new post office building for Waterloo was originally improved in 1969, as U.S. Postal Service officials looked to move from an aging three-story facility, which has since been renovated and repurposed as the Waterloo Public Library. The original plan was to renovate a former department store building, which was purchased by the Postal Service in 1971 for $1.1 million. By 1974, those plans were abandoned as officials determined remodeling costs would be much higher than anticipated.
The contract to construct a new, $2.8 million post office building in Waterloo’s downtown district was officially approved in June 1977. The 105,000-square-foot modern facility opened its doors less than two years later; the Waterloo Post Office remains in the same location today.