Peosta, Iowa: Community Heart & Soul in the Middle of Everywhere

As Peosta experiences rapid growth, residents are coming together to define what matters most. Through Community Heart & Soul, longtime locals and new arrivals are building a shared vision to guide the city’s future—one story, survey, and conversation at a time.

“It’s the perfect storm!” This is how Peosta Mayor Russ Pfab explains the convergence of Community Heart & Soul with other efforts to plan for the city’s future. Situated on the eastern nose of Iowa, Peosta has been considered a bedroom community of nearby Dubuque. Its population hovered around 100 for decades. In the last 25 years, however, it’s grown to about 2,500 and is expanding rapidly.

The growth has largely been haphazard and unplanned, and Peosta finds itself at a tipping point. Multiple needs, including new infrastructure and affordable housing, have required city leaders to take a more systematic approach. The city recently completed a housing study and is in the process of conducting a transportation study.

While this type of data collection is useful, it’s also important to take the pulse of longtime and newer residents. One of these, Mike Banyasz moved to the area from Texas for a job as director of emergency medicine at Finley Hospital in Dubuque. He and his family were drawn by the chance to design and build their own home. They are excited to put down roots, though exactly what they’re rooting into is less clear. “Peosta is a blank palette,” he said.

From Data to Dialogue: Starting with Community Heart & Soul

Aware of the city’s need for more amenities and a stronger sense of identity, the Peosta Economic Development Board, a volunteer-run group that formed in 2021, reached out to the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque for assistance. The foundation offers initiatives, grants, and training for communities and organizations throughout northern and central Iowa. Among these is the Small-town Dreams Initiative, a unique opportunity for towns to receive funds to start an endowment for their community by raising matching amounts locally. The result is an endowment that will grow in perpetuity and pay for future community needs.

Jason Neises, a community development officer with the foundation and Certified Heart & Soul Coach, suggested they begin by undertaking the Community Heart & Soul process to engage and align Peosta residents about their priorities. “They needed to build a case for raising so much money,” says Neises. “If you ask people to contribute after you’ve done surveys and interviews and can base your request on results, it really helps.” This resident-driven process invites community members to share what they especially love and value about their town, as well as the future they want, and how they’ll achieve it.

Key to their success would be finding a leader who had the community’s trust, the energy to pull off the sprint they were undertaking, and longtime familiarity with the area.

Newcomers Find a Place and a Purpose

Enter Denise Grant. A recently retired school principal, Grant and her husband moved to Peosta in 1993. “Our subdivision was so new there were cows right across the street from us!” she laughs. When friends in Dubuque wondered about their relocation to such a faraway, rural town, Grant laughed again: “Seriously? It’s a ten-minute drive!”

Peosta’s city motto is “The Middle of Everywhere.” That may have been self-effacing at one time–gently poking fun at what people like Grant’s more urban friends thought of the place–but the city is growing into it. For years, Grant routinely traveled out of town for groceries, medical visits, eating out, and more. This is no longer the case.

Chelle Klootwyk, a member of the Peosta Community Heart & Soul team, moved to town in 2020. While her family of five could have lived in Dubuque, they were attracted by the small town feel and sense of safety in Peosta: “My kids can ride their bikes anywhere.” She also didn’t feel she had to skimp on any conveniences. “When we first visited,” she says, “Peosta checked all our boxes–a pharmacy, a clinic, groceries. There’s a lot of potential here.”

Like Klootwyk, several members of the Peosta Community Heart & Soul team joined the effort because they were new to town and wanted to get involved. Others, like high school student Madison Randall, were excited to learn more about their community. None of the six team members had met previously, but now they’ve spent hours together training with Neises, writing surveys, engaging residents at events, conducting interviews, and more.

Through Thick and Thin: Collecting Stories and Data

Using the four-phase Heart & Soul model, they sought to articulate a clear sense of how residents experience Peosta, including its strengths and areas for growth. Neises trained them on how to conduct an effective interview. Randall especially liked this part, noting “I’m comfortable talking to people and asking questions, but Jason taught us the best ways to get good answers. He also helped us understand the difference between thick and thin data collection.”

The surveys, which were widely promoted across the community, provided “thin” data in the form of multiple choice and short answers. Conducting one-on-one interviews gave them “thick” information. Randall provided this example: “Someone tells me they like the small-town feel, so I ask them, ‘What does that mean to you?’ We try to get them to go deeper.”

In May the team held a public event at the Peosta Community Centre–the unofficial nucleus of town. The building would be a gem in any community. It has a healthcare club, an indoor walking track and gymnasium, and a large banquet room. It was built by A.J. Spiegel, who invented the first transportable power washer and whose company Mi-T-M was responsible for attracting other manufacturing businesses to the area.

Six Statements, One Community Vision

Spiegel was one of many attendees at the event which featured six Heart & Soul Statements about Peosta, reflecting what the team had heard from residents through interviews and surveys. Visitors were invited to read each statement and adhere a sticker to an informal Likert scale. Place your sticker to the left to indicate the statement doesn’t reflect your experience of Peosta, or place it to the right to show just how spot-on it is.

The majority of responses were very positive, but the group left the event determined to adjust the statements to reflect all of the community feedback. “We want to be as precise as possible,” says Grant. “Hopefully, these statements will guide the city’s work for years to come.”

The results of the Community Heart & Soul process can help provide a roadmap to addressing the town’s growing needs. Gary McAndrew, who was born in Peosta and returned to raise his children, believes this is the moment to get people on the same page. “I hope these things come together–the data, the stories, the studies–so we can decide what we really want for our city and then rally around it!”

Jennifer New is a writer, program developer, and facilitator who is passionate about systems change. She works with non-profits and culture sector organizations to develop programming and communications. Much of her work is focused on building collaborative communities that provide sustainable futures for everyone. Learn more at hyphaconnect.com.