Cities IG - 8-31-24

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Next up this Saturday Morning, Knowledge is Power, hosted by
Rob Kane of Citi's Insurance Group. If you have a
question for Rob and would like it answered on an
upcoming show, email him at r Kane at citiesig dot
com and now Rob.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Kane, Hi everyone, and welcome to Living in Leclair. This
is a periodic segment of Knowledge's Power made possible through
the generosity of Rob Kane in City's Insurance Group.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm Wayne Wally.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I'm currently the president of the Leclair Tourism Board and
your host for Living in Leclair, where I like to
talk about what's going on when you live in Leclair.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
So what's going on?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well, it's Labor Day weekend coming up and it should
be a fun one. The weather looks like it's going
to be great. Great time again to enjoy your downtown shops, restaurants,
go down to the levee, just enjoy yourself again with
the ambiance and the hospitality that Leclair is known for.
Now other things that we'll be coming up when we

(00:58):
get into September and into Octoctober. We've got a few things.
One Nest Modern Goods has helped organize to put on
the first annual Fall Shop Hoop. It'll run from ten
to five on Saturday, September twenty first. It's an event
about celebrating fall and you can explore the downtown and
soak in the seasonal spirit and see what new inventory

(01:20):
all the shops downtown have for decorating for the fall,
getting ready for Halloween, getting ready for Christmas. You can
start finding Christmas gifts, you can get some shopping done
early and just enjoy whatever the downtown businesses have to offer.
Again on Saturday, September twenty first, when we get into October,

(01:40):
October thirteenth, it's a Sunday, the Optimus Club will be
hosting the latest Leclair Fallfest down on the Levee. You
get lots of vendors down there, lots going on, so
be sure and put that on your calendar for Sunday,
October thirteenth. This year, the weekend of October eighteenth through
the twentieth, we also are going to be doing Autumn

(02:02):
Market Days in downtown Leclair, where again a lot of
the businesses could be having sidewalk sales, other types of events,
things going on for your shopping pleasure. Just to make
it a very interesting weekend again to come down to
Leclair as we get into the holiday season. Now, also
on October nineteenth, on the Saturday, we're also going to
be kicking off the Leclaire Buffalo Stampede, and this will

(02:25):
be the launch of our new Buffalo Trail where you
can find all these fun buffalos that different businesses around
town have either painted or put in front of their stores.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
They're pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
They're fun concrete buffaloes. Everybody's got a different theme. Come
check them out, get your pictures taken with them. It's
going to be a very, very fun day again on Saturday,
October nineteenth. So that's just a few of the things
that are coming up. But another thing that's happening for
the first time this Saturday, or this coming Saturday, September
twenty first, we'll get it again. It's in September. It's

(02:57):
going to be the first of the trivia nights that
are hosted by the Leclair Civic Club and the Leclair
Civic Center. Now what's interesting about this is that all
the Civic Center trivia nights all benefit different Leclaire charities.
The one on Saturday, September twenty first will benefit the
Leclair Marketing Alliance doors open around six pm. Trivia starts

(03:18):
at seven. You can bring your own food or buy
food that will be offered by the Leclair Civic Club.
And it's a great event, you know. It costs ten
dollars per person to play. It's teams of eight usually
about a maximum of twelve to fifteen teams can participate.
But come on down to the Leclair Civic Center again.
It's at one twenty seven South Cody Road. Participate. Learn

(03:39):
more about it when we talk to our guest on
this episode of Living in the Bill Patterson, who is
president of the Leclair Civic Club. Now, the Civic Club,
which is kind of interesting that not everybody may know,
is now celebrating eighty six years. It was founded in
nineteen thirty eight. Its mission statement is that it is
dedicated to promoting civic invom through services and projects which

(04:02):
promote civic responsibility and education, cultural opportunities for its residents,
charitable work in the community, and other activities which improve
the quality of life in historic LaClaire. Now membership meetings
are held every fourth Tuesday of the month at seven
pm at the Leclaire Civic Center. There's usually a little

(04:22):
pot luck or bring your own dinner to eat starting
at six fifteen pm to network in meet with other
members and just enjoy the camaraderie and the networking and
then the meeting will start at seven pm.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Now.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
To join the Leclaire Civic Club, the dues are ten
dollars per year.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
And the only sort of requirement of membership is that
you can involve in one of the activities that the
Civic Club does throughout the year. They host bingo at
different events, they do a community breakfast around Tugfast. They're
involved with the Christmas and the Claire activity. There's lots
of different things to know about the Leclair Civic Club,
and we're going to learn more about that directly from

(05:00):
its president, Bill Patterson when we return.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
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(05:24):
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Speaker 2 (05:33):
Hey everybody, and welcome back to living in Leclair. Where
our guest today is Bill Patterson, the president of the
Leclair Civic Club here in Leclair.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Bill, thanks for joining us this morning. Thank you for
having me.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well, Bill, can you tell us a little bit about
what the Leclair Civic Club is. I know it's been
in Leclair for many, many years. It's done a lot
of great things, has about let's say, around one hundred
members right now. But what is the Civic Club and
what does it do.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
It's a civic organization. Uh.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
We we were originally set up, you know, just to
support activities in town.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
UH.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
And we do more than just a town. It's the
area around here. And UH.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
One of the main thing we have now is the building.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
We use that for uh what cost rentals for organizations
and events and from from weddings to shower baby showers
to uh our mitzvahs to just about anything. I mean, uh,
and any given weekend you can come there and there's

(06:41):
probably going to be a rental there so you know,
how do people join the civic club and what would
be a good reason for people to join. Well, I mean,
besides for the building, we're a civic organization. We're there
to help for different things that happened. The last big

(07:02):
thing that we helped with was when the tug sunk
right outside there. We were a staging center for them,
for the workers there.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
And but in the past, like.

Speaker 4 (07:14):
When they've closed the Interstate, we've had people stay overnight
there and you know, had coffee and just you know,
people brought donated.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Food and things of that nature.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
But I mean that's the ball thing, that's not when
we that's not the everyday thing that happens there. But
that's the kind of organization we are. We're not there
for a specific purpose, you know too, for any one thing.
We're there for more everything. Like each year we host

(07:52):
nine different trivia events. Each one is for a different
fundraising thing, So for everything from more the library here.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
In town to the cemetery.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
So from beginning the end, you know, we've had boy
Scout things there, We've had the American Legion uses our
building for some of their meetings.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
So now the trivia nights they are starting up again
here September twenty first, so not that far off, and
you know, shamelessly, I'll say it's benefiting the Leclair Marketing Alliance,
which I'm a part of, and the trivia Nights end
up being a fantastic fundraising event four different groups in town.

(08:39):
It goes, if I remember right, September, October, November, take
a break in December and January, and then come back
in February, March, and April and May.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
If I remember it, basically it's a school year, okay.
That way. We do take December.

Speaker 4 (08:53):
Off because of there's a lot of stuff going on
at the Christmas time.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
And it's.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
To arrange everything during that timeframe. So we found it's
easier just to take a break for that, and we
start back up in January, like you said, and we
go through May, and it's usually the third Saturday of
the month. It's always the third Saturday. It starts at seven.
Usually there will be a meal beforehand. Sometimes the organization

(09:21):
that's doing it wants to do the meal, and other
times the civic club volunteers will do it.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
When they don't.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, exactly. If you've never gone to one of these
trivia nights. I highly recommend doing it. Cost is like
ten dollars per person. You can buy mulligans, you can
buy double downs. It's just a good time to get
together with others in the community. And like I say,
whatever you spend that night is going to benefit one
of the local organizations that benefits from this. And it's

(09:48):
great that the civic club makes this available and runs
it pretty much. And there are different door prizes. There
usually is a fifty to fifty ravel whatever an organization
wants to do. And while the civic clubs sometimes will
sell food or the organizations, well, you can bring your
own food with you too, and just have your table
and have a lot of.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
Fun, even if you partaking the food there, bring your snacks,
bring wine if you want wine and beer, no hard
liquor plays. We don't want any fights over some of
the stupid trivia questions. But it's a good time and
we want everyone to relax and have fun with it, you.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Know, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
And I say it's ten dollars per person, eight eight
people on a team. You can usually I think take
up to what fifteen or sixteen teams.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
Well, we try and emit it at twelve twelve. We've
gone to fifteen, but at that point it's so loud
it's distracting for a lot of the people and it's
hard to get around. So at twelve there's a little
more room to move around.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
So very good.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
And if you've never been there and you're interested in this,
if somebody wants to put together a team, do they
need to make a reservme just show up night of
or what's the process there?

Speaker 4 (11:04):
Reservations are always better that way we can have the
table set up and have the pass through there. When
people show up at the last minute, we will accommodate them,
but it makes it tough to move tables around to
get everyone to fit in.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
So yes, if you call deb Smith at.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
Four to four oh three number, she'll get your name
and how many you have at the table.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Occasionally we'll have people fill in.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
You know, if you can't get all eight, So don't
worry about it if you don't have eight, but we
need to know that ahead of time. If you think
you're gonna have eight, great. If you think you're going
to need somebody we can work with that too.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Had to make a reservation that full number for dev
Smith would be what five six three? Yeah, well fair,
we'll figure that out. Org.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
You can email Deb as well or not.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
She prefers over the phone. Okay, it's five six three
three four nine four four oh three.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Perfect.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Well, you've got fat number now and I hope to
see you for that first one September twenty first, and
then again October November, and it goes on from there.
We're going to take a short break and then we'll
be back talking more to Bill Patterson about the Leclaire
Civic Club.

Speaker 6 (12:12):
Hi, this is Rob Kane, and I just want to
remind you it's all there in.

Speaker 7 (12:15):
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(12:38):
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Speaker 6 (12:39):
That's right, it's all there in Leclair. We can't wait
to see.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
You everyone, and welcome back to living in Leclair, where
our guest today is Bill Patterson, the president of the
Leclair Civic Club. Now, Bill, the Leclaire Civic Club has
been in Leclair. People may not realize for almost ninety years. Yes,
I mean it's been a very strong, powerful organization that's
done many many things. What are some of the examples
of what the Civic Club has done in the past

(13:04):
that people may not be aware of right now?

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Well done on the Levy there's a pavilion down there,
a picnic pavilion that's we've donated to the city and
they maintain it now. But the clar Civic Club built
that back in the day, way before my time. But
and you know, that's the kind of thing that we
did was for the area, the city itself, and the

(13:28):
area in general. You know, we didn't want to maintain
ownership of that. I mean, it was there for the community.
It wasn't for us. Exactly where the Civic center itself,
I mean that we've been there for quite a few years,
but that wasn't originally built as a civic club. That

(13:51):
was built as a gas station, I think was where
we ended up getting it from. But oh, and like
I said earlier, the besides for us meeting there for
our meetings and the trivia that we do. Their American
Legion uses it regularly for their meetings and it's it

(14:12):
can be rented for parties and things like that, but
we try and we will make it available for civic
things that need to happen that are necessary for money.
If you're going to do something I don't know, let's
say there's going to be a debate for which we
don't see anymore in these days, but if there was
going to be a debate between local candidates, the Civic

(14:35):
Center would be glad to host something like that for free.
That you know, because we're not there. We're not a
profit organization. We're a nonprofit just five oh one C
four and we're there for to support the area.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
And then some of the other fundraising events that you
do and things that happen. I mean, most recently you
had a community breakfast during Techfest and that seemed to
be a pretty successful event that again, not everybody may
know about this, but you guys put it on and
it's a great spread at a very reasonable price, and
that's something I believe you do on an annual basis.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Current well, this was the first year we've separated ourselves
from the Tugfest. We've did the Tugfest breakfast for a
number of years, and we separate it out and we
will do it on Tugfest days as long as it
doesn't conflict with what the Tugfest wants to do, because
we're not trying to compete, we're trying to support. So

(15:35):
we will have it a community breakfast because Tugfest is
a community event and which is why we wanted to
have it.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
If there's other things we can do like that, we will.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
We used to have a steak dinner the price of
steak quint outside of what we thought would be a
reasonable thing to do, but it's something we might do
in the future. We've done after this. We went to
a Swiss steak type but again, i'll be kind of

(16:07):
went out the crisis and we don't want to compete
with the restaurants here in town, right, that's not what
we're here for.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
We're here for a community type events, so exactly it
makes sense.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
And then you also, you know, have a license and
do bingo at different events as well, and bingos sometimes
it's pretty arnpopular.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
We did that. We do that during tugfest or we
have been doing it. I'm sure next year, if we're asked,
we'll do it again. But uh, we have a our
license is good for all year. We could do it
multiple times if there was a willingness sort of.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
The community to do bingo as a regular basis.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
But as I said, we're not there for the fundraising
that we you know, like a lot of churches and
the organizations used to do that to help support them
to get through here.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
We're not looking to do that.

Speaker 4 (17:03):
We're looking to do it more on a community basis.
So okay, well, very good, or we're going to take
another short break and then we'll be back talking to
Bill Patterson a little bit more about the Leclair Civic
Club and how you can get involved.

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(17:36):
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Speaker 2 (17:54):
Hirey one and welcome back to Living in Leclair. Where
a guest today is Bill Patterson, the president of the
Leclair Civic Club. You know, Bellows, we've talked about some
of the things the cific Club does. Obviously, you need
members to put this on and volunteers to get involved
in doing the breakfast, doing the trivia nights, doing all
these different things.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
What does somebody do? How do you join?

Speaker 4 (18:14):
Okay, you can call any of the members that are there.
We're always looking for new members. I mean, it's a
community thing. It's open to everybody. They don't have to
be Leclair citizens, or if they work in LaClair, they
were just in LaClair.

Speaker 3 (18:30):
They're in the surrounding areas. That's fine.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
We have members across the river. We membership fee is
like ten dollars. It's been eight in the past and
we had to raise it a little bit, but it's
ten dollars now. And one of the things we do
ask or we're looking for, is people to be involved
with just one thing, one of the bingos, one of

(18:54):
the events. We have a great event coming up at
the beginning of December. Yes, we kick off the Christmas
season with the Christmas and Leclair.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yes, it's always a fantastic time.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
We we're well known, it's well.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
Established.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
We've been doing it for a number of years. The
volunteers there have been fantastic with doing it. We have
the Ugly Sweater Run, and we have the strolling Santas
and yes, we have you know crafts and all the
things in the Clara Civic Center for days with a

(19:34):
Christmas theme.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
There's also a fantastic silent auction. If you've never checked
this out, check it out. There's some great deals. I
always go down every year and try and bid on
as many things as I can because you never know
what you're going to get. And it's some cool stuff
that some of the businesses put together. And again it's
all raising money for the Civic Club and Christmas and
the Claire to be able to put this event on

(19:57):
and bring people to town. It's a fantastic opportunity.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
Is one of the things we've done in the past,
and I hope to do it this year. We haven't
got it quite lined up. Is we have a trolley
system from the different stops where you can park to
drive you around town and stop at the Civic Center
of course for the event, and we have the organizations
and the businesses here are real good about letting us

(20:22):
use some of our parking lots for that during that timeframe.
So yeah, it's a very cool event. As a retailer.
Full disclosure, my wife owns Anhattie's Fancil Emporium and Leclair.
Christmas and Mclair is one of our biggest weekends of
the year. So many people come to town. It's so
much fun. We try to get involved in everything. And
this year, if all the stars align, we're trying to

(20:44):
bring back carriage rides.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
For Christmas and the Clare.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
We may only be able to do it on the Sunday,
but that will be a draw to bring people down
to the Civic Center on Sunday to take a carriage ride.
So we hope to get that lined up and have
it be special for this year, for Christmas and the clare.
Now when you talked about joining the Civic Club, it's
ten dollars per year. Again, is there somebody to call?
Is there a place to go? How do you do that?

Speaker 4 (21:09):
They can contact me as president. I can get them
right now. Some of the officers are Connie Allen. A
lot of people know Connie from her different activities because
she's involved in a number of things.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Debbie Smith.

Speaker 4 (21:24):
There's another person very active in the museum and a
bunch of other things here in town. So if they
contact those people or myself, we can get them signed up.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
And yeah, and if you want to learn more and
you want to get involved, just come to one of
the regular meetings. It's every fourth Tuesday of the month
at the Civic Center. You can come at six o'clock,
bring your own food or bring food to share. People
are always bringing different desserts and different foods to share,
and just have a little bit of a social hour

(21:56):
before the meeting starts at seven to discuss club finding.
This is the past meetings and what some of the
future events are. So it's a very.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
How can I put it, It's a nice and laid back,
easy sort of meeting.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
We're not in there arguing about.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Anything or just putting together things that can be done
for the community. And that's what the Civic Club's all about.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Again.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Like you say, at six o'clock, if you want to
eat seven o'clock. Meetings start fourth Tuesday of the month.
Come on down to the LaClair Civic Center and join
the Civic Club. See what it's all about. See if
it's right for you. We always want to add new
members to make this group a little bit more powerful
and to do a lot more things for the community.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
There's something else I'd like to bring up. On Wednesday mornings,
there's a group down there Every Wednesday morning they have breakfast.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
And there's usually a yu gre game going on.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
If people are interested in Yuga are coming down for
breakfast on Wednesday mornings from about seven thirty to nine.
The civics open and everyone's welcome to command for that.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
I did not know about that.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
That's pretty cool again, just other things to get to
know other people in the community and socialize. And you know,
when you're down at the Civic Center, you're right on
the river.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
It's a great view. You watch the barge to go by,
or whatever else.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
It's like the last Tuesday meeting before everything started, what
was it the Royal Viking came cruising up the Mississippi
on its way north and you could just see this
big giant boat just passing right by the Civic Center.
So it's always a good time. So please come on
out and join us. And Bill, I really appreciate you

(23:38):
joining us to talk a little bit more about the
Leclaire Civic Club and appreciate your time today.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

Speaker 6 (23:45):
Hi, this is Rob Kane, and I just want to
remind you it's all there in Leclair.

Speaker 7 (23:49):
Paddle wheel, captain's quarters and a picturesque giant steering wheel
mark some of the famous features of yesteryear's steam powered boats,
and only Leclaire, Iowa holds the key to the nation
single remaining woodhulled steamboat built in the traditional Western river style.

Speaker 6 (24:04):
That's right, it's all there in Leclair. We can't wait
to see you.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Welcome back to living in Leclair, where I'd like to
thank our guests today Bill Patterson, who is president of
the Leclair Civic Club. Now again, just the reminder of
all the details you need to know. The first Leclaire
Civic Club Trivia Night is going to be September twenty first.
It's on a Saturday. Doors open at six, trivia at seven.
Bring your own food, buy food available from the Leclair

(24:29):
Civic Club whatever you like. There are door prizes. There
is a chance to buy Mulligan's, a chance to buy
double downs. There will be different things going on again
to help raise money for this time for the Leclair
Marketing Alliance. If you are interested and you want to
book a table or reserve a table, you can call
deb Smith at five six three three four nine four

(24:51):
four oh three. And all the trivia nights, which are
the third Saturday of the month, are at the LaClair
Civic Center which is at one twenty seven South Cody Road.
And don't forget lots of fun events coming up. Be
sure and you know, enjoy again the ambiance and the
hospitality of downtown. You know, start your Christmas shopping early,
enjoy the different events that are coming up in September

(25:13):
and October.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Again.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
Leclair is a great place to live. And I want
to thank you for listening today. This is living in Leclair.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Thank you for listening to this week's edition of Knowledge
is Power with your host Rob Kane. If you have
a question for Rob and would like it answered on
an upcoming show, email him at r Kane at citiesig
dot com. Please tune in again next Saturday morning.