Marion remembers derecho with day of events

MARION — Marion residents came together on the anniversary of the Aug. 10, 2020, derecho to remember the storm’s devastation and celebrate how far the city has come since.

The city hosted a day’s worth of events, including a lunch and canned food drive at City Square Park, a ceremonial tree planting at Thomas Park, an art unveiling at City Hall, oral histories and a development update.

City leaders and representatives from Trees Forever hosted the tree planting in the afternoon.

Marion lost at least 35 percent of its public tree canopy to the derecho, and the loss of privately owned trees is at least double that number.

“We’ve come a long way in the last 12 months,” City Arborist Mike Cimprich said. “We gave out 600 trees this spring and have planted 378 trees so far. Typically, we plant 250 a year. We have an incredible amount of support heading into fall to better that number even more moving forward.”

Trees Forever President and CEO Kiley Miller said staff is putting green ribbons on trees to commemorate the derecho.

“We’re putting them on the old ones and calling them survivor trees, and we’re putting them on new ones, as well,” Miller said. “Together, the old represents resilience and the new represents hope.”

City Council members as well as U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, and state Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Hiawatha, who has announced plans to run for Hinson’s seat, picked up shovels and rakes to help plant the ceremonial tree.

“When I look at that day and see what my neighbors were doing, it was truly amazing to see everyone work together so well, and because we did that then, it’s made our recovery easier,” Hinson, a Marion resident, said of Aug. 10, 2020. “We are not done and we have a lot to do. People are still out of their homes.”

“We are going to continue to have long-term effects of this,” Mathis said. “Ongoing insurance claims, mental health, getting our workforce back up and into buildings that were damaged and a layer of COVID complicates all of this. I know we can recover and we have determined and resilient people here. We will get back to the new normal.”

City Council members Collette Atkins and Will Brandt also said the community’s resilience is helping Marion recover.

“It’s a moment to pause because not everyone is in the same place of recovery,” Atkins said. “Folks are still trying to come back and today isn’t the end. It’s renewing us to continue to move forward.”

Added Brandt: “We’ve come so far and who would’ve thought in a year we would have so much cleaned up. But it’s a shame so many people still need work done to their homes.”

Later in the afternoon, a derecho-inspired art piece was unveiled at City Hall.

Local artist Cara Briggs Farmer designed and built the piece that provides a barrier at the counter in the City Hall lobby.

The piece is titled “Symbiosis,” and it’s about the connection between people and the natural environment, Briggs Farmer said.

The barrier, made of stainless steel and polycarbonate, incorporates design elements from photos the artist took while on a walk at Thomas Park, including images of a tree canopy and stump. The project cost $8,500 and was less expensive than other barrier options being looked at, including bulletproof glass.

Briggs Farmer said when she spoke with former City Manager Lon Pluckhahn in the spring, the conversation was primarily about staff safety since the art piece acts as a barrier between City Hall visitors and city staff.

“It needed to be pretty and the art needed to be seen on both sides,” Briggs Farmer said. “And I said easy, this is cake.”

“This makes for a nice deterrent from someone who may want to enter the building and do something not great,” Community Development Director and Acting City Manager Tom Treharne said.

Comments: (319) 398-8255; gage.miskimen@thegazette.com