Newstrack: Peppy’s connects two metro mayors

CEDAR RAPIDS - Go figure.

Who would have imagined that the summer jingle 25-plus years ago of a Peppy's neighborhood ice cream truck would have mattered in the formation of two Cedar Rapids metro area mayors?

But it did.

Ron Corbett was 27, selling insurance and serving as the youngest Republican face at the time in the Iowa House of Representatives, when he and two buddies converted three vans into ice cream trucks in the summer of 1988.

They called the company Peppy's, after the name of one of their dogs, joined the National Ice Cream Vendors Association and headed out into the streets.

Corbett, who has been mayor of Cedar Rapids for six years, hired Nick AbouAssaly as one of his Peppy's drivers. AbouAssaly, a lawyer at Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman, just won election as mayor next door to Cedar Rapids in Marion.

'Nick worked for us for two summers,” recalled Corbett, who got out of the ice cream business in 1993 and left it to one of his partners. It still exists under different ownership.

'Nick was a great driver. He was the first kid to get on the road and the last truck back in the evening. He had a great work ethic,” he said.

Corbett, who did some driving, too, said some drivers weren't sticklers for keeping inventory, but he said AbouAssaly was.

'Every Fudgsicle and drumstick was accounted for,” Corbett noted.

AbouAssaly recalled that he worked for Peppy's the summers of 1988 and 1989 as he finished up his bachelor's degree and prepared to enter the University of Iowa College of Law in fall 1989.

'For a college student, it was a very good job,” the new Marion mayor said.

He was paid on commission, which encouraged him to work hard and sell ice cream.

'I took it seriously. It help cover my college expenses,” AbouAssaly said.

Peppy's Ice Cream still is a going concern, with locations in east-central Iowa.

Both the Cedar Rapids mayor and the Marion mayor-elect said they joke about the shared connection when they see each other.

Corbett said it was a good entrepreneurial experience for both of them.

He was quick to point out that Marion's outgoing mayor, Allen 'Snooks” Bouska, has owned and operated the Dairy Queen near downtown Marion, and now Marion has a new mayor who once hawked ice cream bars from an ice cream truck.

'I guess Marion voters are partial to ice cream,” Corbett said.