View north - northwest in downtown Tama shows the area where a “pocket park” could be created in downtown Tama. The empty business lots are owned by the city. The Willett-Rathjen Law Office is on the left and the former Brady and Associates office is at the right. News-Herald./John Speer

1. Development with Tama’s downtown pocket park continued a few steps further this month. At their regular meeting on Dec. 21 the Tama City Council approved the purchase of four park benches to be installed at the small city park in the 200 block of W 3rd Street.

The benches will be part of an upcoming pocket park development effort made possible by a $9,509.57 grant from the Mansfield Charitable Foundation, awarded to the city of Tama in August.

Plans for the park are to install a circular concrete sidewalk in the center of the lot which will connect the four park benches and a small 8-foot stage at the rear of the lot to the W 3rd Street sidewalk.

The proposed stage will consist of a 6-inch high concrete pad suitable for small musical performances or other presentations.

The bench that is currently in place at the pocket park is planned to remain.

The pocket park space is between the Willett and Rathjen Law Office to the west and Dee & David African Grocery to the east.

Prior to the city of Tama taking ownership of the two downtown lots, the pocket park property was occupied by Kupka’s Meat Market and later Tama Meat and Provisions and Haberman’s Store which later became Leno’s Saloon. The meat market was demolished in 2005 and the tavern in 2006.

2. An official city logo was presented and approved by the council on Dec. 21. The logo was designed by Adam Feller of Avidity Creative out of Des Moines and features a silhouette of the state of Iowa in yellow with the words Tama and Iowa overlaid in large, dark blue lettering.

Council member Matthew Beatty spearheaded this most recent city logo effort. Beatty collected four different designs and conducted a survey through Facebook in December to gather community input.

The approved design garnered the most support out of the 459 survey participants, taking 42.5% of the vote compared to 32.5% for the second most popular option.

The new logo looks to be integrated into a new city website redesign project that will be funded through a $20,000 Rural Innovation Grant awarded in the summer by Governor Reynold’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative.

3. Dates were set in January for the council’s annual budget meetings. The first meeting will be on Jan. 5 at 5 p.m. where the council will review the revenues that have come in throughout the various city departments over the last fiscal year.

Then on Jan. 11 at 5 p.m. the council will meet again to begin working on general fund expenses.

4. The council approved an update to the Tama County Solid Waste Disposal Commission Articles of Agreement. The agreement was approved on a 4-1 vote with council member Anne Michael voting against.

5. City of Tama employees will receive up to $1,000 in reimbursements on their health insurance deductible if that amount is met in the next calendar year. The council also approved the continuation of the city’s COVID-19 employee policy through the end of February.