The Fairfield Weekly Reader

08/17/2025

https://www.facebook.com/GoldenMagnoliaSanctuary

Rural resilience hub with a pay-what-you-may, plant-based community kitchen open Thurs-Sat 5:30-8pm

08/17/2025

Landscaping with Native Plants to Improve
Urban Water Quality

Presentation by Amy Bouska,
Iowa Dept of Ag & Land Stewardship

Wednesday, Aug. 20 at 7:00 pm
Fairfield Public Library

Learn how to convert your garden into an urban water quality filtration system with support from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS).

Co-sponsored by the Southeast Iowa Sierra Club, the Private Land Stewardship Subcommittee of the Resilient Action Committee, and the Fairfield Public Library.

08/17/2025

Just Announced: Our 2025–26 Season Is Here!
Fairfield Arts & Convention Center

08/11/2025

08/11/2025

🎉 More Than Books: Programs That Make a Difference



The Fairfield Public Library is known for its standout youth programming—including storytimes and the Summer Reading Challenge, but its innovation goes even further!

Recent additions like the Art to Go Collection, Board Games, and Video Games are bringing new energy to the stacks. Plus, a new software system is making access easier and saving the City money!

📖 Explore all they’re doing for Fairfield in our Member Spotlight: Member Spotlight

📚 Visit:

Hours Monday - Friday: 9am - 6pm Saturday: 10am - 3pm Sunday: Closed Community City of Fairfield Fairfield Chamber of Commerce  Fairfield Tourism Fairfield Community School District  

08/11/2025

Hello dancers!

There will be no August contra dance in Fairfield, as we are taking our usual August break. We will return in September!

Mark your calendar for our third-Saturday dance on September 20, with lively tunes from Cafe Ceilhid!

For more information about Fairfield contra and English country dances, please visit https://ffadc.blogspot.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/FairfolkDancers/.

Welcome to Fairfolk / FFADC (Fairfield Folk Arts & Dance Co-Op). Come join in the fun of community dance in Fairfield, Iowa. Beginners are very welcome to our weekly English Country and our monthly Contra dances. Our annual Advanced English Country Dance weekends are intended for experienced dan...

08/04/2025

Grow Fairfield breaks ground on Sunrise Trail Subdivision
Andy Hallman
Jul. 24, 2025 2:21 pm, Updated: Jul. 25, 2025 10:26 am

FAIRFIELD – Work has officially begun on the Sunrise Trail Subdivision on the south side of Fairfield.

Grow Fairfield hosted a groundbreaking for its 53-acre subdivision on June 10. The organization announced this subdivision back in August of 2023, and has spent the last two years doing all the work behind the scenes before dirt could be moved in the summer of 2025.

The plan is to develop the land in three phases. The first phase will consist of creating 33 lots just south of the Cambridge Little Achievers Center on Libertyville Road. The lots will be about 60 feet by 120 feet. Phase I will consist of a loop, with a few lots set aside in the center of the loop for green space.

Grow Fairfield partnered with the childcare center to build a new 40-car parking lot on its south side. This was completed as part of a land swap between the two entities, since the original plan for the childcare center’s parking lot was to build it west of the building, but that space is now needed for the access road into the subdivision.

Just moments before the June 10 groundbreaking ceremony on the subdivision, the childcare center hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of the paved parking lot. The director of the childcare center, Tiffany Finch, said the new parking lot is a welcome addition, because parking has been a problem ever since the center opened in January 2023.

“I knew it right away when I looked at the blueprints that this could be an issue,” said Finch, who added that on some days she can have as many as 40 staff working. She also mentioned that the childcare center reached capacity this summer, hosting 180 children.

Grow Fairfield Executive Director Ed Malloy said it was fitting that the two ceremonies were held on the same day, because access to childcare and housing are the top two issues that employers report are necessary to attract and retain workers.

07/29/2025

Join Fairfield First Fridays Art Walk on Friday, August 1st, from 6 to 10 pm in Central Park to Dance Through The Decades! There will be a DJ, (Allentastic) spinning your favorite summer hits, from the 60’s to present day. Come dance the night away with your friends and community!

In addition to Dancing Through the Decades, you can walk through and enjoy the car cruise with Collector Cars Unlimited having many of their beautiful vehicles around the square for the evening!

There will be great music, fantastic food, local art and craft vendors, lawn games, our large foam block play area for the younger children and more! Grab your lawn chairs, and your friends and come spend a hot summer night in Central Park with us (it is supposed to be great weather for the evening)!

There will be many galleries, venues, restaurants, and shops open for the evening, a few are listed below:

Americus Gallery-100 W. Burlington Ave. -Americus Gallery will be showing Christopher Kufner's original oil paintings, featuring Italian/French Landscapes, and Figurative works. Also, showing original oil paintings by Kim Kufner, original graphite works of art by Dale Divoky featuring his koi fish designs, Original watercolor and ink paintings by Genevra Bell, Art Glass Vases by David Lotton, Leaping Koi sculptures by Dale Divoky, Kristin Ford’s Jewelry with Meaning, many of which are one of a kind, and Custom dichroic glass jewelry by Pedro Lujano. Also, beautiful New Crystals for your home available for purchase from our recent buying trip! Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Thursday 11 – 5, ArtWalk Friday 11 - 8 (normally Friday is 11 - 5), Saturday 11 – 3.

Carnegie Historical Museum 112 S. Court St. Heritage Farms of Jefferson County. Open 6-8pm. The Carnegie Historical Museum will be highlighting one Heritage Farm per month. Heritage Farms are those which have been in the same family for 150 years of more. Jefferson County has fourteen farms which have received this recognition. The museum has established a special exhibit case so that each family, in rotation, will have the opportunity to share their story and display their special artifacts. Each Heritage Farm will have their display for a one-month time period and the following month’s First Friday will feature the next honored farm family.

Cedar Rose Spa-405 N. C. St. Open 5-8. Holistic Night of Wellness- Offering chair massages and selling organic skin and hair products. Featuring artist- Sasha Luse. Stop in to this new location!

Cindy's Art Supply Store and Henderson's Gallery -53 W. Broadway Ave. open from 1 - 5, and again from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Many of the artists in the Square One Arts collective have changed out their art, so there's lots of new pieces to view. Always a great place to stop in, grab your supplies and see all of the new pieces!

Fairfield Art Association (Inside the Civic Center)- Fairfield Art Association Friday August 1, 6-8 PM in FA&CC-MAIN GALLERY "Recent Printmaking Class Shares Their Work" 5 artists: Wendy Read, Demerie Faitler, Rolf Erickson, Anna Shchadina, Suzan Kessel and instructor John Schirmer. Linoleum prints plus other print medias the students created in the past: mono print and lithograph. Plans to be announced for next class. HALLWAY GALLERY - Guy Harvey final viewing of Fairfield Photos of the past. LEG UP ART INSTALLATION - Vote for your favorite tonight in Main Gallery.

ICON Gallery- 58 N. Main St Continuing the Hudson Gallery: Ta**ra Art from Udaipur. First Friday hours: 6:30 to 10:00.

Sc******ng Co. Barbering Shoppe-108 W. Broadway Ave Ste. #207- Grand Opening! Open from 5-9pm, Retro candy bar, bubbly beverages, snacks from local eateries, products by Free Range Wingo, local artists featured and a raffle! Stop in to welcome this new business and help them celebrate their grand opening!!

Wanderer’s Haul- 206 S. Main St.- Open from 2:00pm to 10:00pm and have a Magic the Gathering Commander play day for the new set release Edge of Eternities.

Willow & Bright-58 S. Main St. August 1st and 2nd is IA Tax Free Weekend. Shop without being taxed! Open late for Art Walk 5-8:00.

Saturday Activities:
The Farmers Market will be celebrating 50 years!!!

07/27/2025

Fairfield makes Top 7 list of Intelligent Communities in World
Andy Hallman
Jul. 24, 2025 2:34 pm

Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.

FAIRFIELD – Fairfield and Jefferson County are becoming known around the world as a hub of innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability.

International organizations are taking notice, and one of them bestowed one of the highest honors possible on Fairfield by naming it one of the Top 7 Intelligent Communities of 2025. The honor was bestowed by the Intelligent Community Forum, which made the announcement on June 17 during an awards dinner in Madrid, Spain.

Fairfield and six other cities will now compete to be named the ICF’s Top Intelligent Community. According to the ICF’s website, the seven competitors are:

Assaí, Paraná, Brazil
Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, Türkiye (formerly Turkey)
Durham Region, Ontario, Canada
Fairfield/Jefferson County, Iowa, USA
Hilliard, Ohio, USA
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain
ICF Executive Director Matthew Owen wrote a paragraph on each city and why it was included in the Top 7 list. For Fairfield/Jefferson County, Owen noted that it had nearly six times more small businesses per 100 people than the average for U.S. cities. He mentioned its high percentage of households with broadband internet, MIU’s computer science department attracting global talent, Fairfield’s CoLab fostering start-ups, as well as achievements in solar power, child care and the arts.

Fairfield resident Bob Ferguson was the driving force in collecting information for Fairfield’s ICF application. Fairfield has entered this contest three years in a row, and all three years made the Smart21 group of semifinalists. Each year, Fairfield’s application was more sophisticated and more detailed than the last, and this year “our narrative really outdid itself,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said that gathering the data on Fairfield’s economic development was a labor of love since it allowed him to explore the “creativity of our community and what makes us so interesting and unique among small, isolated communities.” He noted that Fairfield is even quite different from the other North American small city that made the Top 7, Hilliard, Ohio. That city is three times Fairfield’s size and is a suburb of Columbus.

“That’s very different from a town of 10,000 out on the prairie,” he said. “We’re not near a big city, so we have to create from scratch.”

07/17/2025

July 15, 2025
Bale Trail Opens along the Historic Hills Scenic Byway
Historic Hills Scenic Byway, Iowa —

July marks the beginning of the annual Historic Hills Scenic Byway Bale Trail spanning 105 miles through five counties in Southeastern Iowa.

Each year, free public art installations made of hay or straw are installed along the byway. “The Bale Trail showcases pride in the agricultural communities of Southeastern Iowa,” said Historic Hills Scenic Byway Coordinator Christina Hedström.

Whimsical art installations dot the byway from July through October. The first bale installed for the 2025 Bale Trail was Hog Wild, created by the Davis County FFA. Since then, several
others have been added, including welcome centers and businesses.
Pictured here is Miss Gally Crow created by the Blakesburg Historical Preservation
Society. Blakesburg marks the northwest entrance to the byway, and the scarecrow is placed between the Blakesburg Museum and the Abernathy House, the recently restored Victorian house that is now part of the museum complex. Scarecrows are a
new addition to the bale trail since 2024.

The smaller installations allow downtown businesses to join the trail, creating an economic driver for the region. Last year, the
online map had over 20,000 visitors. Hedstrom stated, “Iowa tourism generates nearly $200 per visitor each day. Businesses help expand the trail and welcome tourism to the
region, which benefits our local economy.”

Visitors to the byway can learn more about the trail and find the map of locations by
visiting the web page at https://pathfindersrcd.org/scenic-byway-bale-trail-2025/
Hedström encourages visitors to check the map before their trip.

Art is added throughout the summer, as bales become available and artists have time to create sculptures. Last year, the trail had dozens of installations, including several in downtown
locations like Keosauqua and Bentonsport. Community organizations, businesses, and residents along the byway are encouraged to create a bale or scarecrow.

Registering for the trail is free. Information about
registration and the trail itself may be found on Pathfinders RC&D’s website.
https://pathfindersrcd.org/scenic-byway-bale-trail-2025/
Contact Christina Hedström for ideas on how to make a sculpture, find art, or brainstorm
on an interesting theme for your creation.

For more information about the Historic Hills Scenic Byway, Iowa Byways, or Pathfinders RC&D, please contact Christina Hedström at 641-472-6177 or
[email protected]. Visit the webpage: https://pathfindersrcd.org/what-wedo/community-development/historic-hills-byway/

07/15/2025

Fairfield's next third-Saturday adult contra dance will be on July 19 with the Fairtown Ramblers playing and Jennifer Hamilton calling! Bring your friends and come out and dance!

Feel free to bring sweet or salty snacks to share!

Children who are experienced contra dancers are welcome at the adult contra dance, but younger children will find it too challenging.

Please carry in clean, dry, soft-soled shoes to dance in to protect Morningstar's beautiful wood floors.

Contra instruction, 7:00 - 7:30 pm
Contra dancing for adults and experienced kids, 7:30 pm +

Admission for the contra dance is $7 (free for experienced kids). Location: Morningstar Studio Ballroom, 51 1/2 N. Court Street (2nd floor).

For more information about Fairfield contra and English country dances, please visit https://ffadc.blogspot.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/FairfolkDancers/.

Welcome to Fairfolk / FFADC (Fairfield Folk Arts & Dance Co-Op). Come join in the fun of community dance in Fairfield, Iowa. Beginners are very welcome to our weekly English Country and our monthly Contra dances. Our annual Advanced English Country Dance weekends are intended for experienced dan...