MARSHALLTOWN – The people in Marshalltown know better than anyone the devastation the EF-3 tornado cause when it ripped through about two months ago.
Lonnie Hogeland Sr. saw the aftermath of the tornado almost right after it happened.
“You couldn’t put words to it and to think of it, it is just bad,” said Hogeland.
He said cleanup has gone well, but some buildings downtown are still dangerous.
“There is one major building uptown. call it what it is, but it is the southwest corner of center and main,” Hogeland said.
He was talking about the brick building off of Center and Main St. From when the tornado hit until now, there has been no progress made. The city is getting upset with the same buildings, too,
“I am getting impatient about it too myself personally, so many people have done so much work to clean up their buildings and clean up the streets now it is starting to be aggravating,” said Mayor Joel Greer.
Mayor Greer said the city passed a new ordinance to try and take clean up into their own hands, but they are running into dealing with out of state building owners.
“City administrators have been in contact with the owners of the buildings and they have a dialogue going and we are trying to be nice and patient,” said Mayor Greer.
But, some are getting impatient.
Mayor Greer said they are working as fast as they can to get the buildings cleaned up because they are a safety hazard to the community.
