Local officials stress volunteerism with RAGBRAI
May 2—OTTUMWA — If the saying "it takes a village to raise a child" is true, then so is another adage:
It takes volunteers to run the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.
Volunteerism toward the event was part of a lengthy discussion during Tuesday's Wapello County Board of Supervisors meeting at the courthouse. Marc Roe, a member of the executive team for Ottumwa RAGBRAI 2024, gave an update on where the organization is at just over two months before bicyclists ride their way into the community.
On a similar note, supervisor Brian Morgan, who took a leading role in the process when RAGBRAI came through Ottumwa eight years ago, said the more people give of their time to the event, the better it is.
"I think it's important to know that with a lot of these different things that go in our communities, it's volunteer groups. It's not necessarily the city's doing. The city may be supporting it," Morgan said. "It's Eldon RAGBRAI, Agency RAGBRAI, and all these are set up by groups of volunteers and donors to put this stuff in."
Morgan noted his involvement with Oktoberfest. The city helps with the parade, he said, but mostly, it's volunteer-driven.
"It's not a city event, but everything that goes into it is volunteer hours," he said. "We have minimal sponsorships that we actually take on. It's important that it gets out there in some of these areas, it's done by groups of volunteers and nonprofit organizations, and they're trying to do things for the good and make things better."
Roe said he anticipated about $250,000 in expenses for the one day (July 25) that riders will be in Ottumwa. The RAGBRAI committee put together a budget, and it was helped by carryover money from the previous stay in 2016. The hope is to continue that trend if and when the city gets RAGBRAI in the future.
"It's not something that we haven't done before, and we're working off historical data to get some of our numbers. Obviously there are some things we're still kind of estimating," Roe said. "I think the goal for RAGBRAI Ottumwa through this entire thing has been to give money back to nonprofits. That was the goal in 2016, and it's the goal in 2024."
Carrie Teninty, representing the City of Eldon, which is a pass-through community along the route from Ottumwa to Mount Pleasant, asked the supervisors if they could provide financial assistance for the event.
"We did receive $5,000 from RAGBRAI, which is obviously not going to be enough to support Eldon," she said. Teninty added that the city hasn't officially established a RAGBRAI budget.
"We're probably looking at $3,000 in signage, probably $6,700 in porta-potties coming through," she said. "We've reserved two hand-washing stations and I believe we're going to get four. We're just asking to help offset the costs for Eldon."
Roe told Teninty that the overnight towns, such as Ottumwa, are responsible for signage for the entire county, as well as locations on the route between Ottumwa and Mount Pleasant.
"The $25,000 Wapello County gave to RAGBRAI has been designated for the City of Agency and the City of Eldon," he said. "So we've put aside $2,500 total to this point to help offset some of those costs that you have."
Morgan reiterated the volunteer aspect, especially in the smaller communities.
"If you want to help someone Thursday and then one of the pass-through towns Friday, I'm sure they'd love to have you," he said. "With the limited volunteer base in those areas, sometimes people stay longer, and they're happy to do it. There are a lot of different areas to volunteer."
— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com, and on Twitter @ChadDrury
