NANCY LUNDQUIST CARMICHAEL
Written in July 2008

I was appointed to the position of Osceola's City Clerk two years ago last February and find it fascinating, absorbing and challenging work. I had the background as Corning's City Clerk when the person who held that job passed away unexpectedly. My thought had been, "Heck, I can do it," little knowing what it entailed. It was an opportunity to build up retirement but additionally it keeps me up-to-the-minute on all that is happening in city business.

Although our hours are posted as 8:00 to 4:30, there are many off-hour meetings to attend. As a City Clerk I am secretary to the Council, posting their agenda, getting information to them in order for them to make the right decisions, taking minutes at their meetings and taking care of their correspondence. I am responsible for maintaining the official records and for all receipts and expenditures of every department of the city, and assisting in coordinating the communications between the departments. The City Administrator does a lot of that but sometimes it takes two to make it all work right.

My education for the job has come by talking with accountants and "sticking my feet in the fire." I've always been half-way comfortable with numbers but I didn't realize that I would be using them to this degree. To keep everything straight, I have a huge chart of accounts built into my system, where I can split everything out. Some Clerks use a paper copy, some use software. More and more are using the latter, because a lot of the reporting is done through the internet, so we have to be somewhat technologically savvy in order to make things happen. We learn it just like we learn everything else.

For reference, one of the best resources a City Clerk has is "Clerk's Institute" that Paul Coates with Iowa State Extension put together. It is training for City Clerks new to the job. Another huge resource is the Iowa League of Cities. That is an organization that the majority of cities across the state belong to and it has been a wonderful resource for us, too.

At the time I was the City Clerk in Corning and the beginning of my career here, I had the fortunate position of representing City Clerks across the state of Iowa on the Board of Directors of the Iowa League of Cities. It is a two-year term and I was re-elected to a second term, which is the maximum allowed. During the time I was on the Board, the staff put together a marketing piece for the League to be able to disseminate to all the different communities, sharing with them what the various costs for Law Enforcement, Fire, or other services might have been. This was in response to people clamoring about how high their property taxes were. The League is a wonderful resource for Mayors, Councils and Clerks. There is a wealth of infolination.

I feel as though Osceola is my hometown, although I wasn't born here. My parents, Ed and Darlene Lundquist, were living on a farm south of Corning when I was born. I have two brothers, Jim and Alan. My father was a farmer and loved to farm, but when my grandfather began having health problems, he listened to the advice of friends, Hub and Betty Dybdahl. Hub had a wholesale business in Des Moines and heard that Fred Kelly of Osceola wanted to retire and sell Highway Lumber. He convinced my dad that would be a good opportunity for him to leave the farm and to get my grandfather off the farm. They purchased the Lumber Yard.

It was only a month or two ago when I learned that at the time they were considering the purchase, Mom was absolutely convinced we were going to starve to death. To prevent that, she canned, preserved and froze all types of things, including milk, so we would be sure we would have whatever we needed to keep us alive until we would have income from the business.

When we moved, I was in seventh grade. Prior to that I had gone to a country school in the north part of Taylor County, Holt #5. There were all of three of us in my class. I went from that setting in a one-room school house to a class of 62 in the Clarke Community System. Jim was in sixth grade and Alan in second. We moved into a big old house that had at least two stories. It was on the west side of North Main Street, the first place south of what used to the Americana Motel. The inside of the house was beautiful — pocket doors, winding staircase, hardwood floors, a fireplace — and lots of bats. There was a formal dining room, a huge kitchen, with three or four bedrooms upstairs and one down. I had my own room, which made me feel like a princess. I was in awe of that place. It was just so pretty. That was our first home, but then Dad was approached about getting some building started on Grade Lake. They were the first ones, so he and Mom had their choice of lots. Seeing what has developed there, it is hard to imagine a time when there were no other houses.

I went to junior high where there now is the West Ward housing development. As we left junior high, we were the first freshman class in the new high school. That was before the new junior high was built onto the existing high school building. I went there all four years and graduated in 1965. I have no memory of any particular teacher, subject matter or activity that captured my interest, because at that time dance was an extremely important part of my life. Every Saturday, I would jump on the train and go to Creston for dance lessons but would also assist my dance teacher. When I got into high school, I also took classes in Des Moines from Rose Lorenz, then I also had my own dance studio in the basement of my parents' home. It was something I really enjoyed doing. It must have shown because people would compliment me and that made me work harder. All these years later, for sheer enjoyment, I still like to go dancing.

So, we didn't starve. The lumber yard went well. Dad told me that when he bought the lumber yard, Mr. Kelly told him the housing market had been saturated with new homes, and I am sure he probably felt that way but he found out that, as Osceola's prime location will attest, it is an up-and-coming community that continues to thrive, and there is always opportunity here.

I went to Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, to study with the ballet instructor. This is an all-girls' school and back when I was going there, it still had some of the remnants of a finishing school. Chapel was required, as were white gloves for chapel. Certain things were expected but I had a good time during the year I was there. Then I went out into the work force and thought, "Here we go."

My first job was working in Des Moines for Triple-A as a receptionist — just answering the phone. I worked my way up to doing the maps. When customers wanted to take a trip, they could order maps, recommended routes and whatever else. I worked into some international travel, making reservations or whatever they needed. This was strictly a job.

Then I was married, and my husband was in school, so I transferred from AAA to a travel agency in Ames while he attended Iowa State University on a communications major. After he graduated, he had a job in Sioux City, so we moved to Sioux City and I got a job as a bank teller. It seems as though I worked there for a long time. It may be where my future employment involving working with figures started. My husband and I had a son and a daughter. We divorced and I later remarried, but in the interim, 30-some years ago, I was living here working at the Lumber Yard and Concrete plant, trying to run a dance studio and take care of two small children.

My present husband is a barber in Corning. When we left the Corning area, I was in seventh grade and never thought I would go back. Osceola had become my home. But life just kind of took me back over there when I met my husband. My dance teacher, of course, was there and she was instrumental in my meeting him. He grew up in Villisca. Come to find out we were both born in the Montgomery County Hospital in Red Oak, at different times. He grew up in the Red Oak area. He has been cutting hair for 40-some years. About 12 years ago we bought a farm about two miles northeast of Corning.

We like digging in the dirt, so we go back on weekends and dig in the dirt. We rent out the land. We have about four acres were we do huge gardens, and have planted a huge orchard. We have berry beds — raspb eines, blackberries, strawberries — so we won't starve. Some day it may go back to that. Someone asked me the other day, "Why are you doing all this?" "Just exactly for those reasons. If the economy gets to the point where we don't have any other means of income, we can still survive. We can fish — we've built several ponds on the property and stocked them. When the kids moved away we decided it was time to downsize and that was a reason we bought the farm. It had a small house. Now, when they come home we've had to add on. But we're enjoying it."

We have a blended family. Our children are my step-daughters: Christy is the oldest. She is 42. She and her husband live in Houston. My step daughter Carey and her husband, Eric, live in southern California. They have twin children, a boy and girl eight years old, Slone and Skylar. Brad (my son) and his wife, Jennifer, have a daughter, Emerson, who will be two years old. They are the English Department for the Scotland County Missouri school system, so they are both English teachers. My daughter Courtney is a special ed teacher at Hyatt Middle School in Des Moines. She has lived in Hawaii, New York, Los Angeles — all over, and has finally decided that with family here, Iowa is where she needs to be. She is not married at the moment. Some day. She is 32. Our daughter is Alexis and she and her husband, Rob, live in Urbandale. They have a little boy, Gavin, who just turned a year old. She is a department manager at Wells Fargo Financial. We have a daughter and I inherited two step-daughters, so we have a family of five. We get to see Courtney and Lexi more frequently than anyone else and next in line would be Brad, Jennifer and Emerson. The grandkids from California are coming next month. We see them once or twice a year, and the same with the daughter in Houston, which isn't enough but that is the way it is.

Mom and Dad had their 60th wedding anniversary last September. We had just a family gathering and Lora Haines came in to take pictures. She took photos of each individual family, of Mom and Dad, and all of us together. It was a nice day, which brought back memories of our wonderful family life. Mom always did fun things or special things for all holidays and otherwise. But also the kids of the next generation behind me were always creative. They delighted in each other's company. Boys and girls all together would do funny things like write scripts, do plays and video tape them.

All the kids were involved on Christmas Day. That was always at Mom's and Dad's house. No if, ands, or buts. That was the place to be. I had three, Alan and Debbie had three, and Jim and Anne had two, so there were would be eight kids running around and they, too, enjoy each other's company immensely.

I have been very fortunate to have the family I do. I was married, divorced and remarried and during that time, if it hadn't been for my parents, who knows where I would have been, but I have a very strong family support network. That has made a huge difference. Having a blended family is more common now than an exception. Society has become more accepting of things that I personally do not like to see happen, but I am only one person.

I see Osceola as a land of opportunity. It truly is! When I interviewed to the job I explained to Water Board and Council members that it is clearly evident to the outside world that Osceola is on the cusp of growing to the point that I am not sure everybody wants to go. The location alone, with the interstate and the railroad and all the transportation in and out of here is amazing! That has a huge impact on this community.

I'm seeing there are a lot of communities across the state that have an aging infrastructure. We all do. But they have issues with water and sewer and all this kind of thing, while Osceola is stepping up to the plate and planning more for the future than maybe ever has been done in the past. It is really paying off because we can see more commerce than there was formerly. There are more housing starts than there have been in a long time. We're embarking on our 2010 census, and I think when we see a lot of communities particularly along the southern tier of the state, most of them are losing population, but I think Osceola and Clarke County in particular will be gaining. We have employment opportunities that a lot of places don't have. And those who want a bedroom community have that accessibility through the interstate and in the surrounding communities. Osceola is a hub. I see us as having been waiting for the right mixture. My dad says that is one of the reasons they came here, because of the location and all that was happening. It didn't happen as rapidly as he thought it was going to, but I can see it coming to fruition now where it is really going to move if the economy stays strong. That will be a deciding factor, too. Southern Iowa usually has to struggle a little harder than the rest of the state. It's the way of the world, but Osceola is looking good!

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