r/coralville

Hi Coralville! Tuesday, April 28th at 6:30pm the Coralville City Council will have a hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget. The budget is due to the state auditor on April 30th. This is unfortunate, as our city leaders seem to anticipate little or no public input that would require changes, since they're holding the hearing only two days before the budget is due. See info here: See budget info here: https://www.coralville.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3018

The budget hearing is an opportunity to see how YOUR tax money, especially the new LOST tax funds, will be used. For example, with few eyes on the details of the 2026 budget and little community input, the Coralville Police Department added a contract with mass surveillance company, Flock, to their budget and it passed without councilors even seeing the contract. After public outcry and pressure, the contract was cancelled, but the $36,000 lost is your tax money wasted. What could we have done with that $36,000? It could have fed a family of 4 for a year, according to the Coralville Food Pantry. https://www.coralvillefoodpantry.org/give

Something to note: Coralville city leaders love to talk about how Coralville is becoming "tournament city," drawing tens of thousands of visitors for events at the Iowa River Landing and other facilities. Coralville is spending a large percentage of our LOST funds on building a new rec center with pools for statewide and national competitions and tournaments (for which the ICCSD is also contributing funds). They see this as a positive for the people who live in the community because visitors = tax revenue. But, what is a new competition level pool in Coralville going to do for you, resident who lives down the street and has to deal with the traffic this creates, the congestion and lack of infrastructure to support so many people flooding our town?

Also, with all of the tax revenue tournaments and sporting events bring to Coralville, we cannot ignore the WORKERS that make hosting these tournaments possible. Folks who live and work here in retail, food service, hospitality, and the service industry in general are often the lowest paid workers. Where is our city council's consideration for affordable housing in Coralville, for social services, and for better infrastructure and transportation for those without vehicles? Coralville's success in becoming a destination for conferences and sporting events is only possible because of the workers. I'm disappointed to see that we consistently spend less than 1% on health and social services. We need to support the people of Coralville before we keep pouring money into ways to draw more visitors.

Coralville has been controlled by real estate companies, developers, and business people for decades, either directly on city council or through influence and back door deals. Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth has controlled the city for 30 years. We're millions of dollars in debt and continue to allow developers to build unaffordable, poorly built housing and chain stores with generous tax ride offs.

Ever drive down main roads and wonder why we have so many strip malls with private equity and chain owned companies and so few locally owned businesses thriving? Ever see another construction project and find out it's yet ANOTHER mixed use ugly grey block that costs $1000/mo for a one bedroom? That's a choice. Things could be different. Come to the budget meeting, make your voices heard, and get involved in local politics. You can make a difference in your community!

MORE INFO here: https://coralvillains.org/2026/04/22/fy27-budget-public-hearing-on-april-28/

My HOA has to pay for LRS (formerly Johnson County Refuse) to pick up our trash and recycling weekly because Coralville only picks up trash for single family homes and duplexes. We live in a small condo (3 units all with their own addresses and front doors. I am SO annoyed that Coralville is this stingy about their services b/c there is a ton of high density housing--could you not pick up trash for places that have individual addresses! I get not doing apartment buildings and big condos).

LRS bought out Johnson County Refuse, I think it was last year, and we didn't have any problems. They came every week and picked up our trash and recycling. Now, within the past 2 months, they've missed our recycling pickup regularly. I've called every week and keep getting told by LRS customer support (based in Illinois) that they have no contact with the garages in Iowa and all they can do is send them emails to remind them to come pick up our recycling. They said recycling is a courtesy and included with our trash, but not offered as a stand alone service. That's fine, but don't give us bins, promise us pickups and say it's "included" in our trash service and then not do it.

I'm wondering if anyone else living in one of the many condos, apartment complexes, etc. in Coralville is having similar problems. I've escalated it to LRS management and they won't even call me back, they're wanting to deal with it all over email, yet they never respond. They won't give me the number for the Iowa garages so I can talk to an actual garage manager and find out why they're skipping our recycling pickup all of the sudden.

I've looked into other services (WM and Republic Services) and they won't service my address.

LRS has a monopoly on trash services for places that the city won't service. I don't know how to handle this. I know we can take our recycling ourselves, but the older folks in my condo can't do that. I also know we can just throw away our recycling, but I don't think that should be the only solution. Anyone else in this boat or know anything about LRS/Johnson County Refuse and why their garages are unable to maintain this service that they did fine with for years up until recently? I'm assuming just like most buy outs it's b/c they've cut staff, just typical enshitification of services, but maybe there's something else I don't know about going on.

Any advice is appreciated. I'm in charge of the HOA for myself and 2 other units and I'm getting tired of calling every week.

Thanks!

Hi folks - join me in picking up trash out of a natural area in Coralville this week on Friday, April 24th from noon to 1pm.

Meet at Woodspring Suites Hotel, 2680 James Street, park at the east end of the parking lot. I will have trash grabbers, gloves, and bags. Wear long pants and sturdy footwear, as the terrain is rough and possibly damp. It will be at least somewhat fun, I promise!

I have a hospital appointment with my little one tomorrow and we won’t have time for a trip into Amana. Is there anywhere in town that sells Amana food products?