Rockwell Mayor Larry Wentz is beginning another term after being reelected in November without opposition. Wentz tells RadioOnTheGo News his decision to run again came down to continuing projects already underway and keeping the city moving forward.
“Talking with my family, my council, the employees, you know going over what’s best for the town, what the interest was in the position and seeing that there really wasn’t any interest out there, you know, just continuing forward with what we were doing in town and seeing it through. I would rather commit my time to the city than something else. So I was able to say, ‘yep, let’s, let’s keep moving forward. We’ll keep continuing on with, with where we’re at.’ So, you know, I’d rather see the city move forward with the plans we have, and we have a lot we want to get done, with the sidewalks with streets with other projects and I’d rather say, ‘yep, two more years and we’ll go from there.”
During Wentz’s previous term, a powerful storm last July caused widespread damage across Rockwell blocking nearly every street with downed trees, knocking out power and internet service, and damaging city property, including trees and headstones at Linn Grove Cemetery. Wentz credits a strong community response for the rapid cleanup, with residents, city crews, county officials, and outside tree companies working together to restore the town.
“The chainsaws kicked off five o’clock in the morning and everybody was out helping each other getting everybody’s properties cleaned up. The city guys were out with the trucks, getting the roads cleaned up and worked with county executives to get all the resources I needed from the state and the county to get trucks here, to get the trees out of our temporary dump and off to the burning locations that we needed so we can get the town cleaned up. So we had other tree companies come in, help with the cemetery. We had 127 city owned trees, either removed or trimmed. And it was a lot of moving parts to get it done.”
Wentz says infrastructure funding will be a key issue to watch during the 2026 Iowa Legislative Session, especially when it comes to bridge and culvert projects that are costly for small towns to maintain. He adds that continued community input will remain important as the city plans future improvements.
Full interview below
