Business View Magazine November-December 2018

200 201 PROJECTS ABOUND MARION, IOWA AT A GLANCE MARION, IOWA WHAT: A town of 40,000 WHERE: East central Iowa, near Cedar Rapids WEBSITE: www.cityofmarion.org MARION, Iowa B usiness ViewMagazine first spoke with Tom Treharne, the Planning and Development Director for the City of Marion, Iowa, in Oc- tober 2016 and then again in October 2017. We caught up with Treharne once more in 2018 for an update on some ongoing projects in this bustling community, located about sixmiles northeast of Cedar Rapids.The following is an edited transcript of that conversation: BVM: Let’s begin with the redevelopment of Up- town Marion and the new library you spoke about last year. Treharne: “We continue to make gradual progress toward the construction of a new library as part of a mixed-use building.Our existing library was built in the early ‘90s and constructed based on 30-year population projections.The City’s growth eclipsed those projections within 12 years.We currently have one of the busiest libraries in the state,which is pretty impressive for a town of 40,000.