News : Vinton leaders begin planning for July 26 RAGBRAI ride-through

Vinton leaders have long sought to bring the thousands of RAGBRAI riders for an overnight stay in Vinton.

While that has not happened for decades, many are excited about planning for the ride-through in Vinton on July 26. The route from Marshalltown to Cedar Rapids also includes Garrison.

"We have petitioned RAGBRAI several times over the last few years to consider Vinton as an overnight town," says council member Dave Redlinger. "The RAGBRAI routes are generally staggered from year to year however. By that I mean, one year the route will tend to stay to the northern part of the state, the next year the central and then the southern portion. This really only give Vinton a shot to be an overnight community once every three years."

Redlinger was authorized by the city council to petition RAGBRAI as an overnight town a few years ago.

"The fact that Vinton was selected as pass-through community I believe is matter of the RAGBRAI Director realizing that we would like to have the opportunity to be an overnight town and also, a little luck. As it happens, the route was coming through the center of the state and we were lucky enough to be in way," said Redlinger.

This is the 40th anniversary of RAGBRAI and there are several large celebrations planned along the route.

"According to conversation that I had with TJ Juskiewicz, (RAGBRAI Director) Cedar Rapidswill be hosting the largest of these celebrations," Redlinger said. "I don’t think that Vinton would have been their choice for this particular event. Vinton has not hosted an overnight RAGBRAI event for over 30 years. TJ also mentioned that Vinton is certainly big enough to host RAGBRAI and that we would definitely be considered in the future."

"I think that this is a great opportunity for Vinton to get the needed experience to host such an event in the future," said Redlinger. "We can consider this a 'dry run' to actually hosting an overnight. We will we be able to showcase our community to the RAGBRAI officials and thousands of riders all at once. This is also a great opportunity for some of our local businesses and restaurants to reap the benefits of that many people coming through town in one day.

Vinton, he said, has many things to do to prepare for this event.

"There are many, many things that will need to be coordinated and planned out well ahead of time; everything from public safety and traffic to food vendor permits and clean up. These types of events never come without their fair share of responsibilities," he explains.

A RAGBRAI Planning committee is currently being formed. From that main group, Redlinger expects several smaller committees will be created to address the different needs (such as: Clean up, Public Safety, Parking and Streets, Vendor registration, RAGBRAI decorations and themes, etc.)

"We will be attending our first planning meeting in Webster City on March 31," he said. "We will meet with the RAGBRAI officials and hopefully be given some planning tools to take back and implement within our committees."

This will be a "great event" for Vinton, says the council member.

"I am personally very excited for the opportunity and I can’t wait to see all of the great ideas that the citizens of Vinton will come up with," Redlinger says.