Should you move to Sibley, Iowa?

I've lived in Sibley for nearly my entire life, excluding a brief period where I lived in the town of Ocheyedan, 12 miles to the east. I've been a child here, a student here, and now a homeowner.

When I created this website it may have surprised many readers to have learned that, contrary to what some of them have implied (🙄), I really do enjoy living here. Among my friends from school - now over a decade ago - I was one of only three to stay here after finishing college.

Sometimes I honestly wish that my spouse and I had decided to move to a bigger city like Sioux Falls, South Dakota, or even a bigger town like Sheldon, Iowa to the south, or Worthington, Minnesota to the north. But I'd be lying if I said there weren't times we're glad we stayed in Sibley, too.

Throughout the rest of this page, I'm going to do my best to explain that Sibley has a lot of good things going for it. However, in my own opinion, it also has its share of shortcomings. It's up to you as the reader to weigh the good against the bad.

One of those shortcomings was a business that many of us in town had taken to calling the "Blood Plant". It was an agricultural processing plant located smack dab in the heart of downtown Sibley, within spitting distance of the only grocery store in town. This "Blood Plant" got its name from a particular type of processing they did there; they'd take pig blood, dry it, and turn it into pet food.

Needless to say, the scent from drying tons of pig blood isn't going to smell like roses and sunshine. The "Blood Plant" used to emit downright noxious fumes and odors every day -- odors that you could smell no matter where you live in Sibley. It was like walking into a wall of the worst, most pungent and offensive smells you could imagine.

That business, its emissions, and our local government's dealings with them were the reasons I built this website to begin with. I'm happy to report that the Blood Plant has shut down and a new business has moved in. Where before you could walk into a miasma of noxious vapors four to five days every week, it's happily no longer a problem in Sibley and the residents can breathe easily. You can read more about the history of the plant, the town, and this website at this link.

It should go without saying that everything you just read, and everything you're about to read, is purely opinion. Only a fool would take it as fact.

What Sibley has going for it.

Despite my legal battle with the City of Sibley, I'm doing my best to be fair to the town itself, because I do like living here. If you think something does or does not belong on this list, please don't hesitate to contact me at joshua@nozzlegear.com. I'd be happy to discuss it with you.

1. As an individual lucky enough to be in a profession where I can work wherever I want, The Lantern coffeehouse is easily one of my favorite places to be. I'm not even much of a coffee-drinker, but the vibe is just right and the owners are very friendly. It's my understanding that it was even rated as one of the best coffee houses in Iowa.
2. The Osceola Recreational Trails Association has done a very good job of not only adding new hiking trails all around the town, but also updating old gravel and dirt trails with freshly-poured concrete. They're a great way for the population to stay healthy and get exercise for both themselves and their pets.
3. El Tio Nacho's was not only one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, it was one of my favorite restaurants ever. The food was less "5-star Michelin Chef" and more like home-cooked Mexican, and I can't think of a single time I had regretted eating at El Tio's instead of somewhere more fancy.
   • Unfortunately, the owners have sold El Tio Nacho's and are now enjoying retirement. A new restaurant named El Quaretano has opened in its place. The food is good and I recommend giving it a try!
4. Sibley recently got "fiber" internet capabilities through Premier Communications. As a professional that makes their living online, access to fiber internet was something I thought I'd only get in bigger cities. The upload speeds are a little slower than I'd prefer at around 12mbps, but the download speeds of 150mpbs and greater have been extremely reliable.
5. In 2019, the community completed fundraising for a new community pool. The old pool was in desperate need of repair, and after a lengthy summer of construction, the new pool is now open to the community.
6. The Sibley-Ocheyedan School District was named one of the "Best Communities for Music Education" in 2018, an award shared with only 583 other communities in the country.

What do Sibley residents complain about?

Some of these complaints are petty, and some of them are much more serious. However, this website has an audience, I know the city council is reading, and I want to do what I can to improve the town by bringing attention to some of the problems that exist here.

Again, if you think something does or does not belong on this list, please don't hesitate to contact me at joshua@nozzlegear.com.

1. Many of the roads in town, especially the cobblestone roads located "downtown" on main street are in very poor condition. It makes the town look rough and run-down, and leaves a bad impression not only on the mind but possibly the vehicle as well. I'm no civil engineer, but there has to be a better method of road maintenance than the city's current strategy of "dig a huge chunk out of the road and just fill it with dirt for months at a time, inevitably creating potholes everywhere". I might be wrong, that might be how it should be done (I haven't the foggiest idea) but at the very least it can be annoying.
2. While the odors coming out of the "Blood Plant" are no longer an issue, a new business has taken up residence in the plant and we residents are wary that one day we'll wake up to find the new business producing odors just like the old one.
3. There are too many damned Republicans. 😉
4. Despite all of the new trails put up by the trail association, Sibley could really use one of the dog parks that many other towns take for granted. Like many other millenials, when my spouse and I are ready to buy our next house we'll be looking very closely at towns that have dog parks.
5. Sibley is pretty poor in the "places to eat" department. You've got five choices: Subway, Pizza Hut, Pizza Ranch, reBar Lounge & Lanes (which, as a burger lover and former meat-eater, has great burgers), 1015 Steak Company, and El Quaretano. As much as I love pizza and Mexican food, it's easy to get bored of these places when you've eaten at each of them dozens of times. If you live in Sibley, you're either eating at one of those establishments, traveling 15-20 miles to Worthington, Minnesota or Sheldon, Iowa, or you're making your own meal.
6. Some officials in the city government, in my own opinion (insert additional legal caveats here ad nauseum to really drive home the point that nothing on this page should be taken as fact), squander taxpayer money on spurious advice and pointless legal services, threatening civil litigation that even a first-year law student would know has no possibility of succeeding. Those officials may be interested in reading about (and I'm making no allegations of any kind with this list):
   • The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which, among other things, grants citizens the right to freely criticize the government without fear of repercussion.
   • The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which, among other things, extends the restrictions applied to the Federal Government to the States.
   • The definition of libel, particularly that government cannot be libeled, and that libel must be malicious to constitute grounds for a lawsuit for damages. Minor errors in reporting are not libel.
   • Rule 32:3.1 of the Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct, which makes it clear that lawyers should inform themselves of the facts of their clients' cases and the applicable law to determine that they can make good faith arguments in support of their clients' positions. Any lawyer familiar with the above points would agree that, for example, a good faith argument could not be made in a case where officials acting as a governmental body attempt to censor a citizen and violate that citizen's First Amendment rights.
   • Reaching out and asking nicely instead of making threats. They may find the recipient surprisingly receptive, not the adversary they apparently thought, and won't end up being sued by the ACLU and turned into a national example of how not to respond to criticism.