Waterloo Greyhound Park.
After years of legal entanglements, a deal has been reached to demolish a former gaming facility and preserve the solvency of its nonprofit owner in Waterloo.
Under a three-party agreement, National Cattle Congress will be able to keep its fairground property and the historic Electric Park Ballroom. The agreement also allows a local development company to acquire the 64-acres of land where the shuttered Waterloo Greyhound Park now stands.
Demolition of the dilapidated facility is scheduled to start in late May. The deal resolves a long-running legal battle between the National Cattle Congress and the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa – also known as Meskawki Nation.
The greyhound track will be demolished not that an agreement has been reached.
The tribe has held a lean on NCC property since 1995, when the Meskwakis loaned the organization $9.1 million to stay afloat after filing for bankruptcy protection.
Waterloo Greyhound Park closed permanently in the summer of 1996 and, since then, has become one of the city’s biggest eyesores.
(By Elwin Huffman, KOEL, Waterloo)