• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / News / Three Iowa Mayors attend national event

Three Iowa Mayors attend national event

January 20, 2022 By Matt Kelley

Frank Cownie. (City of Des Moines photo)

For the first time since the pandemic began, the U.S. Conference of Mayors is underway in person in Washington D.C., and three Iowa mayors are in attendance.

Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie sits on the conference’s executive committee and says COVID-19’s persistence nearly forced them to go virtual, but they chose instead to enact very strict guidelines.
“Everybody has to bring their vaccination card. I tested before I left Des Moines and then when we got here, we all have wristbands that show that we test,” Cownie says. “I’ve tested while I’ve been here, ended up negative and they allowed me into the meeting.”

About 200 mayors registered for the conference but Cownie guessed at least 20 decided not to attend. Of those at the event, Cownie says 100% of them are masked and following the rules. “Those protocols that were put in place gave a little bit of relief to the anxiety that a lot of us had about what a gathering like this would look like,” Cownie says. “I think it’s good to be back together and exchange ideas.”

One focus of the gathering of mayors is to promote one’s city and to network with other mayors. Cownie admits that’s a little difficult as everyone’s masked and you can’t immediately recognize faces.
“Everybody has their name on so if you don’t exactly recognize it, you just glance down and look at their name tag and say, ‘Ah, holy smokes, you look a little different than a couple of years ago and with that mask on,” Cownie says, laughing, “‘but, good to see you, Bob!'”

The conference is a non-partisan organization of cities with a population of 30,000 or larger. The mayors of Iowa City and Waterloo are also there. The group’s 90th annual winter event concludes Friday.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: News

Featured Stories

Senator Ernst says Russian ban shows she’s doing something right

Bill creates new deer hunting season, with AR-15s

Governor signs Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard into law

Jury returns guilty verdict in shooting death of State Trooper

A haboob, a dust storm black out, hits northwest Iowa

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa’s Huckstorf garners national award

Iowa Special Olympics Summer games set to open in Ames

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 5/16/22

Iowa assistant coach Kirk Speraw to retire

Northern Iowa prepares for Missouri Valley Conference softball tournament

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2022 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC