By: Zach Hiney, Editor-in-Chief of the Trumpet
The city of Waverly looks a lot different than it did five years ago.
The new Taco Bell and Starbucks on 4th Avenue and Z’s Pizza on W Bremer Avenue have all popped up in town over the past few years. The Bremer Bridge is currently under construction with hopes to reopen next fall. Those additions are just the tip of a big iceberg coming to Waverly over the next few years according to Mayor Mark Anderson. The renovations to the city library, located on W Bremer Avenue, will be the first to open to the public.
“In September, the library will reopen,” Anderson said. “It’s going to be much larger and way cooler. It’s going to have a giant tree in the middle with pillows and you can sit under the tree.”
Soon after the library opens back up, a new restaurant close to campus will open its doors. After the Dirty Dog announced its sudden closure last May, there were a lot of questions about what would fill that space. That question was answered when Grumpy’s Roadhouse announced it would open a fourth location in Waverly, located where the Dirty Dog used to be.
“That’ll be great to get a restaurant that’s going to emphasize live music,” Anderson said. “It’ll be a much more college friendly kind of place I think.”
Later this year, Aldi will open a location in Waverly. The grocery store known for cheaper and healthier groceries is hoping to open in November according to Anderson. It’ll be located next to the Taco Bell on 4th Street. Also in the works is a new housing development that will bring a lot of families to town.
“Planning and zoning has mapped out 58 new homes behind Miller True Value,” Anderson said. “Those houses are going to be built and that’ll be 58 new families in town.”
Those new families will have a lot of options for things to do in town. The movie theater and restaurant inside of it, currently located on W Bremer Avenue, are hoping to open at some point according to the mayor. There’s a new gourmet burger place opening downtown. And if the voters vote yes on it, a brand-new pool will begin to be constructed in the place the current pool is right now.
Anderson described the plans for the pool to include swimming lanes, a splash park, a slide, diving boards, basketball hoops and a lot more. That would open in the same spot the current pool is now.
With the Bremer Bridge under construction for a little while, questions arose about a Waverly staple, Christmas on Main, and how people would get to that event. Anderson said the city has thought about those issues and has some ideas in mind pertaining to a route over the Nestle Bridge.
“The question is how much weight can you put on the Nestle bridge without it collapsing.” Anderson said. “Golf carts or horse-drawn carriages, that you could do. If we can get people to park on the West side, we could provide some kind of transportation over the bridge.”
While the Bremer Bridge closing will be an inconvenience to students and residents of Waverly, Anderson and the city have a lot of plans to keep adding to Waverly, making it a destination spot.
“People just really want to come and live in Waverly, and they want to live in that kind of environment,” Anderson said.
The city of Waverly is going to look a lot different in a few years. With plenty of new attractions coming to town soon, Waverly will have something to offer everyone who lives here.
