Ottumwa area info please (Des Moines, Iowa City: for sale, rental homes, motel) - (IA) - City-Data Forum

lifelongmover · 12-31-2008, 12:50 PM

My husband may be hired at Ottumwa Regional Health Center. I haven't read many positive posts about Ottumwa itself, although the online chamber site, etc. don't make the town sound too bad. Are there any towns in Wapello County that are pleasant to live in?? or areas that would be an easy drive to the hospital? I was hoping to be located within a reasonable driving distance to Iowa City or Des Moines for occasional shopping trips or things like that (used to live in Montana so I know "reasonable" can mean quite a drive!). Is the rental housing market scarce in that area? We would like to rent until we know where we are at and would need 4 bedrooms at least. It seems in the newspaper that a lot of the houses are small 2 bedrooms. The job sounds good, but I'm not picking up a lot of good feelings from the area in general, maybe I'm wrong???

iowegian · 12-31-2008, 01:38 PM

I have never lived in Ottumwa, but I've been there a few times. My general impression of the area is that it wouldn't be a bad place to live. It just has a sort of old, run-down, rust belt sort of feel to it. I never got the idea that it would be unsafe or in any way a bad place to be, it's just not terribly exciting. According to Google, Ottumwa is exactly 2 hours from both Des Moines and Iowa City (I think it might be more like an hour and a half), and those would be your closest destinations for shopping other than the stores available in Ottumwa itself. I don't know what stores are there but I'd guess there is a Wal-Mart, a Hy-Vee (groceries), and maybe a few other chain stores at least. I see there is a mall so there might be some more options available.

I can't tell you much about the small towns near Ottumwa, (I've only driven through them) but I'm not sure that it would be worth the commute to live elsewhere. If you find a perfect rental in a smaller town, I'm sure it would be a fine place to live. I just don't think you should rule out Ottumwa, especially since finding a rental in Agency, for example, would probably be very difficult.

I tried to find a list of the rental homes available in the Ottumwa area for you, all I came up with is the Ottumwa Courier's classified section, which I am guessing from your post you have already read, but it is here in case you haven't: The Ottumwa Courier - Classifieds

There is one four bedroom rental listed on that site, but the rest have 2 or 3. So it might be a bit tough to find a 4 bedroom house for rent in this area. You could easily find one for sale, but I think renting first is a good idea until you get a better feel for the area.

I hope someone who has lived in Ottumwa chimes in on this, but I hope this helped a little

DMRyan · 12-31-2008, 02:39 PM

If you don't mind driving 30+ minutes to and from work, Fairfield, Oskaloosa, Albia and Pella are all great smaller towns near Ottumwa and are much nicer places to live IMO.

I've never lived there either, but I've been there enough to know that it's one hell of a depressing place. Even if you live in a nice area of town, there is the poor economy and depressing and down and out attitude that many people living there are sure to have. All that negativity sucks you right down with it. That was my experience living in Iowa's other hell hole small city, Fort Dodge...and Ottumwa looks even more blighted and economically depressed!

You'll find that attitude in many small towns too, but it's much less prevalent in the well-kept ones.

SharpHawkeye · 01-03-2009, 02:00 PM

Ottumwa's.....alright.

DMRyan's on the right track. There is sort of a stagnation to the city, sort of a feeling like it's not going anywhere. Not quite a Detroit-level of despair, since it's not going through the same level of decay. But it is a very sort-of rust belt city. I would definitely visit before you commit to any job, and see if it's for you.

Ottumwa has nice areas, like along North Court St., toward Indian Hills. Other cities in the area are much nicer. As mentioned, Oskaloosa is a good option, about 30 minutes away on four-lane highway. Albia and Bloomfield are two beautiful small towns a half-hour to the west and the south respectively.

iowegian · 01-04-2009, 11:16 AM

Yeah, I'll agree that Oskaloosa, Fairfield, Albia, and Bloomfield are nicer towns if you're willing to commute. All of these communities are more likely to have rentals than other Wapello County towns as they are larger, but none are as large as Ottumwa.

Mel Cook · 02-21-2009, 03:44 AM

I grew up in Ottumwa, one of 6 boys. We all got higher educations and left. My parents lived there for 50+ years. During my growing years, the City was a medium sized Iowa town with several Companies providing reasonable middle class wages. One by one they closed due to labor disputes, eventually reducing it to a rust belt town, many thousands fewer than when I grew up.

Ottumwa is noted for a few famous people. Movie star, Tom Arnold, Carol Morris: Miss Universe 1956, as well as the fictional character, "Radar O'Riley" from the TV series, MASH. Ottumwa native Captain Robert Williams flew 50 combat missions and later wrote the original manuscript for the award winning 1995 HBO film The Tuskegee Airmen with his character portrayed by actor Laurence Fishburne. Finally, Dick and Pat Nixon spent much of WW2 stationed at the Army Air Training base near Ottumwa.

I would probably agree with all the writers regarding their impressions of Ottumwa. Although it is a small town with lots of older fixer upper homes. At some point in time people will return to capitalize on these homes and restore the best ones to their former glory. Many older Iowa towns have experienced this boom, such as Fairfield, IA.

In 2009 Ottumwa will host Ragbrai (a week long bike ride across Iowa, one of the oldest and largest bike rides of it's kind). There will be a lot of excitement as Ragbrai is like a rolling carnival. I and 2 brothers will be returning to participate in the ride and look forward to seeing how our home town has changed.

There are lots of great people in Ottumwa. You just have to get out and meet them. The city has its problems but with new people, the challenges will be faced and over come. The schools are still very good, as are most Iowa schools.

The weather is generally pretty cold in the winter with several snow storms. During my growing years, I carried the local paper for several years and it always seemed very cold in the winter. One January, it was at or below zero for 21 days straight. The city was always pretty good about clearing the road ways though.

Hope this has been helpful for you.

Synopsis · 02-21-2009, 05:03 AM

If it was good enough for Radar O'Reilly it's good enough for anyone!

MelHawkeyesfan · 12-02-2009, 04:24 PM

I grew up in Ottumwa and thought it was as cool as most any Iowa town. I knew Carol Morris before she became Miss Universe, as she worked as a life guard at the local swimming pool. My uncle was co-owner of Pedrick and Thorne hardware store, and my grandpa worked at John Morrel meat plant. We had a Red Dot potato chip factory and Lowenberg Bakery...my highlight of living in Ottumwa was going to the Canteen in the Alley...best loose meat hamburgers. My grandparents owned the Wooden Shoe Cafe, Motel and a Sinclair gas station and later owned Motel 34. I haven't been there for years, but there are great memories.

jmgg · 12-03-2009, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MelHawkeyesfan

I grew up in Ottumwa and thought it was as cool as most any Iowa town. I knew Carol Morris before she became Miss Universe, as she worked as a life guard at the local swimming pool. My uncle was co-owner of Pedrick and Thorne hardware store, and my grandpa worked at John Morrel meat plant. We had a Red Dot potato chip factory and Lowenberg Bakery...my highlight of living in Ottumwa was going to the Canteen in the Alley...best loose meat hamburgers. My grandparents owned the Wooden Shoe Cafe, Motel and a Sinclair gas station and later owned Motel 34. I haven't been there for years, but there are great memories.

If you haven't been there for years, you're in for a shocker. This town is in a huge backward tailspin from your days living there. The downtown area is in sorry shape. Chock up another town being destroyed by the packing house business and anything like it.

The area towns mentioned are nice, clean, and safe communities. Another one that's cute is Eldon. I would definitely encourage the OP to look closely at living in these smaller communities.

craftyballerina · 12-04-2009, 01:06 PM

I currently live in Oskaloosa which is a 1 hour drive to DM, 1.5-1.75 hour drive to CR. Although Osky is a cleaner town than Ottumwa, Ottumwa has many more shopping opportunities. We do a lot of home improvements and never get off work in time to visit the stores here, so we go to Ottumwa mainly for Menard's and Target. There's also an Applebee's, a nice selection of fast food places, West Music, a rundown mall that has a Hallmark, Radio Shack, JCPenney, Herberger's; Target and Walmart. Bridgeview Center is a newer addition on the river that holds concerts and conventions. Wells Fargo, US Bank, and Bank of the West are located there (the first two aren't in Osky).

I love Fairfield and visit there when I have the time. They've been upgrading the highway between Ottumwa and Fairfield so the drive is faster now - about 25 minutes. There is a huge population of Maharishi followers there due to the Maharishi School of Management. This means... a LOT of whole foods stores, natural medicine stores, organic home items, craft and art stores, vegetarian and middle Eastern restaurants, and an AWESOME farmer's market. Of course there are the traditional fast food restaurants there, a Pizza Ranch, a smaller Walmart, fairgrounds.

Let me know if you have any other questions!