Open House at new Jackson County Welcome Center

From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., Deanna’s Java Truck will serve complimentary sweets and coffee. Holly’s Dogs will be on site from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and a ribbon cutting is set for 10 a.m.

Jackson County Tourism Director Tom Devine said the center promotes the county and welcomes people into Iowa from Illinois.

“We’re excited. They’ve got a great display of what’s available in Jackson County, and it’s getting bigger and bigger every day,” Devine said.

Kelly Connor, who is the harbor master and customer and marketing manager at Island City, said it was a natural fit for the site to become a welcome center after the previous Jackson County facility closed during the pandemic and never reopened.

“I didn’t want to see it go away,” she said. “It’s nice to have brochures to hand to people and to welcome them here. We are the first stop through Illinois. People would come in here, and I would tell them about the area, suggest places to go and steer them in the right direction,” Connor said.

She suggested to the Island City owners – the Jerry and Patricia Lawson family – that they fill that gap, and the idea took flight.

“We started with the idea of being Jackson County Welcome Center,” said Connor, a Bellevue native who has been involved with tourism her entire career.  

However, the Island Harbor site met all the requirements to become an official Iowa Welcome Center site – it’s open seven days a week during the busy river recreation season and five days a week during the winter. It also is staffed with people who can talk about local amenities, has bathrooms and a drinking fountain, among other requisites.

It was officially named a state site in April.

The former county welcome center, a two-story building located along Highway 64 just west of Sabula, was cost prohibitive for the county to maintain. It was sold earlier this year and is being renovated into a recreational Airbnb.