After 25 years as Mayor of Council Bluffs, Tom Hanafan is retiring.
Tom Hanafan announced earlier this week that he won’t run in November for another term. Hanafan was elected Mayor in 1988, and in that time has seen the city through a tornado and devastating Missouri River flooding.
He says his biggest challenge as Council Bluffs’ leader has been helping the city find its identity within the metro area.
“And so I think that was the biggest challenge we had, it took quite a while to get over that hump, and after we were able to do that and see that people could feel they had a voice in the decision-making of the future, it really started to change the community.”
Hanafan says the city is financially stable and well-positioned for future growth.
“There’s a program we’ve been working on with the Humane Society, I’d like to see that get completed, and a new police station is on the horizon, and on West Broadway we’ve invested a lot of time and effort in that, we’re going to see the grain elevators come down on the west side and some new development on the west side, so I think it’s pretty bright.”
The city is also working on a comprehensive plan called Bluffs Tomorrow 2030, and Google is expanding its operations in Council Bluffs.