By CHUCK OFFENBURGER

DES MOINES, Iowa, Oct. 3, 2026 — Since 2004, I was a property owner, legal resident and enthusiastic supporter of life in Greene County.

But last Wednesday, as September ended, I cleared out of the apartment that my wife Mary Riche and I have rented in Jefferson for 4+ years. On Thursday, as October began, so did my new life as a legal resident of Des Moines and Polk County.

Mary and I hope to live forever in her cozy home of 25 years, built in 1941 in “Owl’s Head” historic neighborhood, just west of downtown Des Moines.

Home plate, stretched a bit by the camera, is now in Des Moines. (Photo by Mary Riche)

I realized that at 79, I’m lousy at moving.

And even though Mary helped and I hired or begged others younger and stronger to do the heaviest work involved, I don’t know when I’ve been as tired and sore as I’ve been the past couple weeks. And there’s still more unpacking, sorting and discarding to do in Des Moines.

So, why now?

It just didn’t make financial sense to continue maintaining an apartment in Jefferson when we were almost never overnighting there. Not that my life has been a real model of “financial sense.” And Mary’s life remained centered in Des Moines, where she has lived since 1974, with her schedule full of volunteer activities, groups and memberships.

So, yes, I am now a Des Moines resident again.

Though I marvel at all the development and growth here since the last time I was a legal resident here, let’s see, that we was back in 1999, in most ways I don’t feel like I’m moving into a major city. I’ve been around Des Moines so much and so long, and I know it so well, that it seems more like an overgrown small Iowa town to me.

Examples of that are that my new State Senator here is Janet Petersen, who was a good friend of my step-daughter Janae Jaynes when they were in grade school and junior high. My new State Representative is Dr. Austin Baeth, who is also my primary care physician. City Council member Josh Mandelbaum lives just up the street, and retired Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller lives just over the hill.

Our church, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, where Mary has been a member since 1984 and I’ve been hanging out for 35 years and an actual member the past five or so, is a short mile west.

And within three blocks, there are three terrific coffeehouses — the venerable Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure, Chain & Spoke Coffee Shop & Cyclery and a nearly-new Starbucks. (Speaking of “venerable,” the late clothier & character Bill Reichardt, of Des Moines, once told me the reason he liked to hang out at Zanzibar’s so much was that “when you come in here, you find a dog from every alley in town.”

But Des Moines is city-ish when you want it to be.

Terrace Hill, the Governor’s Mansion— that’s not a small-town thing — is just two blocks away, but Gov. Kim Reynolds and First Fella Kevin never seem to be home there anyway.

And it’s great having the Des Moines Civic Center, the Des Moines Art Center, the Casey’s Center arena, Water Works Park, Gray’s Lake and Drake University (and the Drake Diner) so close.

But let me be clear: I am not abandoning Jefferson and Greene County, my legal residence the past 22 years.

I will remain very involved in two great projects that I’ve been part of for several years. One is the 5-year-old Multicultural Family Resource Center, which is facilitating growth and diversity in the county. The other is the more-recent “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey” memorial project, which is bringing back to life the amazing story of 32 students or young alumni and two teachers who closed the first school in the county and marched off to service in the Civil War. Eleven of them died in service. (We are having major celebrations of their story in the next five weeks. I’ll have details here for you soon.)

And I intend to make the drive to-and-from Jefferson several days per week to keep my spot in one of Iowa’s best coffee groups, the “Bean Boyz.” Our official “home court” is the Greene Bean Coffeehouse, where barista Keygan Barber named us and added, “Spell that ‘Boyz’ with a ‘z’ because it’ll make you old farts seem a little more hip.”

I have often written that Jefferson is “one of my hometowns,” a list on which I include Shenandoah, Storm Lake (I was a 5-year resident there before Greene County) and Des Moines, then and now. I’ve loved them all. Still do.

I help all of them when I can.

But it was in Greene County where I really clarified and refined, in my own mind, the two things I can do best for my communities.

Those two jobs I’ve given myself are: 1) Remind my people how good they are, 2) make sure they’re thinking big enough.

Even as an old fart, I will continue in those assignments.

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You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.