The City of Kalona has put out a statement following an incident in which pamphlets supporting white supremacy were located around town.

Early on Friday morning, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office was alerted by several callers that baggies containing white supremacy pamphlets were located around town, including on Main Street, alleyways, sidewalks, porches, and near churches. According to the city’s statement posted to social media on Monday, Kalona city staff were immediately directed to begin canvassing areas in which the pamphlets were spotted, prioritizing student routes to schools, to collect the material for disposal. 

Mayor Mark Robe says this incident does not represent the city’s values, “This is not Kalona. This is not what Kalona stands for. We welcome everybody into our town. We hope that this is just an isolated incident that won’t happen again… We hope that nobody felt super threatened by it and that it never happens again.”

City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh says he’s proud of the response of the city’s staff and residents, “I’m proud that we were directly to clean it up immediately, and our staff did that immediately. It’s not a reflection of Kalona, and it’s not a reflection of our community. We are, as the statement said, we’re very open and respectful of everyone and we’d like to keep it that way.”

Both Robe and Schlabaugh indicated that similar incidents, involving the same kind of pamphlets, had been reported in other locations, such as Cedar Falls and Waterloo. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating the incident.