Town Motto Referendum Passes: New Official Motto Is ‘Est. 1894, Mostly Friendly’

CEDAR FALLS — Measure 4, the referendum to adopt an official town motto, passed Tuesday with 58% of the vote, making “Est. 1894, Mostly Friendly” the town’s new slogan, effective immediately and engraved, eventually, on the welcome sign.

“‘Mostly’ is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and honestly, it’s earned it,” said motto committee chair Paula Reyes, whose official title is Warden of the Welcome Sign. “We considered ‘A Great Place to Live.’ It tested as ‘aspirational but unverifiable.’ ‘Mostly Friendly’ tested as ‘true, with room for growth.'”

The losing motto — “A Great Place to Leave… We Mean Live” — was undone by what analysts called “the typo heard round the county.” The campaign’s yard signs, all 200 of them, carried the original misprint, which supporters briefly tried to reframe as “intentional irony” before conceding “it was a typo, we’re only human, mostly.”

“The typo cost us at least 400 votes,” said losing campaign manager Ted Brill no relation to the county clerk, “though honestly the typo also got us on the regional news, so net-net, no regrets. Except the 400 votes. Regrets about those.”

The motto selection process took fourteen months, three public forums, and one memorable town hall at which a resident proposed “Cedar Falls: We Have a Falls (It’s More of a Rapids)” and was escorted, gently, to the refreshment table.

Finalists had included “Est. 1894, Still Here,” “The Town Time Remembered, Briefly,” and “Cedar Falls: Our Schools Are Fine,” which was disqualified for “damning with faint praise,” per the committee’s official findings.

The welcome sign engraving is scheduled for spring. “We’re doing it in bronze,” Reyes said. “Bronze is forever. ‘Mostly Friendly’ is forever. The ‘mostly’ gives us an out if things change, which, given the last decade, felt prudent.”

Reyes confirmed the bronze engraver has asked whether “Mostly” should be set in italics. “We said yes,” she said. “The italics carry the honesty.” The engraver, a forty-year veteran, called it “the most philosophical commission of my career, and I once engraved a courthouse.”

The losing campaign’s 200 misprinted yard signs have become collectors’ items — one sold online for $85. “The typo is now vintage,” Ted Brill said. “We’re considering a reprint. This time on purpose.”

Local response has been warm, mostly. “It’s honest,” said resident Carol Dempsey, 61. “I’ve lived here forty years. Mostly friendly is exactly right. The ‘mostly’ is doing the Lord’s work.”