Lifelong West Liberty residents and business leaders Bill and Jodi Simon have been named Grand Marshals for the 2024 Muscatine County Fair Parade, it was announced Monday by the West Liberty Chamber of Commerce.
Owners of All American Concrete at 1489 U.S, Route 6, the couple will celebrate 30 years of business in the community.
Chamber director Jacob Lane said the couple was not only being honored for their longevity of serving as a business in the community, but praised the couple as being “wonderful assets and supporters” of West Liberty.
Jodi Simon said she was excited about getting the tribute. “It’s pretty neat,” she said, although crediting the companies’ long time employees for their dedication to the firm that does commercial concrete construction throughout central and eastern Iowa, many times serving as a general contractor for concrete work needed to build industries, businesses, schools, and even cit, county and state government projects.
The couple started their business in West Liberty in a building they constructed in 1989 on Maxson Street near Giri BP before moving to their current location in 2000, where they now employ 45.
In the meantime, the couple who are celebrating 42 years of marriage this year, raised four children including Justin (Lisa) of Iowa City as well as Jay (Casey), Bret (Briana) and Hayley (Oscar) Martinez, all of West Liberty. With 16 grandchildren, the couple says they spend a lot of time watching their grandkids play sports, like they did their own four children.
Jay Simon has been employed with the family business for 13 years while Oscar has been with the business for the past three years.
Jodi Simon says the company was planning to put together a float for the parade anyway and understands it will follow their grand marshal vehicle. The float will host some of the employees of the company, something Simon says the family is proud to boast about. “We have so many long time employees that are such a big part of our business,” she said, noting many are from West Liberty. “We have over 20 employees who have been here over 10 years and several that have been here over 20 years. That’s something we are really proud of at All American Concrete and we consider them all part of the family.”
The business has been helping donate toward Chamber activities as well as Fiesta Latino, local sports causes and school fundraisers. One of their major donations was providing the labor and concrete for west Liberty’s Statue of Liberty at City Hall, restored and resurrected a few years ago.