‘Life is good’ in Iowa’s Washington

The Washington Post (the national newspaper) recently came to Washington, Iowa to see what life is like in the nations other "Washingtons" leading up to the Iowa Caucus.  They featured Keith Lazar, a Washington community leader and President of Washington State Bank. Lazar's message was "Life is good."

Thanks to the Post's Eli Saslow and Bill O'Leary for visiting our community and fleshing out a good story about what's going on in Iowa. The following is an excerpt from their story. Look here for the full story, and the photo gallery. It has generated over 300 comments so far.

Saslow is also calling out for comments and insights from all 90 communities across America with "Washington" in their name. Check out the map, and photos and tweets from across the country.

WASHINGTON, Iowa — It is the final day of his best year at work, and Keith Lazar, 62, settles into his corner office at the community bank. He eats a doughnut with a fork and turns on an instrumental CD titled “Relaxation.” Outside his office window, the town square is bustling with proof of his impact during the past 12 months: trucks financed by his loans, restaurants expanding because of his savings advice and small businesses created with his support.

The first customer of the day arrives at 8:20 a.m., 40 minutes before the bank is scheduled to open. It’s a hog farmer wearing overalls and work boots, another longtime customer enjoying a record year. He wants to apply for a loan so he can expand his operation again. Lazar opens the door and waves him inside.

“Hiya, Keith,” the farmer says. “How’s it going?”

“Couldn’t be better,” Lazar says. “Life is good.”

Life is good. It has become Lazar’s default greeting, the motto he inscribed on the wall of his kitchen and printed on ­T-shirts to distribute at family gatherings. What could be better at the beginning of 2012 in this other city called Washington, a rural town of 7,200 surrounded by the corn and soybean fields of eastern Iowa? This is the Washington with a 4 percent unemployment rate, with record-breaking hog and cattle production, with a new high school and a $6 million library, with a newspaper that doesn’t bother to print a crime blotter, with heated sidewalks in front of the bank so customers never have to walk in the snow.

This is the place that officially refers to itself in all marketing materials as “Washington — Voted One of the Best 100 Small Towns in America Three Times!”

It is also a place where, day after day, presidential candidates make their case that the country is a horrific mess.