I might be taking a job in Fort Dodge and would like some recommendations from people who live or have lived there.
Should I live in Fort Dodge or commute?
Best/worst elementary schools?
Best real estate agency?
Any decent houses to rent (can't find much on Craigslist)?
Any good restaurants?
Decent day care centers?
Things for a wife and kids to do?
Thanks in advance
Fort Dodge is a prefectly fine place to live, my family live just the north in Badger(10-15 min commute). Spent most of my spare time growing up in Fort Dodge between school activities and friends. Generally the nicest neighborhoods are along and north of 10th Avenue North. The NE corner especially has a lot of recommend for it due to the proximity to the shopping, restaurant, aquatic center, as well as the new middle school if you stuck around for a few years. Even the south side of town isn't that bad,
Best elementary schools are Feelhaver and Cooper imo(located in the zones I recommended for living), Butler school is the newest and nicest but located in the poorer south side of town and struggles somewhat in that respect. Also among your choices if you would rather avoid public schools are St. Eds Catholic and Community Christian, both of which are on the far NE side of Fort Dodge(near the high school). I attended Hillcrest and that worked as well, if your involved with your kids education any school would likely work.
Favorite eats:
Community Pizza and Tap: great pizza
Mineral City- general nice eatery with a focus on pasta dishes
Sports Page- sports bar, solid but unspectacular food.
Olde Boston's- best beer selection in Fort Dodge(admittedly that's not a huge accomplishment), good food as well, last 3 all owned by same folks and they do a nice job, Sports Page is the weakest of the bunch, servers tend to be less attentive and ruder.
Lomitas- great Mexican
Chen Garden- best Chinese in town imo.
Local area recommends:
Chang's Chinese Kitchen Humboldt - some fantastic Chinese
Vinny's BBQ Dakota City(right next to Humboldt)- excellent bbq, somewhat limited hours
Unkies- Thor, IA Great Pork chops and steak. To make a restaurant go in a 200 person town you need to do a slam dunk job and these guys do with the food.
Things to do:
Fort Dodge definitely lacks in this department, not exactly a rarity among smaller cities though.
Fort 8- 8 screen theater, 8 dollar movies.
New Aquatic center- reasonably priced and a lot of fun
Snell Crawford Park-nice roomy park old rail line trail great for walks, runs or bike rides.
Fort Dodge Rec- rec center for basketball, swimming, lifting ect
A hobby well worth taking up in the area is Canoeing/kayaking/tubing. The Fort Dodge area has some excellent streams and rivers for it. Lizard Creek, the Des Moines and its forks and the Boone R. by Webster City are all within 30 min and nice floats, weather permitting.
