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RATHBUN, IOWA -- Until a few months ago, the small town of Rathbun held city council meetings in garages, homes, churches and anywhere they could find a space.

"The last place we met was our garage," said Rathbun Mayor Barbara Milburn. "Place before that was... a restaurant that's closed now. The other mayors and the council that were in before us met at each other's homes also."

"We've been talking about it for three, four, five years about building a city hall," said councilman Ronnie Milburn.

It wasn't until the town received a $10,000 grant from the Appanoose County Community Fund that the plan was set into action. The building was completed last fall, and now the town has a city hall and a community building to call their own.

"It gives more room, we have more people from the town come to our council meetings, number one, and we really enjoy that, having the people from the town come in," Mayor Milburn said. "It's caused a lot of excitement, you know, people are talking about Rathbun. Kind of put us back on the map."

The building can be rented out for private functions as well, and city representatives are talking about organizing a spaghetti dinner, bingo nights and other community events to be hosted at the new building.

The town's other councilmembers, Roger Shiltz, Richard Glovas and Deb Kovacevich, and the former city clerk, Tom Anderson, were involved in the project since the beginning.

Local contractors were hired to build the hall and townspeople also volunteered to help out. The town also constructed a new road and driveway for easy access to the building, and all city offices, including the city clerk and the mayor, now have one central location.

"It's really nice to have a space to call our own," she said.