In a 1996 court case, the ISU Agricultural Foundation was ordered to place a sign on the Marie Powers estate property which would identify it as the Kiley Powers Farm, recite the history of the family farm and state its status as a gift from Marie Powers.

The Agricultural Foundation, which sold the land against the will of the donor, must now place that plaque on land adjoining the farm because the current owner has not accepted it.

“The [Agricultural] Foundation wanted to permanently remember the Powers family and planned to put a plaque recognizing the history of the Powers family,” said Mark Honeyman, coordinator for the ISU research and demonstration farms. “I understand that the agreement was that there would be a sign there.”

A metal sign describing the history of the Powers family currently is on the side of one of the buildings, Honeyman said. The foundation will put the same information on a bronze plaque as a more permanent memorial.

Darrell Moenck, current owner of the farm, said he has not yet agreed to allow the Foundation to put the plaque up on his land.

“They didn’t do what they were supposed to do with the farm,” he said.

Moenck, who purchased the 72 acres from Iowa State in April, said he is planning to take the existing sign off his building.

“The information on it is old and outdated now,” he said.

Honeyman said he can do nothing about Moenck’s refusal of the plaque.

“It’s totally his decision,” Honeyman said. “He’s the landowner.”

The Agricultural Foundation contacted the Powers family and got permission to place the plaque on adjacent land, owned by Ramona Lee, niece of Kiley and Marie Powers.

“I think that it’s important that the plaque be put up so that people know where the money started, so my grandchildren and so forth know what happened to that land,” she said. “I just don’t feel the ISU Foundation should be able to walk away from this.”

Lee said she terminated the lease Darryl Moenck had on some of her land Sept. 1.

“That is possibly why he refused to have the marker put up on the land he purchased,” she said.

Moenck said the termination of the lease was not the main reason he rejected the plaque.

“We offered to let Iowa State put it up if they would maintain the buildings, but they wouldn’t agree to that,” he said.

Honeyman said the plaque will be adjacent to the farm’s buildings because of the way property lines fall.

“The land was all part of the farm at one time,” he said. “[The plaque] is very near to where the homestead was.”

Several of the university’s farms around the Ames area have commemorative signs on their property, Honeyman said.

“This is not unusual for farms to have [a sign] that names them,” he said.