Sioux City councilwoman goes from caretaker to beer tap all in one day

Beyond budget hearings and Monday meetings, all of the policymakers have separate lives. One sells furniture. Another works at a law firm. Capron goes from city hall to sitting with senior citizens to a bar.

“I’m just used to taking care of people, whether they’re drunk or older,” she says.

Capron is entering her fourth year on city council. She’s up for re-election this year, and yes, she’s running. She was pulled into politics when a friend created a Facebook page called “Rhonda Capron for Mayor.”

Her snap judgment was to say, “Ugh, are you kidding me? Why would you do that?”

She hadn’t considered such a thing, but the “likes” and comments intrigued her. Capron’s connections to the community proved to be an asset in her campaign. She’d been in the bar business for 30 years. She spent late nights running Rhonda’s Speakeasy and bending an ear to patrons while they downed pints of beer.

“You just got to listen and be their friend,” she says.

That attitude carries over from watering hole to city hall and back.

She won the council seat, handily, becoming the fifth woman in the city’s history to serve on the five-person panel.

That brings her to today, sitting through what was supposed to be a four-hour budget hearing – one of many to approve the city’s financial plan by the beginning of March.

The meeting wraps up early, shortly after 10 a.m.

It is a welcome break in Capron’s day. She has two more jobs to do.

Capron closed Rhonda’s Speakeasy last summer when her liquor license was set to expire.

“Times have changed,” she says. “My people have gotten a little bit older. They’re not going out like they used to. Neighborhood bars are kind of going by the wayside.”

Now, she works at Doxx Warehouse Bar on Friday and Saturday nights – bartending, managing bands and advertising.

She also started a non-medical home care business, called Rhonda’s Senior Support Service.

Over the noon hour, she plans to prepare a plate of spaghetti, smothered in homemade sauce, with side salad and garlic bread for a 91-year-old woman in Morningside. The day before, in between a budget hearing and a meeting at the police department, they got together, too. Capron painted her fingernails and fixed her hair.

Every other Saturday, she takes care of another “little gal.” She’ll make breakfast – loaded scrambled eggs and maybe some homespun yogurt with fresh fruit. Later, for a treat, they’ll go to Dairy Queen and get an ice cream cone, a simple act that triggers child-like delight.

Sometimes, Capron can’t believe she gets paid to do what she does.

Families call on her for help to look after their loved ones – even if that means watching a movie at 2:30 in the afternoon.

“People just want to be acknowledged, you know, that’s what it is,” Capron says. “They want to know someone’s going to listen to ‘em. They have my undivided attention, and I have theirs.”

Providing companion care stirs good feelings for her.

It’s a throwback to her rural upbringing. Her dad was a postmaster and farmed outside of Ocheyedan, Iowa. Her mom stayed home to look after Capron and her six younger siblings. Saturdays were dedicated to baking in the family’s own version of a Beaver Cleaver home.

“Those were the good ol’ days,” she says. “Those are good memories.”

At one of the budget hearings, she brought banana bars, made from her mother’s recipe. Her skills aren’t limited to baked goods. It’s easy for her to prepare a full meal for her seniors.

A recent dinner included meatloaf, baked potatoes, Cool-Whip fluff salad and a pumpkin pie. She has also dished up chicken alfredo, goulash and chili.

Even though she keeps a busy schedule, sometimes working from dawn ‘til dark, her blood pressure is the best it’s ever been.

“You know, it’s no stress. I don’t know who’s taking care of who here,” she says. “I like the interaction. I like to know that I’m making somebody’s day. I’m making their day better than when it started out.”