Eye on the Island

• PLEASE GO TO gazetteonline.com and hit ‘blogs’ at top to see Eye on the Island

  Thanks. The Gazette has decided to handle its blogs differently. Let’s see how it works. Again, thanks. [...]
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  Posted: August 11, 2009, 5:14pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Brouhaha in Oakhill Jackson over weeds and native plants and the power of a City Council member to call in the mowers

  Number of comments: 2
  Mike Richards and Jerry McGrane are engaged in a spitting match over Poet’s Park. The dispute – between the president of the Oakhill Jackson Neighborhood Association and his predecessor, now a City Council member — is over a small flower garden that sits with a landmark stone at 12th Avenue and [...]
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  Posted: July 22, 2009, 9:57pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Solid waste agency prepares to capture methane at Site 2 landfill; plan is one day to convert it into energy

  The Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency is moving ahead to catch methane gas from its Site 2 landfill in a way that one day might turn generators to produce electricity. The agency’s board on Tuesday said it hold a public hearing on Aug. 21 to discuss a proposal to install [...]
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  Posted: July 21, 2009, 6:37pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City turns some attention to New Bohemia brownfields; contaminated soil at former Iowa Steel and Iowa Iron Works sites to be removed

  City Hall is taking a fresh step in its decade-long plan to clean up nearly 50 acres of old industrial sites a few blocks from the edge of downtown. By early August, a contractor will begin excavating “contaminated soil” at the sites of the former Iowa Steel plant and the former [...]
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  Posted: July 20, 2009, 2:12pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City announces fifth annual bow hunt of deer

  The city will permit a fifth consecutive bow hunt of deer this fall and early winter. The bow hunt season inside the city limits will run from Sept. 12 through Jan. 31. To participate, hunters must complete an annual proficiency test and attend a class on the hunt’s rules and regulations. Hunters [...]
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  Posted: July 20, 2009, 12:22pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City paints bike lanes on a stretch of Boyson Road NE to give the idea a try in city’s quest for bicycle-friendly status

  Number of comments: 3
  City Hall is still working to try to win bicycle-friendly status for the city. It will apply to the League of American Bicyclists on July 31 and will submit a second part of the application Aug. 7 if the League gives the go-ahead. Ron Griffith, a city traffic engineer who is leading [...]
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  Posted: July 16, 2009, 7:04pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Another idea for affordable housing near Ellis Park isn’t going to work; city bought the land with state REAP grant to prevent it from being developed

  Number of comments: 2
  Another proposal — this one made public just a month ago — to build affordable housing in and around Ellis Park is apparently going to bite the dust quickly. Johnny Brown of J Brown Development Group of Cedar Rapids had pitched an idea to build two buildings with 30 affordable apartments [...]
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  Posted: July 16, 2009, 6:30pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Round 2 of demos start next week: 58 on the list with paperwork still out on another 12; 70 structures came down in a first round

  Number of comments: 1
  Next week, the city of Cedar Rapids will begin demolishing 58 more structures damaged in the flood of June 2008. These are structures, most of which are homes, that the city has concluded pose a public-safety danger and need to come down. The city will seek reimbursement for the costs from [...]
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  Posted: July 15, 2009, 5:11pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Hall has firmed up what it expects for some 1,300 flood-disaster buyouts: $148 million in CDBG funds to go with an expected $27 million in FEMA money

  Number of comments: 3
  The Iowa Department of Economic Development is finalizing plans for what it intends to do with the state’s latest disaster-related infusion — $517 million — of federal Community Development Block Grant funds. In its initial draft, the state agency proposed using $245 million of the CDBG pot to buy out [...]
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  Posted: July 15, 2009, 3:50pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Flood-damaged Grant Wood window at the Veterans Memorial Building is coming out for repairs; entrusted to a Davenport firm owned by a disabled Vietnam War vet

  The flood-damaged, Grant Wood-designed window is coming out of the Veterans Memorial Building this week, each of its 58 stained-glass panels to be crated and driven to a studio in Davenport for repair. The restoration work on the window, put in place in 1929, will take up to 34 weeks to [...]
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  Posted: July 15, 2009, 11:12am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Chuck Swore launches pioneering move: Can a former incumbent reclaim a seat on the city’s still-new, part-time council

  Number of comments: 6
  Chuck Swore wants to return to the City Council. Swore on Tuesday said he will run for one of the two at-large council seats on the ballot in November, and he said he is running to return a “can-do attitude” to City Hall. Swore was elected to the west-side District 2 seat [...]
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  Posted: July 14, 2009, 1:02pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Day 1 for Eyerly as flood-recovery director; he’s looking ahead, not back; setting goals; wants to work himself out of a job in a year or two

  Number of comments: 2
  Greg Eyerly never seemed to fuss too much with the suit and tie the last 16 or so months when he was working on the front lines as the city’s utilities operations manager with an office at the Water Pollution Control facility. Monday, his first full day as the city’s new [...]
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  Posted: July 13, 2009, 5:43pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Rest easy Council Street NE homeowners; Jim Sattler has given up idea for a manufactured-home park; he’s got new plans, though

  Number of comments: 1
  Owners of newer, nicer homes along Council Street NE just south of Robins and north of the proposed Tower Terrace Road extension can breathe a little easier. Jim Sattler, president of Jim Sattler Inc. Custom Homes, has given up his plan to build a manufactured home park in the neighborhood. It is [...]
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  Posted: July 09, 2009, 5:05pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City and state celebrate funding that will help put people into 177 new residences by year’s end

  Sometimes a city needs a dog-and-pony show. At least the case could be made for the one — for the news conference — on Thursday in which state and local officials met in a new housing development in northwest Cedar Rapids to celebrate a significant infusion of federal dollars designed to [...]
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  Posted: July 09, 2009, 2:09pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• ‘Vendo’ world is not Monica Vernon’s idea of a nice afternoon at the city pool; she wants Ellis pool renovation to include s summer help manning a concession stand

  Number of comments: 4
  The City Council pushed ahead Wednesday evening with plans to fix the flood-damaged Ellis Park swimming pool at an estimated cost of $367,000. Bids on the work will be opened on July 16 with work to proceed after that. Council member Monica Vernon, though, is still unhappy with one change that is [...]
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  Posted: July 09, 2009, 1:01pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Say it ain’t so: City sees bond rating drop from top Aaa; but these are revenue bonds, not GO bonds

  For more than 30 years, the city of Cedar Rapids has secured the top Aaa bond rating as it has sold bonds to raise money to pay for capital improvement projects. On Wednesday, though, the city reported that Moody’s Investors Service has given the city of Cedar Rapids a lower bond [...]
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  Posted: July 08, 2009, 5:13pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Ninety-unit Cedar Pond Townhomes development gets $15.3 million in federal tax credits; construction should start by Oct. 15

  Number of comments: 4
  If all goes as planned, a Minnesota developer will begin construction in mid-October on the 90-unit Cedar Pond Townhomes development on 11.2 acres south of Williams Boulevard and north of Wilson Avenue SW. The developer, EverGreen Real Estate Development, Prior Lake, Minn., on Wednesday was awarded $15.3 million in federal affordable-housing [...]
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  Posted: July 08, 2009, 2:47pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Renovation of the empty, flood-damaged Roosevelt looks like it really will get going now

  Number of comments: 2
  Minneapolis developer Sherman Associates Inc. is going to start its renovation of The Roosevelt, the former downtown hotel and now an empty, flood-damaged apartment complex, yet. The start of the renovation has been pending for a few months now as Sherman Associates has worked out the details of its federal tax-credit [...]
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  Posted: July 07, 2009, 10:21pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Hall moving ahead with idea to buy Pepsi’s two and half blocks just off downtown for a new Intermodal Transit Facility

  Number of comments: 5
  City Hall is moving ahead with a plan to buy two-and-a-half blocks of property just off the downtown owned by Pepsi Americas Inc., according to a City Hall report to city employees. The city plans to put its new bus depot, called the Intermodal Transit Facility, on part of the site. Pepsi [...]
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  Posted: July 07, 2009, 4:34pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Get ready for poster boards: City Hall ready to launch a public participation process on energy in the midst of one on key, flood-damaged buildings

  Number of comments: 1
  Put July 23 on your calendar. City Hall is starting another public participation process — no doubt, with the room filled with poster boards, city staff and a sprinkling of consultants. The latest push is gain public input on a City Hall energy policy. This comes even as City Hall is already in [...]
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  Posted: July 07, 2009, 9:56am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• New era begins in Cedar Rapids transit: Forget ‘remanufactured;’ city buys four new buses; and, of course, they come with bike racks

  Number of comments: 4
  The city has added four brand-new buses to its bus fleet, a move that marks the city’s first purchase of new, heavy-duty, non-experimental buses in more than 20 years, reports Brad DeBrower, the city’s transit manager. The four new buses replace ones built in 1978. DeBrower’s predecessor was an advocate of “remanufactured” [...]
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  Posted: July 06, 2009, 9:01pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Hall puts cost of “A Season of Progress” report and mailing at $31,444; mayoral challenger Corbett sees report as incumbents using tax dollars to respond to criticism

  Number of comments: 5
  Mayoral candidate Ron Corbett says it figures. It’s just four months from the November city election, and the City Council — six of the nine members’ seats are on the ballot — is out with a spiffy, six-page mailing called “A Season of Progress.” City Hall puts the cost of the [...]
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  Posted: July 06, 2009, 12:39pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Proposed, 81-home Sugar Creek development next to Ellis Golf Course has City Council asking: Will requested incentives really provide affordable housing?

  A proposed 81-home development called Sugar Creek across Zika Avenue NW from the Ellis Golf Course was set aside for now by a City Council concerned last night that it was being asked to give big incentives for what really is market-rate housing. The council has been willing to provide city [...]
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  Posted: July 01, 2009, 10:16pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Council moves two ways on downtown energy; readies to hand out money to convert from downtown steam system as it spends half-a-millon on new downtown energy study

  Number of comments: 1
  City Hall seems to be moving in two directions at the same time on downtown energy. On the one hand, city officials are helping oversee a program to help businesses convert from the downtown steam system. And on the other hand, the City Council has agreed to spend $487,113 to conduct [...]
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  Posted: July 01, 2009, 3:49pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Hall confident on buyout money; but when it arrives, the legal hurdles will take a few to many months to jump, city reminds people

  Number of comments: 3
  News elsewhere in Iowa of small-sized buyouts of flood-damaged homes does not mean that the first round of buyouts in Cedar Rapids using funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is not on track, Jennifer Pratt, the city’s development coordinator says. Pratt on Wednesday said the city still expects to hear [...]
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  Posted: July 01, 2009, 12:01pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Council set to up its Statehouse lobbyist spending from $15,000 a year to $60,000 a year

  Number of comments: 2
  It’s not every year a City Council brings in some key local Statehouse lawmakers to a City Council meeting to applaud what they have done for City Hall and the city. The current City Council, though, did just that. By the council’s count, it had a good run this year at the [...]
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  Posted: June 30, 2009, 7:27pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Council poised to award city towing contract to lower-scoring firm after top scorer Darrah’s drops out in response to last-minute change in contract terms

  Number of comments: 3
  City Hall is ready to turn over the city’s towing contract to the lower-scoring of two bidders after a last-minute change in the bid terms prompted the top-scoring firm to drop out. Carmela Darrah-Chiafos, owner of the top-scoring bidder Darrah’s Towing and Recovery, on Tuesday said City Hall was ready to [...]
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  Posted: June 30, 2009, 6:51pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Some federal and state money flows, and the number and size of projects salivating in line grows

  Number of comments: 2
  Let the federal government show up with $182 million for a new federal courthouse here, and most recently, with $517 million for the state of Iowa in the latest round of flood-recovery funds, and you can get to thinking that the government trough is long and deep, the spigot always [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2009, 2:14pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Burglars hit mayoral candidate Ron Corbett’s home; calls it unnerving; campaign secrets still safe, he says

  Number of comments: 3
  Burglars busted into mayoral candidate Ron Corbett’s home during the daytime Wednesday, ransacked the place and made off with jewelry, money, a computer, electronics, a couple bottles of wine and a bottle of champagne. Corbett, who was in Pennsylvania at the time with four of his five children visiting his 90-year-old [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 6:09pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Flood victims in newly purchased homes may not lose their down-payment assistance after all; city looks at using local-option sales tax revenue to help

  City Hall is investigating the possibility of providing targeted help to flood victims who received state Jumpstart down-payment assistance on a new home and now have learned that the amount of assistance will be subtracted from any buyout payment on their old home. The local Jumpstart office two weeks ago said [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 2:53pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Design work begins on new dog park next to Gardner Golf Course at highways 100 and 13

  Number of comments: 2
  Julie Sina, the city’s parks and recreation director, reported this week that design work is beginning on the city’s new dog park that is coming to 11 city-owned acres near the Gardner Golf Course at Highway 100 and Highway 13. Sina said the proposed cost of the new dog park is [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 11:50am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• A detail spotted in a City Hall handout prompts library board president to launch a press release: Yes, she says, a new library will cost $45 million

  Number of comments: 4
  The City Council and the Linn County Board of Supervisors are working to prioritize a long list of 80-plus local projects, each of which would like a piece of $118.5 million still remaining in the state’s I-JOBS economic-stimulus pot. Among the project details that have come to light as part of [...]
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  Posted: June 24, 2009, 4:51pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Neighbors prevail again on another developer’s attempt to build replacement housing around Ellis Park and Golf Course

  City Hall and the state of Iowa have been more than willing to throw financial incentives at proposals to build housing to replace some of what was lost in the June 2008 flood. One problem, though, is that most of the ideas are for property around Ellis Park and the Ellis [...]
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  Posted: June 24, 2009, 11:43am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Renovation getting closer for smaller flood-damaged venues; Ellis pool, trails, police locker room, Jones golf clubhouse and Third Avenue parkade

  Number of comments: 9
  Having just passed the one-year mark of the June 2008 flood, the city is getting closer to beginning work to renovate a few of its smaller flood-damaged facilities. This week, the City Council will hold a public hearing to discuss renovation plans for the flood-damaged Jones Golf Course/Clubhouse. The estimated cost [...]
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  Posted: June 23, 2009, 12:31pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Get set for proof of some federal spending: foundation work on new federal courthouse is about to start

  The dignitaries cut the ribbon at the construction site of the new federal courthouse here in late April, and work there stopped shortly thereafter. But Jim Snedegar, project manager for the U.S. General Services Administration, said in a return e-mail — at 10:05 p.m. Monday — that the start of foundation [...]
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  Posted: June 23, 2009, 9:58am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Fast change in City Council agenda can’t conceal the thought that University of Iowa business manager ranks as front-runner for City Hall flood-recovery post

  Number of comments: 3
  George Hollins, the University of Iowa’s business manager who has worked on the university’s flood fighting and recovery, appears to be the front-runner to fill a new city of Cedar Rapids post, flood-recovery director. Late Monday afternoon, City Hall released the weekly City Council agenda with agenda item #39 stating, “Resolution [...]
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  Posted: June 22, 2009, 6:12pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Davenport firm slated to fix Veterans Memorial Building’s flood-damaged Grant Wood stained-glass window

  Number of comments: 1
  A Davenport firm has been selected from among five bidders to repair the flood-damaged, Grant Wood stained-glass window at the Veterans Memorial Building on May’s Island. Winning bidder Glass Heritage LLC of Davenport has told the city that the firm will take between 12 and 15 days to remove the window’s [...]
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  Posted: June 22, 2009, 5:22pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• 23-year-old middle-school teacher with a school-board election under his belt enters the race for City Council

  Number of comments: 1
  Nick Duffy, who took a shot at securing a Cedar Rapids school board seat in 2006 as a 20 year old, says he is running for an at-large seat in this year’s City Council election. Two at-large seats are being contested this year. Those two are currently held by Brian Fagan, [...]
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  Posted: June 18, 2009, 11:49am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Vernon vents; dresses down City Manager Prosser for not getting police substation in storefront at 1501 First Ave. SE open quickly

  Number of comments: 6
  Council member Monica Vernon, fresh off her decision on Tuesday not to try a run for mayor, took time at Wednesday evening’s council meeting to tear into City Manager Jim Prosser. Vernon, who for many months has made it clear she thinks the current City Council has acceded too much power [...]
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  Posted: June 18, 2009, 10:10am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Let the shooting continue: Police Department says the 2008 flood has helped it comply with State Ombudsman’s questions about shooting range

  Neighbors next to the Police Department’s regional outdoor shooting range have been trying to get someone to do something to quell some of the range’s racket for years. The Iowa Citizens’ Aide/Ombudsman spent the last couple years reviewing the matter before, in April, sending City Hall a letter suggesting that the [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 5:23pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Council lets it be known: It’s not hand-outs to everyone who asks

  Number of comments: 2
  Ask and you shall receive, it seems, can often be what happens with the City Council when a business shows up seeking a little financial consideration for doing something. The current City Council has put something of an elaborate apparatus in place to try to help it judge whether a request [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 9:41am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Monica sets aside thoughts of mayoral run; has her own business in a tough economy to run and City Council work to carry on, she says

  Number of comments: 4
  Monica Vernon has pulled the plug on her thought to take on mayoral candidate Ron Corbett and any other comers in this year’s mayoral race. District 2 council member Vernon, founder and president of Vernon Market Research, on Tuesday afternoon said running for mayor calls for a “huge commitment” at a [...]
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  Posted: June 16, 2009, 3:03pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Salvage company ready to tussle with Board of Adjustment; salvage-yard blues may be returning for KZIA radio

  KZIA Z102.9 radio may need to rev up anew. The local radio station took to the airwaves last December to make the case against a salvage company that wanted to open a salvage operation at 2525 12th St. SW next to the radio station’s studio. The radio station’s position prevailed. The Cedar [...]
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  Posted: June 15, 2009, 3:37pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• With a plan to secure bicycle-friendly status on its mind, City Hall moves to fix year-old flood damage to city trails

  Number of comments: 2
  There has some talk here in recent weeks and months about the city’s ambition to win a designation from the League of American Bicyclists as a bicycle-friendly city. The city intends to submit a formal application to the League in August. The enthusiasm in trying to secure such a cool-factor designation stands [...]
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  Posted: June 15, 2009, 2:45pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Hall: Changing organizational tables at PD and Code Enforcement not rearranging deck chairs on the Titantic

  It’s called “flattening” the organization. Police Chief Greg Graham detailed to the City Council this week how he is shifting the Police Department’s table of organization to have fewer top dogs and, so, a few more dogs to work the streets. His changes will eliminate two captain slots – now vacant because [...]
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  Posted: June 11, 2009, 9:08am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City secures Iowa Power Fund grant to help with its 21st Century Green Energy Project; one day burning sewage sludge and garbage may produce steam here

  The city on Wednesday secured a $253,406 Iowa Power Fund grant to help finance the city’s plans for a 21st Century Green Energy Project. The city must match the grant. Greg Eyerly, the city’s utility operations manager, on Wednesday said the city also secured a $1.29 million federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation [...]
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  Posted: June 10, 2009, 5:22pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Long-expected renovation of the flood-damaged Roosevelt, gets more tax-credit help; work could start by month’s end

  Number of comments: 1
  The renovation of The Roosevelt, the flood-damaged apartment complex that once was a hotel, may now begin by month’s end, Jackie Nickolaus, vice president of developer Sherman Associates, said Wednesday. Nickolaus was providing the project update as the Iowa Finance Authority, which met in Cedar Rapids, approved an additional $804,750 in [...]
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  Posted: June 10, 2009, 4:27pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City will try once again to sell surplus city property next to Ellis Golf Course; relax, though; no apartments; two $72,500 lots for high-end homes

  The city has had the idea of selling excess city property for a couple years now, and last night the City Council agreed to sell some. In one instance, the council will sell two quarter-acre lots in the 2100 block of 20th Street NW next to the city’s Ellis Park Golf [...]
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  Posted: June 10, 2009, 3:57pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Clearing city of hundreds and hundreds of flood-wrecked homes nears reality: HUD changes formula and sends Iowa bigger pot of disaster-relief funds

  Number of comments: 1
  It was possible to imagine a future Tuesday in which hundreds and hundreds of flood-wrecked Cedar Rapids homes no longer are sitting, empty and ugly. A much-awaited announcement by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will be sending a new round of Community Development Block Grant funds into Iowa [...]
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  Posted: June 09, 2009, 7:05pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• FEMA pays city the cost to replace the Time Check Rec Center; city intends to use a school modular classroom this summer to serve the neighborhood

  Two pieces of news on the flood-damaged Time Check Recreation Center: At noon Tuesday, the office of Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, announced that the Federal Emergency Management will pay the city $1,638,155, which is the amount FEMA has determined is the cost to replace the building. Harkin’s office noted that “biohazardous [...]
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  Posted: June 09, 2009, 1:04pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Hall eliminates four management positions as it prepares to fill newly created, flood-recovery director post

  Number of comments: 3
  City Hall is preparing to eliminate four management positions at the same time that it will fill a newly created, top-echelon post of flood-recovery director. On Wednesday, the City Council will be asked to eliminate two police captain positions, an animal control supervisor slot and a housing and zoning manager position. [...]
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  Posted: June 08, 2009, 6:33pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Linn’s Langston out as mayoral prospect; says she’s flattered she was asked; has plenty of fish to fry with county office and new national posts

  Number of comments: 8
  Linda Langston, Linn County supervisor, says she won’t run for the job of Cedar Rapids mayor. A month ago, Langston acknowledged that some had urged her to make a mayoral run, a request she said on Thursday that she found flattering. However, she said her strong interest in issues distinctively a purview [...]
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  Posted: June 04, 2009, 11:33am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• June 23, Aug. 18 and Oct. 6 are three dates for open houses on flood-damaged city buildings: Should city government return to May’s Island among the great questions

  Number of comments: 8
  City officials report that they will hold three public open houses over a three-and-half-month period to get the public’s input on what the city should do with its key flood-damaged buildings. The open houses will be held June 23, Aug. 18 and Oct. 6. The dates were noted Wednesday during an hour-long [...]
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  Posted: June 03, 2009, 5:12pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Lone mayoral candidate Corbett, a Republican, gets backing of Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Building Trades Council, AFL-CIO

  Number of comments: 3
  Ron Corbett is still out there running for mayor all by himself, though word is that council incumbents Monica Vernon and Brian Fagan – if not others – are biding their time, waiting to enter the race. On Tuesday, Corbett, a former Republican state legislator and former president/CEO of the Cedar [...]
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  Posted: June 02, 2009, 5:44pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Council keeps its distance from May’s Island; may extend lease for 2 years for setup in suburban-style office park; big June 13 ceremony on river’s west side

  Number of comments: 4
  The City Council isn’t rushing to go near May’s Island, home to the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building, which houses City Hall. On its agenda this week, the council says it will discuss at its next meeting, on June 10, a proposal to extend its lease at City Hall’s temporary location, 3851 [...]
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  Posted: June 02, 2009, 5:11pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Grass-roots group that engineered local-option sales tax triumph donates $24,183 in excess campaign funds to Habitat for Humanity

  Vote Yes for Our Neighbors, the Cedar Rapids grass-roots effort that successfully campaigned to secure passage in early March of a 1-percent local-option sales, has donated its leftover campaign funds — $24,183 — to Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity. In less than a month, the Vote Yes campaign raised $85,343.46 from [...]
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  Posted: June 02, 2009, 3:09pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Coe, St. Luke’s first victors in local scrap to land U.S. Commerce Department diaster-related funds

  Coe College and St. Luke’s Hospital are the first victors in the local competition to secure disaster-related funds from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA). Iowa’s senators, Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley, have announced that the college and hospital will use a $4.65 million EDA grant to build [...]
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  Posted: June 02, 2009, 11:44am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Watershed management does matter in flood protection: Harkin announces $24.2 million for Iowa to buy flood-prone land and return it to its natural state

  Number of comments: 1
  Rep. Dave Loebsack and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials were on the Cedar River last week to talk about protecting Cedar Rapids and other flood-prone cities against another flood. Both the Congressman and the Corps said flood-protection systems and watershed management were both necessary ingredients in flood protection. As proof of [...]
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  Posted: June 02, 2009, 11:01am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Loebsack and Army Corps of Engineers say they can think of at least two things at once: flood protection and watershed management

  Number of comments: 1
  Congressman Dave Loebsack and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say they can think of more than one thing at the same time when it comes to flood control and water management. Actually, it’s the ability to think of two or more parts of the same issue — in this case, [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2009, 5:59pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City readies to take down 71 more flood-damaged homes, but not before councilman Wieneke questions costly caution over asbestos

  Number of comments: 1
  Seventy down, the next 71 or so at the ready, 1,150 or so to go. The City Council this week gave the go-ahead to demolish 71 more flood-damaged properties. The demolition of a first group of 70 properties, most of which were homes, was completed at the end of April. This next group [...]
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  Posted: May 29, 2009, 5:32pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• A neighborhood leader with a thought on the Ice Arena faces the fact that some things are done deals

  Number of comments: 7
  Frank, some things at City Hall probably are kind of done deals. Frank King, president of Northwest Neighbors, has opinions and insights, which he often shares with the City Council at their Wednesday evening meetings. Thursday afternoon, King couldn’t have been more disappointed. The evening before, King told the council, during its public [...]
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  Posted: May 29, 2009, 8:41am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Building new or renovating flood-damaged public buildings? Linn’s Barron weighs in on the S word — sustainability

  Number of comments: 1
  Advocates for returning city government to the flood-damaged and iconic Veterans Memorial Building/City Hall on May’s Island might want to talk to Lu Barron, chairwoman of the Linn County Board of Supervisors. On June 23, the city of Cedar Rapids will begin the first of a series of open houses in [...]
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  Posted: May 28, 2009, 9:23am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Council changes name on Ice Arena lease to clear way for new RoughRiders owners; proposed lease amendments will be considered later that trade lower rent for arena improvements

  In routine fashion, the City Council last night reassigned its Ice Arena rental lease to a new owner of the RoughRiders junior hockey league team. Newco Riders LLC – a six-member ownership group which consists of three couples including RoughRiders head coach Mark Carlson and his wife – is purchasing the [...]
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  Posted: May 27, 2009, 6:00pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Steam committee suggests splitting $21 million this way: $8 million for five of eight big users; $8 million for little users; and $5 million to lower bills

  The City Council this week will decide how it wants to dispense $21 million in federal and state dollars to help users of the downtown steam system convert to their own replacement systems. A city review team — which includes city staff members, downtown business representatives, state leaders and large and [...]
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  Posted: May 26, 2009, 7:36pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City hires OPN Architects for $400,000 to help with open houses to determine future of flood-damaged city buildings; county, schools dropped out of process

  Number of comments: 6
  The much-anticipated series of public open houses will start June 23 to help the city determine the future of flood-damaged city buildings. And Wednesday evening, the City Council hired OPN Architects Inc. of Cedar Rapids for $400,000 to help lead the several-month process. OPN not only will help conduct the public open [...]
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  Posted: May 26, 2009, 6:57pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Flood-recovery milestone reached: All 70 purple-placarded properties now demolished and off to the dump

  One flood-recovery landmark has been reached. All 70 of the worst-damaged properties – the ones with purple placards signifying they were too unsafe to enter – have now all been demolished, City Hall reports. The last of the properties, most of which were homes, came down at the end of April. The demolition [...]
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  Posted: May 22, 2009, 12:32pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Former council candidate Bates back with profanity-tainted yelling; but he beat a criminal charge from an earlier episode in September

  Number of comments: 2
  One of the last times Robert Bates — a City Council candidate in 2005 who is open about his criminal and prison past — showed up at a City Council meeting, he ended up getting arrested. That was in early September, and the misdemeanor criminal charge of disorderly conduct for disturbing [...]
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  Posted: May 21, 2009, 12:37pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City Council ’steam team’ leader Vernon says work underway to create an equitable way to dispense $21 million in steam conversion funds

  Number of comments: 7
  City Council member Monica Vernon, the City Council’s “steam team” chief, reports that the city’s Pat Ball, utilities director, and Mike Sable, a special assistant to the city manager, are helping to work up an approach to dispense $21 million in state funds to help those in the downtown steam [...]
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  Posted: May 21, 2009, 10:41am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Council rejects push for special new committee in fight for $118.5-million in I-JOBS money; it says established flood-recovery committee is already there to help

  The business community apparently continues to want to create new entities to try to help the City Council. This time, City Council member Justin Shields told his council colleagues Wednesday evening that a noontime meeting Wednesday of some local business and other leaders led to the suggestion of a special new [...]
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  Posted: May 21, 2009, 9:10am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Organized group of local spin-doctors and flak-catchers didn’t get NBC News here; local news coverage with help of Liz Mathis did

  Number of comments: 5
  The local cadre of public relations pros isn’t responsible. In any event, NBC News’ national operation is in Cedar Rapids to work up a news piece on Cedar Rapids’ flood recovery. SanDee Skelton, a flood victim still in a FEMA trailer who expects to return to her renovated home at 1125 10th [...]
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  Posted: May 19, 2009, 10:28am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Linn’s Langston has new national responsibilities; says she’d give up national gig if she runs and wins Cedar Rapids mayor’s post

  Number of comments: 3
  Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston, a big-time local Democrat, is a big-time national Democrat, too. Langston has been elected president of the National Democratic County Officials, a position that also gives her membership on the Democratic National Committee. Only six other Iowans are on the DNC. Both new positions prompted the question to [...]
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  Posted: May 18, 2009, 5:15pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Mayoral hopeful Corbett fires a new campaign shot: Don’t let city officials use new state-granted power to build a new city hall without a citizen vote

  Number of comments: 6
  Mayoral candidate Ron Corbett keeps running for office even if no one yet has joined him. In his latest campaign video on his campaign Website, Corbett is calling into question a change in state law, which applies to Iowa jurisdictions recovering from last year’s natural disasters and allows them to pass [...]
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  Posted: May 17, 2009, 9:48am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Wellington Heights’ president invites council for an awareness walk; castigates suggestion that garbage crews wear bullet-proof vests

  Number of comments: 1
  Terry Bilsland, longtime president of the Wellington Heights Neighborhood Association, this week invited the City Council on a 20-block-long neighborhood walk the evening of May 21 to help concerned citizens make it clear they aren’t going to put up with criminal activity. The walkers will travel through parts of both the [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2009, 10:17pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Jade calls it quits on license tussle with Police Department; she sells her downtown Brick’s Bar & Grill

  Number of comments: 1
  Jade Harper-Hronik, the seemingly battle-weary owner of Bricks Bar & Grill downtown, has thrown in the towel. In a terse one-sentence note to City Hall, Harper-Hronik has told the Police Department and City Council to forget the fight between the business and the city over the renewal of her liquor license. [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2009, 9:36am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Mr. $475-an-hour — now Mr. $225-an-hour — still a vital cog in the city’s drive to get all it can from FEMA

  Number of comments: 4
  The City Council approved a contract extension last night for John Levy. The extension takes Levy’s contract through June 30, adds $186,400 to the cost of it and brings the total cost to $786,400. The contract began Oct. 1. Levy showed up at City Hall even as flood water was receding last [...]
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  Posted: May 14, 2009, 10:58am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Council members weren’t kidding about killing a downtown coal plant; they put support for federal bucks behind a better U.S. Cellular Center and a new community/rec facility

  Number of comments: 2
  The chase continues for federal dollars from the U.S. Department of Commerce that the Cedar Rapids community never really knew much about until it started trying to recover from last June’s flood. A line of local projects is lined up for a shot at this pot of federal funds, and each [...]
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  Posted: May 13, 2009, 3:39pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• City is doing what it said it would: setting up a customer-service infrastructure to expedite buyouts; now if the money would get here

  Number of comments: 1
  The city is taking the steps it said it would take to set up a system to expedite the buyouts of some 1,300 flood-damaged properties once federal money arrives to pay for much of the buyout expense. This week, the City Council is expected to approve a contract with JCG Land [...]
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  Posted: May 13, 2009, 10:42am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• FEMA will pay $5 million more to control climate in six empty, flood-damaged buildings; work readying on one so Montessori can return to GTC space

  Number of comments: 1
  The Federal Emergency Management Agency will continue to pay to control the temperature and interior climate of six unoccupied, flood-damaged city buildings through at least November 30, 2009. The cost to continue the climate-control contract from June 1 though Nov. 30 is $5,012,526. Four companies bid for the contract, with Munters Corp. [...]
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  Posted: May 12, 2009, 6:50pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Port ‘O’ Jonnys to populate flood-hit neighborhoods at least through the end of 2009

  Call the Port ‘O’ Jonny a testament to the fact that there is much yet to do in the city’s flood-hit neighborhoods. The city has agreed to extend what it calls its “emergency” contract with the portable toilet company to provide portable toilets in the cities flood-damaged neighborhoods through the end [...]
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  Posted: May 12, 2009, 6:03pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Vets Commission asks: Why is Linn County back in the May’s Island courthouse and jail while the Veterans Memorial Building/City Hall sits empty?

  Number of comments: 8
  Three government buildings damaged in last June’s flood sit on May’s Island in the middle of the Cedar River. Why is it that the Linn County Courthouse and the Linn County Jail are now back in business, while the Veterans Memorial Building that houses City Hall remains empty with no plans [...]
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  Posted: May 12, 2009, 10:24am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Veterans Commission returns to May’s Island icon; frustrated commissioners learn that repairs to flood-damaged building still months away

  Number of comments: 1
  The Veterans Memorial Commission last night held its first meeting in the Veterans Memorial Building/City Hall on May’s Island since the June 2008 flood. It was a something of a sobering event. The commission designed the agenda to try to encourage City Manager Jim Prosser to get work on the building started [...]
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  Posted: May 11, 2009, 8:27pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• District police station at 1501 First Ave. SE may be ready in mid-June; chief says some contractors, suppliers want to donate for storefront renovation

  Number of comments: 3
  At a budget meeting this week, the City Council learned that it will cost as much as $55,000 to renovate a vacant storefront at 1501 First Ave. SE as the Police Department turns the space into its first district station. In the last few weeks, Police Chief Greg Graham noted that [...]
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  Posted: May 08, 2009, 11:18am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• New state legislation for disaster areas will let City Council pass big bond issues for public buildings without a mandatory citizen vote

  Late last year, the City Council presented its state lobbyist — former state lawmaker Larry Murphy of Oelwein — with a wish list of requests to take to Des Moines when the state legislative session began in January. At one meeting last fall, Murphy went over the list with the council [...]
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  Posted: May 08, 2009, 1:02am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Possible mayoral candidate Gary Hinzman has a good question, but the answer might best be divined by some good reading

  Number of comments: 2
  Gary: Two pieces of suggested reading — the city charter and the city’s nepotism policy. Mayoral prospect Gary Hinzman asked the city’s Board of Ethics a simple question: Do his wife, Linda Hinzman, and daughter, Paula Hinzman Mitchell, as well as a brother-in-law have to quit city employment if he is [...]
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  Posted: May 07, 2009, 2:08pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Deadline for news on huge pot of federal buyout money has passed; City Hall upbeat that good news will arrive soon

  Number of comments: 2
  It’s been something of the Great Waiting at City Hall. State officials who have come to Cedar Rapids in recent weeks, and city officials themselves, have said that the federal government would make a crucial disaster-funding announcement by the end of April on how it intended to divvy up a huge, [...]
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  Posted: May 07, 2009, 9:41am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Basic flood insurance for city buildings costs considerably less than first feared; but cost of extra insurance needed later apt to still be scary

  The city can buy basic flood protection for 46 of the city’s flood-damaged city buildings for $101,129, a sum considerably less than an earlier estimate of $280,000. The purchase of this basic line of insurance from the National Flood Insurance Program provides $500,000 in coverage for damage to a structure and [...]
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  Posted: May 06, 2009, 4:01pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Don’t forget mayoral prospect Gary Hinzman; he asks ethics board if a city employee must quit should a relative become mayor or council member

  Don’t forget about mayoral prospect Gary Hinzman, long-time director of the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services and a former Cedar Rapids police chief. In a talk with Hinzman on Wednesday, it was clear Hinzman isn’t going to let some successful fund-raising by mayoral candidate Ron Corbett, a former Republican [...]
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  Posted: May 06, 2009, 10:14am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Vernon says her jump from Republican to Democrat has nothing to do with a possible mayoral run against Republican Corbett

  Number of comments: 5
  Council member and mayoral prospect Monica Vernon says her jump from the Republican to Democratic Party on Tuesday has nothing to do with her plans to run or not run for mayor. She declined to say if she was in or out of the mayoral race. A Republican since she first registered [...]
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  Posted: May 05, 2009, 4:38pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Why did mayoral prospect Monica Vernon change from Republican Party to Democratic Party?

  Number of comments: 4
  First it was U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. Now it’s Cedar Rapids council member Monica Vernon. In recent days, Specter changed his political party affiliation from Republican to Democrat as he readies to try to keep his seat in the U.S. Senate from the state of Pennsylvania. He said he couldn’t win [...]
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  Posted: May 05, 2009, 1:41pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Twenty-two apply for City Hall flood-recovery post that comes with a job description worthy of Superman

  The job description for City Hall’s new flood-recovery manager sounded worthy of Superman when it was released a few weeks ago. However, the job description hasn’t intimidated applicants. Twenty-two people applied for the position before Monday’s “preferred” application deadline, reports Conni Huber, the city’s human resources director. Others still can submit applications, [...]
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  Posted: May 05, 2009, 12:38pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Rumor mill is right: Linn Supervisor Langston says she is considering suggestions that she run for Cedar Rapids mayor

  Number of comments: 7
  Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston says she’s been asked to consider running for mayor of Cedar Rapids, “so I’m considering it,” she says. Langston commented on Monday after she was asked about rumors that she might try a go at the mayor’s race. She said she would make a decision soon. “I really [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2009, 5:12pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Six of nine council seats up for election this year; one seat, Jerry McGrane’s, now has a race

  We have a City Hall council race. Kathy Potts, a self-described homemaker and community activist who ran unsuccessfully last fall as a Republican for a spot in the Iowa Legislature, will compete to unseat incumbent Jerry McGrane for the District 3 seat on the City Council. Potts, 50, who grew up in [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2009, 3:02pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Downtown establishment Brick’s still going round with Police Department on liquor license renewal

  Bars aren’t churches, but, nonetheless, City Hall has some new expectations when it comes to the annual renewal of a liquor establishment’s liquor permit. So the saga of the downtown Brick’s Bar and Grill, 320 Second Ave. SE, continues. At the start of April, the City Council set aside a request from [...]
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  Posted: May 01, 2009, 8:53am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• After years of neighbor complaints about racket and stray bullets, state ombudsman descends on Police Department shooting range

  Number of comments: 2
  The pleas from property owners next to the Police Department’s regional outdoor shooting range out on Old River Road SW reach back to at least 2004. Those neighbors, led by retired Cedar Rapids firefighter Don Sedrel, made their way to the state office of Citizens’ Aide/Ombudsman, which asked the neighbors to [...]
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  Posted: April 30, 2009, 3:15pm EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Red-light and speed-enforcement cameras a step closer as city seek proposals for “bullet-resistant” cameras that provide “indisputable” proof

  Number of comments: 5
  City Hall and the Police Department weren’t kidding. The two have now moved ahead and are seeking proposals, due May 18, from contractors who will install and maintain red-light enforcement cameras at up to 10 intersections as well as a mobile speed-enforcement camera and a fixed speed-enforcement camera. For the contractor who [...]
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  Posted: April 29, 2009, 9:01am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• The flood of 2008 eroded riverbank in crucial spots; without $800,000 in repairs, water and waste water infrastructure remains at risk

  Number of comments: 1
  The flood of 2008 also loused up and eroded the banks of the Cedar River in places. Sufficiently so as the 2008 flood damage, that the city, in concert with the federal Emergency Watershed Protection program, is spending up to $815,065 to stabilize the riverbank in six crucial spots. Without the [...]
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  Posted: April 28, 2009, 1:07am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Costs to city climb for its sewage sludge while providing area farmers with free fertilizer

  Number of comments: 3
  The city’s nearly unending supply of sewage sludge keeps costing even as it keeps farmers in a steady supply of fertilizer with no expense to them. The city’s travails with biosolid sludge, which is the byproduct left over after the waste water treatment process at the city’s huge Water Pollution Control [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2009, 1:02am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Indian Creek Nature Center bestows a Czech name that means ‘perpetual’ on newly acquired woods

  Number of comments: 1
  The Indian Creek Nature Center has named 28 newly acquired acres of woods at the corner of 44th Street and Otis Road SE the Vecny Woods. That’s pronounced VEE-etch-nee. It means “perpetual” in Czech. The nature center’s board of directors chose the name to honor Czech immigrants who settled in the [...]
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  Posted: April 26, 2009, 10:42am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Council wrestles over hiring local firm vs. hiring “more responsive” one and sides, 5-4, with the Minneapolis outfit

  Number of comments: 7
  Do you hire a professional firm because it’s a local one with a less expensive proposal even if a City Hall review team has concluded another firm from out of state has a better proposal and brings more horses to the task? That was the central question this week that provoked [...]
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  Posted: April 25, 2009, 9:14am EDT
  by Rick Smith

• Corbett not bashful about letting would-be mayoral-race foes know that he’s beating bushes for bucks for the coming match

  Number of comments: 2
  This year’s mayoral race looks like it will be richer than the 2005 race in which Kay Halloran, a retired attorney and former state lawmaker, defeated Scott Olson, a commercial Realtor and architect, in a close contest. That conclusion comes after mayoral candidate Ron Corbett’s fund raiser downtown Thursday evening in [...]
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  Posted: April 24, 2009, 11:15am EDT
  by Rick Smith