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Mayor-elect Ron Corbett got up to speak and City Manager Jim Prosser got up and left. That was the case on Thursday evening at the Downtown District’s annual meeting where Corbett gave his first speech since winning election Nov. 3 over City Council member Brian Fagan. Prosser on Friday said he left the event for his own ethical reasons and not as a slight to Corbett. “No big deal,” Prosser said, noting that the city still has two City Council runoff elections on ...

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Cedar Rapids’ Housing Services Office has received a “high performer” rating from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This award specifically recognizes the city office for its management of HUD’s Section 8 housing voucher program. Currently, about 1,100 households are in the HUD voucher program managed by the city department. “A ‘high-performer’ rating is a real tribute to the dedication and hard work of our staff in light of the (city’s) affordable housing challenges,” says Scott Seibert, the city’s assisted-housing program ...

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Maybe the two cranes towering over First Street SE will get the public to notice the $160 million federal courthouse under construction there. The eight-story edifice will be faced with stone and then glass that will stretch as wide as a football field from the Cedar River to Second Street SE between Seventh and Eighth avenues SE and look toward downtown. Brad Thomason, leader of the Ryan Cos. US Inc. building team, and David Sorg, a principal with project architect OPN Architects ...

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In his first speech as mayor-elect, Ron Corbett told the annual meeting of the Downtown District last night that lessons he learned in losing a fight as a 13 year old are ones he will carry with him into the mayor’s job. The adolescent fight, the friends who picked him off the ground and the lie he told his parents afterward taught him four things, he said in a 14-minute speech without notes at the event in Gatherings restaurant in the ...

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In his first speech as mayor-elect, Ron Corbett told the annual meeting of the Downtown District last night that lessons he learned in losing a fight as a 13 year old are ones he will carry with him into the mayor’s job. The adolescent fight, the friends who picked him off the ground and the lie he told his parents afterward taught him four things, he said in a 14-minute speech without notes at the event in Gatherings restaurant in the ...

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The city of Cedar Rapids has presented its initial bargaining position to three of the city’s eight employee bargaining units: Zip. The city is calling for no increase in wages in the first year of a new contract and a freeze in step wage increases that come with seniority. Conni Huber, city human resources director, said Thursday that the economy dictates what management can offer. The city also is asking union employees to pay 25 percent of the cost of their health insurance ...

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Maybe the two giant cranes that now tower over First Street SE will get the public to finally notice. That’s the thought, anyway, of Brad Thomason, who is heading up the Ryan Companies US Inc. team that is building the $160-million federal courthouse — what will be an eight-story edifice faced with stone and then glass that will stretch as wide as a football field from the Cedar River to Second Street SE between Seventh and Eighth avenues SE and look ...

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Zip. The city of Cedar Rapids has presented its initial bargaining position to three of the city eight employee bargaining units, a position that calls for a zero increase in wages in the first year of a new contract and also a freeze in “step” wage increases that come with seniority. Conni Huber, the city’s human resources director, on Thursday said the city’s opening salvo in the negotiations for the three-year union contracts now in place was higher than what the city ...

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Here are a few  facts about Veterans Memorial Building (City Hall) in Cedar Rapids:  82 years — Age of building 100 and 500 — Now sits in 100-year flood plain, will be in 500-year flood plain with new flood map in April Less than 12 inches — Level of flood water on first floor in June 2008 89 — Number of full-time employees (not counting maintenance shift workers) working in building before flood 7 — Number of employees working below first floor 19 — Number of employees working ...

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A “green” rating system for construction called LEED uses four standards, certified, silver, gold and platinum, and last night the City Council said its wants to seek the gold standard and strive for the top platinum standard as they rebuild or replace the city’s flood-damaged buildings. In September, the council set its sights lower when it suggested it would reach to at least meet a basic level of certification in a rating system such as LEED — Leadership in Energy and ...

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A “green” rating system for construction called LEED uses four standards, certified, silver, gold and platinum, and last night the City Council said its wants to seek the gold standard and strive for the top platinum standard as they rebuild or replace the city’s flood-damaged buildings. In September, the council set its sights lower when it suggested it would reach to at least meet a basic level of certification in a rating system such as LEED — Leadership in Energy and ...

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The city and insurer Selective Insurance Co. have settled a fire claim at the city-owned Sinclair plant site for $3.5 million. The claim resulted from a July 28 fire in one of the buildings at the former meatpacking plant, 1600 Third St. SE, where corn was being stored. The city purchased the buildings on a 30-acre site in 2006 for $4 million with the intention of demolishing the buildings for redevelopment. After the purchase, the city continued to rent space in some ...

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Congressman Dave Loebsack took a step Wednesday to position Cedar Rapids for funding in 2010 to build a flood-protection system for the city. Loebsack, D-Mount Vernon, was among a group of representatives who testified to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee Wednesday afternoon to bring attention to projects they want to see funded in a 2010 Water Resources Development Act. The act provides funding for the Corps of Engineers to conduct studies and to construct projects. In his testimony viewed online, Loebsack told ...

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The city and insurer Selective Insurance Co. have settled a fire claim at the city-owned   Sinclair plant site for $3.5 million. The claim resulted from a July 28 fire in one of the buildings at the former meatpacking plant, 1600 Third St. SE, where corn was being stored. The city purchased the buildings and the 30-acre site in 2006 for $4 million with the intention of demolishing the buildings for redevelopment. After the purchase, the city continued to rent space in some ...

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At-large City Council candidate Don Karr, who is facing a Dec. 1 runoff election, has received the backing of council member Justin Shields and council member-elect Chuck Swore. Nick Duffy, an at-large council candidate who finished third in the Nov. 3 at-large race and out of the Dec. 1 runoff, also is supporting Karr. Karr, 64, long-time owner of Affordable Plumbing and Remodeling who has now sold the business to his daughters, faces Aaron Saylor, 28, a commercial Realtor, in the Dec. ...

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Easy to miss in the ongoing debate on what to do about City Hall is what city officials and consultants are calling “the clear path.” A clear path is what city officials believe they now have on what to do about three key flood-wrecked city buildings — the public library, the central fire station and the animal control shelter. For each of the three buildings, the city is prepared to replace what was destroyed with something new with the help of disaster-relief ...

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The state insurance commissioner has told the federal government that the city of Cedar Rapids should get a break on the amount of flood insurance the federal government requires of the city because of the unreasonable cost of coverage in the wake of the city’s June 2008 flood. The request for a federal insurance waiver, if granted, should save the city significant money in the near term, Casey Drew, the city’s finance director, said Tuesday. In a letter dated Nov. 10 to ...

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may be a bit lost in the continuing debate over the future of City Hall, but city officials also are rethinking the city’s park system even as they consider the future of the city’s key flood-damaged buildings. At this week’s city open houses, residents also are getting to see the “preferred” option for the city’s park system that city officials say has emerged from two previous public-input sessions with residents. Once approved in some kind of final form by the City Council, ...

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The Jones Park Golf Course Clubhouse is about to become the first flood-damaged city building to reopen. A celebration will be held at the clubhouse, 2901 Fruitland Blvd. SW, from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday. The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be provided. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 4:30 p.m. and a drawing for door prizes at 6 p.m. Three feet of water filled the clubhouse during the June 2008 flood. Approximately 80 percent ...

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Get set for a detailed array of informational poster boards if you plan to attend one of the open houses on city facilities today or Wednesday. In simplest terms, city consultant OPN Architects Inc. has come up with two general options for housing city offices in the wake of the June 2008 flood: One uses existing buildings and one calls for a new building. In a preview of the open-house poster boards provided by the city late Monday afternoon, some conclusions seem ...

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Residents who turn out at City Hall’s open houses on Tuesday and Wednesday will be able to look at the options for returning city offices to the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building on May’s Island, building a new city hall or a mix of other ideas. One on the other ideas is to “co-locate” a new city hall in a building or on a campus of buildings with Linn County. On Monday, the Linn County Supervisors released the results of their own open ...

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CEDAR RAPIDS — Consider filling out a comment card if you attend one of the public open houses this week about the future of the city’s key flood-damaged buildings. Your thoughts could hold more sway that you might imagine. In August, 150 people filled out cards at open houses to tell city officials if they should return to the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building or if they should build a new City Hall. Forty of the comments came from city employees, only three of ...

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Mayor-elect Ron Corbett wants the 1,300 or so victims of the June 2008 flood who are awaiting a property buyout to have access to an advocate as they negotiate in the weeks and months ahead with the city over buyout details. “When I look at the buyout process, this is the final chapter in the flood victims’ saga,” Corbett said Friday. “And how they walk out of that negotiation or that meeting with the city is going to have a big ...

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The modest circumstances of some flood victims are being driven home by the first wave of buyouts. Perhaps 25 of the first 117 owners whose flooded properties will be bought at pre-flood value will not receive enough money to cover their mortgages or liens. The eye-opening statistic prompted the City Council this week to hire a mediator to help flooded property owners resolve such outstanding debt. Without a resolution between the owners and those they owe, the city would not be able to gain title to ...

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City officials on Friday were reminding residents to attend an open house next Tuesday or Wednesday to weigh in on whether the city should use existing buildings for city offices or build a new City Hall. An earlier open house put the cost of a new “one-stop” City Hall at more than $50 million, though advocates for new construction make the argument that a new one-stop building will save money over time. A peek provided by City Hall of what is to ...

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