Education, Featured, Flood Recovery
‘Build new’ favored option for Cedar Rapids school district
Posted on Nov 09, 2009 by Meredith Hines-Dochterman.
7.5 acres of land adjacent to the Cedar Rapids Community School District transportation center is being considered as the location for replacement of support facilities for the district that were damaged in the June 2008 flood. Shot in Cedar Rapids on Friday, November 6, 2009. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)
Cedar Rapids School Superintendent Dave Benson will recommend at tonight’s school board meeting that the Cedar Rapids school district build new support service facilities to replace those damaged in the flood.
If approved, the facility would be built on land the district owns at 2933 Ellis Rd. NW, adjacent to the district’s transportation center. A petition to rezone the land from single-family residence to public zone district was filed Oct. 26 with the city.
Five district buildings were damaged in the June 2008 flood — the Education Service Center, the ESC Annex, the carpenter/paint shop, the main warehouse and the food service warehouse.
Taylor Elementary School also had flood damage but was rehabbed and reopened in August.
The district held three open houses from July to October to collect public opinion on options for renovating or replacing the flooded facilities. Months of data boiled down to two choices — buy existing buildings and renovate them to suit the district’s needs, or build new facilities within district boundaries.
Board members discussed the options at the Oct. 26 board meeting. Early support echoed public opinion — build new facilities on land the district owns.
The district purchased the Ellis Road NW land for $145,000 in April.
“The owner of the property approached the district and offered to sell,” said Steve Graham, executive director of business services for the district. “The price was very reasonable, and the prevailing wisdom of the day was that land contiguous to the Transportation Center would be of benefit to provide for expanded parking for our growing bus fleet, should the need arise.”
According to architects at Shive-Hattery Inc., the 7.45 acres there will be large enough to meet the district’s needs.
The cost to transform the land into support services facilities is $35.09 million. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will cover $12.465 million. Remaining costs will be paid from school infrastructure local-option sales tax funds.
The new facilities will house about 200 district employees in 27 departments. Since the flood, these departments have worked in two locations: temporary facilities in the parking lot at Kingston Stadium and leased space at 931 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE.
It cost $3.7 million to build the ESC@Kingston; the district pays $13,639.16 per month, plus utilities, to lease the Blairs Ferry space. FEMA covered the cost of the Kingston facility and reimburses the district for the lease fees.
According to the district’s recovery project timeline, the district should begin moving into its new facilities in January 2012. If the district doesn’t complete construction by May 27, 2012, it runs the risk of forfeiting FEMA and state recovery financial assistance.
WWJD1
09. Nov, 2009
Great Idea!
pl_snark
09. Nov, 2009
How many months did it take to decide on what they wanted all the time? What about the one property that is still left at the site?
JustinToit
09. Nov, 2009
So instead of rehabbing the flood damaged building…..they're going to spend 35 MILLION to build on land that ALSO flooded last year…..and will probably flood again. But as long as they can raise taxes to cover their extravagance, who cares?
gardbr
09. Nov, 2009
And of course, there are plans by the City to completely rebuild Edgewood through this area including Round Abouts and an elevated north-south four lane beginning at the north side of the Cedar River, with wetland areas and flood mitigation areas, so this proposal means that there will have to be elevated entrance/exit ramps to facilitate the traffic from the School property. In other words, another screw up with no one thinking ahead or knowing of the other's plans.
BradyDorman
10. Nov, 2009
What are these plans? Elevating the roadway does not mean turning it into an elevated expressway. It simply means building up the ground below the road in this immediate area by the river to make it less susceptible to seasonal flooding. This roadwork would have no effect on a new ESC facility here.
gardbr
09. Nov, 2009
won't this screw up Prosser's plan to have the School as part of the downtown 'Campus' he continues to propose, even though no one wants it?
BradyDorman
10. Nov, 2009
This is not Prosser's plan. It was a suggestion by consultants, supported by the City Council to explore options to co-locate with county and school district administration to operate more efficiently for the long term, and ultimately SAVE TAX PAYER'S MONEY.
gardbr
10. Nov, 2009
oh, yeah, sure, right, i see…. (hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha) i have never seen anyone be able to spend themselves out of debt.
lobosolo
09. Nov, 2009
does'nt this area flood every other year ? edgewood road is always flooded and closed in the spring… who picked this location ?
BradyDorman
10. Nov, 2009
I believe the location of land is south of the bus facility where ground elevation is higher and is a good distance above the level of flood waters.
lobosolo
10. Nov, 2009
sure enough, but getting to it each flood will become hectic if you live north of the river.
BradyDorman
10. Nov, 2009
The elevation of the roadway that gardbr was talking about could potentially alleviate that problem.
gardbr
10. Nov, 2009
well one thing about this, if you like the idea, will be that it will just be down the road from the $70 million L.I.F.E. facility that the Parks and Recreation dept has scheduled to be built on the edge of the Ellis Golf Course.
davesc
09. Nov, 2009
So there will be $20+ million that would have gone to improving schools with students in them to building administrative offices for administrative non-teachers. I'm not sure the local option tax would have passed had that been known at the time. Granted, we didn't know about the flood at the time, either.
lobosolo
09. Nov, 2009
you mean the S.I.L.O. tax ? if so, that money can only be appropriated for the listed items. this does not affect that spending.