“Millionaire farmers” is a catch phrase used with growing frequency up to depict farmers whose personal wealth and incomes have risen with skyrocketing land values and improved farm incomes due to the renewable fuels boom.

The “millionaire farmer” phrase has been invoked across the political spectrum, from President Obama to the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank.

Dale Leslein, (center), of Dubuque, the hay auctioneer, calls out prices on a semi load of bails, during the hay auction in Dyersville, Iowa last year. (The Gazette)

A recent Bloomberg news service article lamented the widening “rich-poor gap” in Iowa due to millionaire farmers, and compared farmland auctions to art sales at Sotheby’s.

“The $89,434 average household income for farmers significantly exceeds the national average,” said a background paper by the Heartland Institute, arguing against crop subsidies. “Additionally crop land values soared another 14 percent last year, bringing them to double their 2000 levels.

“Farmers are now wealthier than ever.”

It’s enough to make Iowans wonder whether Saks Fifth Avenue, Cartier and Fendi will soon be opening shops in Grundy Center.

But a closer look suggests that even if Iowa’s wealth gap widens a bit, there’s little cause for worry.

In fact, Iowa ranks below more than 30 other states in the number of residents with $1 million or above net worth, the percentage of residents with $1 million and above net worth, or annual household income above $1 million, according to rankings published in recent years.

The top 10 states with millionaires, with the exception of Hawaii, are traditionally more urban, such as Connecticut and New Jersey, with many corporate headquarters.

Robert Bowman of DeWitt, who farms with his son Chris, certainly doesn’t feel like a millionaire farmer, even though rising property values would place the family’s 2,000-acre farming operation into the million-dollar-plus category.

Driving through the countryside, Bowman said it’s pretty near impossible to tell which farmers are millionaires because it’s all on the balance sheet.

“Some own the land free and clear, and a lot of us have a mortgage we’re paying on,” Bowman said.

Bowman said having a high net worth in a farming operation often doesn’t make for a high disposable income. He recalled one farmer friend who told him that, after a life of farming, he never felt as if he had any extra money to spend until the last few years, when he stopped reinvesting in his farm operation.

“I have an old saying that net worth is wonderful, but you can’t eat it,” Bowman said. “It makes your balance sheet look better, and if you need a loan maybe it will help you get it approved.”

According to different studies, including the Deloitte Center's, Iowa had 78,000 millionaire households in 2010 and that number is expected to grow. (The Gazette, file)

Indeed, having a high net worth as a farmer isn’t likely to make you a high roller at the local casino, a high-profile philanthropist or a conspicuous consumer. That’s because farming takes expensive land, farming equipment and a fair amount of credit for things such as seed, fertilizer, pesticide and fuel to grow the next crop.

“It (the farmer millionaire) is pretty close to being an on-paper phenomenon,” said Professor Kevin Leicht, director of the University of Iowa Social Science Research Center and department chairman. He compared the situation to homeowners who became paper millionaires during the prime years of the real estate bubble in markets such as California.

“It’s more valuable, but it’s the same house,” Leicht said.

Farmers who want to continue farming are unlikely to liquidate their land just to enjoy their wealth, Leicht said, meaning that the only farmers whose lifestyles are likely to change much because of the boom in farmland values are those who sell out and move away.

A May 2011 study by Deloitte Center for Financial Services ranked Iowa fourth among Midwestern states in the number of millionaires, and projected the number of Iowa millionaires will grow 7 percent between 2010 and 2020 — slower than North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Iowa had 78,000 millionaire households in 2010, a number Deloitte projected to grow to 170,000 households in 2020.

Leicht said that some of the issues that typically create social friction and distance due to wealth disparity are much less of a concern with farmers. That’s because farmers tend to avoid conspicuous consumption.

One reason for the conservative spending ways of farmers is that most older farmers have endured past boom-and-bust cycles in the value of agricultural commodities that have made them wary of overspending. They’ve also see cycles of drought and flood that have cut into income.

Leicht speculated that there’s also a deeper cultural element to it. Many of Iowa’s farmers are of Northern European ancestry, which have cultural bias against conspicuous displays of wealth.

Bowman agreed that farmers have been spending more in recent years on things such as updating their farm equipment, mainly because they need to take advantage of the opportunity when they can. He says it’s helped the overall economy.

Farmers are also getting a nicer ride.

“There’s a lot of us driving better pickup trucks than we’ve had in the past,” Bowman said. “That’s kind of neat. I’ve enjoyed that.”

Josh and Nikki Osborn hold some of the varieties of mushrooms that they grow and sell at the New Bo Farmers Market. Josh and Nikki Osborn run Blue's Best Fresh Mushrooms, and sell grow your own morel and shiitake mushrooms. The couple is from Vinton, Iowa. (Kaitlyn Bernauer/The Gazette)

Vinton mushroom grower Josh Osborn offers hope for morel mushroom lovers frustrated by last year’s short supplies and high prices.

Osborn and his wife, Nikki, began selling home morel growing kits at his Blues Best Mushrooms booth in the New Bo Farmers Market.

The Osborns make the kit themselves using the same ingredients they’d been using at their rural Vinton home to grow morels for the last five years. Customers take the kits home and follow directions on how to till them into the soil.

For the cost of a $20 kit and a little labor, Osborn said the kits will yield about 100 morel mushrooms under good growing conditions.

Morel mushrooms are always a rare delicacy in the Corridor, but prices here went through the roof last year because of weather conditions that limited morel growth, and a recent federal law requiring certification in recognizing morel mushrooms to sell morels picked in the wild.

Many of the morel hunters who had been selling their finds in farmers markets or to restaurants still haven’t completed the certification and cannot legally sell to the public.

The vast majority of morels come from the wild, and experienced morel hunters talk of their fickle nature. They may grow abundantly in one location one spring, then be conspicuously absent the next.

Osborn insisted they’re not that hard to grow domestically, however, with the right ingredients.

Varieties of mushrooms are available for purchase at Josh and Nikki Osborn's shop, Blue's Best Fresh Mushrooms, in the New Bo Farmers Market. (Kaitlyn Bernauer/The Gazette)

“Take it, till it into the ground and let nature take its course,” Osborn said.

The kits contain a “grow bag” with mycelium, the cluster of branching filaments from which mushrooms grow, and a medium containing nutrients.

The instructions advise users to store the morel kit at room temperature for about four weeks, until nut-like formations emerge around the edges of the bag. The next step is to shake the contents of the bag to break up the mycelium and, if the ground is still frozen, to store the kit in a freezer.

Once the ground is thawed enough to be worked, the gardener spreads the contents in a shaded, sheltered planting area in a row about 1 foot wide by 15 feet long.  The goal is to mix the mycelium into the ground about 2 to 4 inches deep.

The final step is to lightly water the planted area.

Osborn has been selling the kits for about five weeks. He collects the email addresses of buyers so he can notify them when to begin looking for morels to emerge in the late spring.

True morel aficionados won’t need one of the tidbits of advice Osborn dispenses with his kits: He recommends finding a secluded planting location and keeping it a secret. That’s because any morel lover who stumbled upon a patch of the tasty fungi might not believe they were planted by anyone other than Mother Nature, and take them home for a meal.

Mushrooms are big business nationwide. The Mushroom Council reports that sales grew 5.2 percent in the year ended Sept. 30, to 616.2 million pounds. The pace of mushroom sales did not quite keep up with the overall sales in the produce segment, which was over 7 percent.

Daniel Serrot, 4, of Hiawatha, Iowa buys mushrooms from Nikki Osborn at the New Bo Farmers Market. (Kaitlyn Bernauer/The Gazette)

Owners: Josh and Nikki Osborn

Company: Blues Best Mushrooms

Address: 2872 60th St., Vinton

Phone: (319) 334-8983

The new IC CoLab provides members with work space, learning sessions, collaboration and basic office functions. Thursday’s Jelly event is part of #JELLYWEEK 2013, which is being observed at over 200 locations in 30 countries.

“People can drop in for a few hours or the full day, and we’ll show them the plans for the IC CoLab once it’s fully operational,” ICAD Group President Mark Nolte said.

Nolte said IC CoLab will be open for the rest of the month to let people drop in, work on their projects and make new connections.

Participation in #JELLYWEEK 2013 is free. The cowork session is casual and attendees can drop in at any time, according to ICAD. The IC CoLab will have coffee, wireless Internet and electrical outlets provided free of charge.

ICAD Group opened the IC CoLab in December 2012 and is presently furnishing the space and installing IT infrastructure.

The 4G LTE network provides higher data speeds that enhance the experience of high-bandwidth applications such as watching movies and video chatting. The network was developed in conjunction with King Street Wireless. It covers Manchester, Independence, Jesup, Hopkinton and Winthrop.

U.S. Cellular recently expanded its 4G LTE coverage to select cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Oklahoma. It previously offered 4G LTE in leading markets of Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

The prediction is based on the findings of Rockwell Collins research with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

A DARPA project has created tiny electronic oscillators, which function as miniature clocks. Rockwell Collins has been testing them on global positioning system radios as part of DARPA’s Dynamics Enabled Frequency Sources effort.

“Never before has a microscale oscillator been able to acquire and track GPS,” said John Borghese, vice president of the Rockwell Collins Advanced Technology Center, in a statement issued by the company.

Borghese said the capability “opens a new frontier in embedding GPS in very small items.”

The oscillators are nearly 30 times smaller than what is currently used on GPS receivers and consume 320 times less power. They are 30 times more stable under extreme vibration, Rockwell Collins said.

The tiny devices could be embedded in munitions and unmanned aerial vehicles and other devices that require reduced size, weight, power consumption and cost, Rockwell Collins said.

Rockwell Collins has produced more than 50 GPS products and delivered more than a million GPS receivers for commercial avionics and government applications in its history, the company said.

An irrigation system waters beans on a farm owned by the Amana Society Farms on Tuesday, July 24, 2012, near East Amana. Crop irrigation would be among a list of water uses that would be restricted if Iowa would enter a water emergency. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

A state law that could decide what water users face shut-offs or restrictions as the drought continues into 2013 may be in need of updating as the odds of using it increase, observers say.

The 1985 law allows the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to implement a priority water allocation system. The system would specify the order in which different classes of customers, from large industries to ordinary households, would be required to cut water consumption.

Conservation can’t be required until a shortage of water is imminent, and priority allocation is not allowed until the DNR has determined there is an “H20 impairment.” It can only be implemented after requiring emergency conservation measures to be taken by existing water use permit holders.

The odds have never looked better that the law could invoked as a nearly nationwide drought enters its third year in the Midwest.

“We’re worse off than we were a year ago when people like myself were starting to say, ‘We need to get a better handle on these things,’ ” said Bob Libra, Iowa’s state geologist.

The DNR has been inclined to let local water authorities restrict usage when necessary rather than invoking the law because cutting off water supplies would entail considerable economic consequences and generate political fallout, according to Michael Anderson, a senior environmental engineer for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources who tracks the state’s water resources.

Anderson described the state’s “priority allocation restrictions” law as “kind of an 800-pound hammer for the problem.”

Nevertheless, as the drought gets worse, the need for coordinated and concerted effort could spur the state to use the law.

Any of four events could trigger the DNR to take action.

• A governmental unit or 25 individuals could petition for implementation of a priority allocation plan.

• The governor could proclaim a disaster emergency because of drought.

• The DNR could determine, along with Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, that there is a local crisis affecting water availability.

• A natural resource agency, including the University of Nebraska’s National Drought Monitor, could flag the imminent arrival of a drought of local or state magnitude.

In practice, Anderson said a governor’s task force has been given the task of monitoring the drought and advising the governor, who will have the last word on whether the state imposes water restrictions.

The task force meets about every two weeks in the state’s Emergency Operations Center during the hot weather months, and less frequently in the winter. It includes key officials from the DNR, the Iowa Department of Agriculture, and Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

The task force will consider information ranging from the widely used University of Nebraska National Drought Map to data and reports from state, federal and local agencies.

A fresh look

Confidence in the law and the state’s readiness to implement it isn’t exactly 100 percent.

Linda Kinman, watershed advocate and public policy analyst at the Des Moines Water Works, believes it’s time for a fresh look at the law.

“We’ve encouraged a state-level review that we feel is really needed,” Kinman said. “The whole business structure of the state has changed (since last revision in the 1980s), and water usage has changed greatly since then.”

State Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, after hearing from some local water supply officials, is having legislation drafted that would update the law to provide funding for the DNR to educate water agencies statewide about how to implement water conservation plans.

Hogg also wants the Iowa General Assembly to review the water allocation priorities to see if they need to be updated. He suggested some major trends in water usage, such as the emergence of the biofuels industry as one of the state’s largest water users.

Entire industries have emerged in Iowa since the law was written. They include the Iowa wine industry, microbrewery industry and the renewable fuels industry, which has become one of the state’s largest water users.

“For me, the question is do we have the right water priorities,” said Hogg.

Cutting back

About 15 public water supply providers in the state last year imposed water allocation restrictions or asked for voluntary conservation, Anderson said.

Most of the drought measures were taken in northwest Iowa, which is still in “exceptional drought” conditions, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Average streamflow levels in Iowa were only about 60 percent of normal for the 2012 water monitoring year, and streamflow in December remained less than 24 percent below normal in the Cedar, Raccoon and Skunk River basins, according to the DNR.

Shallow groundwater levels measured in all nine of the United States Geological Survey’s system of climate wells in Iowa decreased in 2012, and water levels in two wells decreased by a foot. One well in Marshall County dropped almost seven feet over the past year.

The Des Moines Water Works implemented voluntary conservation in the summer of 2012. Kinman said the agency was pumping over 90 million gallons and day, and it dropped to less than 60 million gallons a day within a matter of days.

The Cedar Rapids City Council was warned in November that the drought will persist into 2013, potentially affecting city water supplies. Interim Utilities Director Steve Hershner urged the city to update its own water emergency law, pointing out that it was very dated.

The City of Coralville asked residents late last summer to conserve water and “we got a very good response,” City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said. The city’s wells have since replenished about halfway back to their normal level, and the city is drilling two new wells for reasons not directly related to the drought that will help it out next summer.

Iowa’s priorities for restricting water (first to last)

• Water conveyed across state boundaries

• Water used for recreational or aesthetic purposes

• Water used for irrigation of general crops (hay, corn, soybeans, oats, grain, sorghum or wheat)

• Water used for irrigation of specialty crops (all other crops)

• Water for manufacturing or industrial purposes

• Water for generation of electrical power for public consumption

• Water for livestock production

• Water for human consumption and sanitation supplied by rural water district,s municipal water systems or other public water supplies.

• Water for human consumption and sanitation from a private water supply.

Source: Iowa Code

Cofounder, CEO and quarterback John Schnipkoweit , (left), cofounder and commissioner of code Chris Quartier, cofounder and game master Nick Sihacek work in the RecBpb offices located in downtown Cedar Rapids. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Its been through some changes, but a  Cedar Rapids tech startup hatched in 2011 is getting positive signals as it plans its first big marketing push this year.

On Monday RecBob was named one of 10 startup concepts to watch in 2013 by Social Driver, a Washington, D.C.-based digital agency. It’s aggressively competing to be in the Nike+ Startup Accelerator, an intensive three-month program for startups in the sports technology field.

RecBob is a web app for recreational sports team communication and coordination that helps with finding substitute players to fill team vacancies, keeping track of equipment and getting team fees paid, among other tasks.

John Schnipkoweit, a kickballer and volleyballer, is the CEO and “quarterback” of RecBob. He introduced the idea at Startup Weekend Iowa City that evolved into RecBob, and now co-owns the company with three members of the original seven-member 2011 Startup Weekend Iowa City team — Nick Silhacek, Chris Quartier and Alex Frazier.

The alpha version of the app was released at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, in March 2012, and the official launch was at the October 2012 DEMO tech show in Silicon Valley. RecBob has presented at a number of business pitch competitions, including the 2011 Innovation Expo in Coralville, where it won the “pitch-off.”

RecBob cofounder, CEO and quarterback John Schnipkoweit.

The team has been through multiple iterations of the RecBob concept. By now, Schnipkoweit said, “I feel like I’ve launched 10 different things.”

Getting enough members of individual teams to sign up on RecBob to maximize benefits to the team has been one of the challenges. The initial focus was on making it easy for team members to connect with RecBob on Facebook, as many Facebook members had become wary of unfamiliar apps.

“They would see that ‘Facebook connect’ button and just close the window because their trust had been violated so many times,” Schnipkoweit said.

Most members of the RecBob community opt to use its automated email distribution service.

About 60 sports teams tested the app last summer. Today it’s used by about 200 teams, ranging from 4-member volleyball teams to a 75-member hockey team.

The RecBob team has been rolling out new features at the pace of about 1 every 10 days in response to user feedback, Schnipkoweit said.

One feature, for example, will make it easy for team members to sign up just by responding to a text message. Another feature is a “discovery tool” that allows users to look for players in their area.

RecBob expects to add a packaged mobile app that will be offered through online app stores. Its features would help fans track team statistics and provide rewards to users.

Sports teams that have embraced RecBob early include volleyball, kickball, volleyball, bowling and Ultimate Frisbee teams. The kinds of sports teams that could use RecBob is broad, but the company is focused on the recreational player. That’s partly because recreational leagues don’t tend to have much administrative support.

Cofounder, CEO and quarterback John Schnipkoweit , left, and cofounder and game master Nick Sihacekat take a Foosball break in the offices of RecBob in downtown Cedar Rapids. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

“I look at rec sports as entertainment,” Schnipkoweit said.

RecBob has been meeting with investors to secure a new round of seed financing. The company is still in a developmental pre-revenue stage, but has received good feedback for investors who like its “long game,” Schnipkoweit said.

Potential investors seem to agree that RecBob provides a solution to a valid problem in the market, he said.

Even at this early stage, RecBob is trying to build a corporate culture that will mesh with its intended audience. Staffers have titles such as commissioner of code, social playmaker and color commentator.

The team redecorated its office in the Vault co-working at 222 Third St. SE to create a more sporting, active mood.

The founders have all made some sacrifices to pursue the startup life. One quit his job at Rockwell Collins and sold his car. Another lives with parents in an outlying town and does a long commute.

One of RecBob’s next big challenges will be to attract a user community large enough to generate buzz, and eventually capture revenue streams such as advertising.

While most RecBob users aren’t in the Corridor or Des Moines, Schnipkoweit said RecBob will pursue such Iowa markets, partly because it is interested in finding better ways to engage players who aren’t early adopters of new web apps. He said the company will try to engage users through mainstream media as well as digital media.

Brian Boyle, creator and founder of the Mill Maker Space, will talk with interested local makers and supporters from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, at the CSPS Blackbox, 1101 Third St. SE.

The maker movement empowers individuals to learn skills and collaborate with others to invent and build.

A local maker group, CR EpiCenter, has met at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Cedar Rapids, and more recently the Science Station at Lindale Mall. It partnered with the Science Station to host Iowa’s first Maker Faire, which attracted about 550 people to Lindale Mall, last fall.

“There are some incredibly creative gifted people here in town doing some really interesting things,” said maker Jim Jacobmeyer of CR EpiCenter. He said the benefits of a permanent maker space in Cedar Rapids might include building personal skills and collaborations, and eventually developing products that could result in commercial applications.

“It’s hands-on. It’s real-world. It’s authentic,” Jacobmeyer said of the movement. “People are using what they create.”

Jacobmeyer said Boyle’s Mill Maker Space, now open over a year, is the most impressive he’s seen with a variety of classes and such specialized equipment as a 3-D printing machine a CNC machining table. He said Boyle’s experience as the CEO of a manufacturing company gives him an interesting background and perspective on the maker movement.

The EpiCenter and the Science Center have discussed opportunities for sharing space when the Science Center eventually leaves Lindale Mall, Jacobmeyer said. The New Bohemia area is getting a strong look from the groups because of the creative synergies and support network with organizations and groups like the Cherry Building, the NewBo Farmers Market and CSPS, he said.

Boyle will make a presentation and answer questions about his experiences. The appearance will be sponsored by the Science Center, the CR EpiCenter and NewBo Bikes.

More details about the mill are available online at http://www.mnmill.org/blog/

A group of line workers from Mid American Energy prepare to leave the company's shop Iowa City Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 to go help restore power in Poughkeepsie, New York. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy crews who worked to help restore power after Super Storm Sandy are getting national and state level recognition.

The Edison Electric Institute recently presented Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy Company with its annual EEI 2012 Emergency Assistance Award for their work in the Super Storm Sandy recovery.

Alliant Energy sent 215 employees and 138 contract line workers and tree crew members to assist with Hurricane Sandy restoration efforts. Of Alliant Energy’s 215 employees who responded, 114 were from Iowa.

MidAmerican Energy sent 29 Iowa employees and released more than 250 contract line workers and tree crew members to provide assistance in the East.

Alliant Energy employees provided assistance to Central Hudson Gas and Electric, Con Edison of New York, and National Grid. MidAmerican Energy crews provided assistance to Central Hudson Gas and Electric and New York State Electric and Gas. Crews worked an average of 16-hour days for two consecutive weeks.

More than 60 utilities across the United States will be honored by EEI, the leading electric power industry association, for their recovery or response efforts to weather disasters in 2012.

“These awards recognize the extreme efforts made by Iowa’s utility crews. It shows that our crews in Iowa are second to none,” Iowa Utility Association President Mark Douglas said.

Crews worked an average of 16-hour days for two consecutive weeks.

“The damage caused by Superstorm Sandy was unprecedented and so was the response from our staff and our state. We’re proud to have helped out in one of the largest restoration efforts our industry has ever seen,” said Pat Kampling, Alliant Energy chairman and CEO. “We know we made many allies if we ever need help back home, especially with Central Hudson Gas and Electric, who nominated us for this award.”

“All of our 29 employees voluntarily participated in the relief effort,” said Bill Fehrman, president and CEO, MidAmerican Energy. “Their hard work and commitment to restore power and help these communities return to normal is greatly appreciated.”

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds will recognize Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy employees who responded to Super Storm Sandy at noon Jan. 14 at the Iowa Capitol.

When: 7 p.m., Jan. 24

What: Music, door prizes, t-shirt giveaways, drink specials and the introduction of clusterFlunk, a web-based social learning environment for University of Iowa students.

Where: The Summit, 10 S. Clinton St., Iowa City

Cost: Free

A University of Iowa student startup company has hijacked the old concept of the student study table and taken it online.

Enrollment begins Jan. 22 for clusterFlunk, the online learning environment that University of Iowa students founded at the UI’s Bedell Entrepreneurship Learning Laboratory.

The platform offers a way for students to chat, share documents and exchange notes online about the classes they are sharing.

University of Iowa student entrepreneurs Adam “A.J.” Nelson and Joe Dallago had the idea for the startup about one year ago, and have funded it with about $24,000 in student loans.

Nelson, 20, originally of Cedar Rapids, is a business student who transferred in from Truman State University in Missouri. He is chief executive officer of the startup. Dallago, 21, also from Cedar Rapids, is a computer engineering student. He is chief technology officer.

Adam Nelson and Joe Dallago explain their business plan for clusterFlunk, a University of Iowa-based social learning platform, at the Dream Big Grow Here competition in Cedar Rapids on Nov. 16, 2012. The company's web-based service is being launched later this month. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette)

The rest of the clusterFlunk team includes a user interface developer in Berkeley, Calif., a web designer based in California, and two University of Iowa student interns.

The irreverent name clusterFlunk was chosen to help the site get the attention of students. Nelson and Dallago then coined the term “flunkers” for students who enroll for classes on clusterFlunk. Promotional items include T-shirts that proclaim, “Let’s flunk, Iowa City!”

Even before launching, Nelson said there’s been a little negative feedback from some faculty because the site plans to archive class materials posted by students.

After clusterFlunk has been operating for a few semesters, a student would, for example, be able to look back at tests or other materials posted by students taking the class he is enrolled for the previous semester or year.

“Some of them (faculty) have gotten upset with us,” Nelson said. “They’ll have to start changing out their exams every semester now.”

Nelson and Dallago clearly enjoy being provocative, but inwardly regard themselves as pioneers in “learning efficiency.” Nelson compares the service to the online music streaming service Spotify, which provided a social media format for music enjoyment without violating intellectual property laws.

Whether there’s much valuable content on clusterFlunk to help students through their learning struggles will depend mostly on active student involvement. Realizing how critical student involvement is, the founders have set out to be community builders at the same time they’ve set out as entrepreneurs.

Nelson said clusterFlunk will closely monitor patterns of student use to see what kind of educational tools to offer on the site, and even what kind of revenue model to build to support the service.

There will be no fee to use clusterFlunk. Nelson said it may turn out that revenues are generated by advertising or referral fees from online student tutoring services, but the business is keeping its revenue options open.

The clusterFlunk team has literally taken to the streets to drum up interest, at one point hiring deejays to play loud music at the busy University of Iowa intersection of Iowa Avenue and Clinton Streets while they distributed flyers. Nelson earned a tresspassing ticket from university police and a warning to stop distributing flyers on UI property without permission.

The strategy worked. About 800 students registered last month for a five-day “smoke and mirrors” test of clusterFlunk which was intended to gauge how students liked the online experience.

Nelson is a business student, while Dallago is a computer engineering student. Dallago’s tech background, including internships at Google and SurveyMonkey, have been a huge asset to the company. He’s built in tools that will enable clusterFlunk to closely track usage data that will enable it to improve the platform, Nelson said.

Registrations will be accepted from anyone with a UI e-mail address, regardless of whether they are student, faculty or staff. Nelson said he expects many students to register under pseudonyms to protect their confidentiality.

Nelson said clusterFlunk met with UI administrators and consulted the UI’s Academic Misconduct policy in developing clusterFlunk. Site administrators will remove any content reported as plagiarism from the site, but decisions about whether academic discipline against any students involved will be up to the UI college or department in which they are enrolled.

The work, performed at The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, is a key milestone in the HH60G Avionics Communications Suite Upgrade Program, the company said. Modifications included installing four ARC210 Gen5 receiver-transmitters on the aircraft.

The addition of the ARC-210 Gen 5 radios will provide the HH60G helicopter platform with communication capabilities that will play a vital role in combat search and rescue and preparing for new Internet Protocol-based networking waveforms and connectivity, according to Rockwell Collins General Manager of Communication and Navigation Products Bob Haag.

DISH Network subscribers in Eastern Iowa have been without access to KCRG since the last retransmission agreement extension expired at noon Dec. 18.

“Obviously, for our viewers we’d like to get this resolved so we’re going to try to take some initiative to see if we can reach an agreement,” said Tim McDougall, vice president of products for The Gazette Co., which owns KCRG and The Gazette.

DISH Network subscribers in Eastern Iowa have been without access to KCRG since the last retransmission agreement extension expired at noon Dec. 18. (AP Photo)

McDougall said DISH Network had still not responded to KCRG’s last counteroffer on Dec. 20, but he remains hopeful a settlement can be reached.

DISH Network spokesman John Hall declined to comment, reissuing a previous DISH statement on the negotiations.

DISH Network viewers have complained to both companies about losing access to KCRG.

DISH Network has issued bill credits to some of its customers who’ve complained about losing KCRG access, based on emails to the TV station and Facebook postings, McDougall said.

DISH officials said the dispute is about higher retransmission payments KCRG is seeking in the talks. It says the TV station is asking DISH to pay six times more than what it is paying now for the same content.

“DISH has offered to pay Cedar Rapids TV a sizable rate increase that aligns with current market value,” said Andrew LeCuyer, DISH vice president of programming, in a statement. “We have reached agreements with hundreds of stations throughout the country over the last year, so we know with certainty that our offers have been fair.

“We hope Cedar Rapids TV will adopt a more reasonable approach.”

Neither side has disclosed specific details of their offers.

KCRG has confirmed that it is asking for more, but indicated it is from a low base. McDougall said KCRG is the most viewed station in this market on DISH’s system, and wants higher revenue to cover higher costs of network programming and to cover rising local news production costs.

The rent deal will be the prize in a sort of business plan competition aiming to attract more long-term businesses to fill underused and vacant downtown buildings in Mount Vernon and Lisbon.

Project Bright Idea Business Plan Competition was launched by Moon Eye Ventures, a local development company, and by the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group.

It’s a serious idea, with legal requirements and paperwork to prove it. Applicants are expected to be new or early stage independent, for-profit ventures. They’ll have to submit a draft business plan by 4:30 p.m., March 15, and meet other requirements such as submitting a resume, credit report and various legal waivers.

Mount Vernon Lisbon Community Development Group Director Joe Jennison (foreground left) talks with board member Sonia Redmond of Mount Vernon, while Kivetta Software employee Rick Thorington of Cedar Rapids stands on the stair landing after the Project Big Idea announcement at the former Kivetta office on Monday in Lisbon. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

“We have a great desire to revitalize our Main Street,” said Eric Krob, owner of the building being offered and a partner in Moon Eye Ventures.

He said Main Street has a smattering of service, food and beverage businesses, but too many vacant and underutilized buildings.

The 1,000-square-foot two-level brick building reserved for the winner is at 134 E. Main St., Lisbon. It’s historic on the outside, dating back to 1881, and modern on the inside, having been fully renovated fewer than five years ago.

Krob obtained the building for a small amount from the city of Lisbon to save it from demolition. It had served for many years as a family residence and dental office before falling into disrepair.

Krob turned the space into a coffee house. It opened in 2009, but didn’t survive the Great Recession. Kivetta Software, a software startup co-owned by Krob, then moved into the space.

Project Bright Idea’s organizer hope that the winning company will stay in the community even after their two-year maximum time limit in the building runs out, and another winner is chosen to take over the space, Krob said.

The selection committee will select up to five finalists. They then will be asked to submit their completed business plans and applications by 4:30 p.m., April 19, after which a winner will be chosen.

Winners will be judged on six criteria — the concept of their business, its potential economic impact, their personal qualifications, the feasibility of and market need for the business, its fit for the proposed site, and the quality of their oral presentation.

Kivetta Software of Lisbon develops and markets software to make procurement of supplies and materials for school districts more efficient and economical. Kivetta CEO Dave Cechota said the three-year-old company is now moving to larger quarters on Highway 30 in Lisbon.

“Moving out, even though I like the space, represents something great for Kivetta,” Cechocta said, adding that the company plans to ramp up its marketing.

Cechota, Krob and Bill DeJong are partners in Moon Eye Ventures. The group hopes to influence Main Street revitalization in Mount Vernon and Lisbon equally.

“While it’s two cities, it really like one community with a long Main Street,” Cechota said.

Joe Jennison, director of Main Street and Marketing for the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group, said Project Bright Idea is 1 of 10 community betterment projects the group is pursuing.

Krob said it’s possible more than one business could be selected if it appeared from the business plan submittals that there were two applicants, such as web-based businesses, that could easily share the roughly 1,100 square feet of physical space.

How to Enter:

Contact Joe Jennison at the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group at 319-210-9935 or visit http://www.mvl.com

A print of Grant Wood’s “Stone City, Iowa” is seen at the Carl and Mary Koehler History Center in Cedar Rapids in 2005.

One of Grant Wood’s most famous paintings brought author David Wood back to his Iowa roots to provide a setting for his latest children’s gardening book.

Author David Wood’s new book will feature a “quarry garden” set in the Jones County valley hamlet of Stone City in the 1930s.

Wood (who is no relation to the artist) was considering a plot for his latest children’s gardening book about the Zone 5 plant hardiness zone, of which Iowa is part.

“I’ve got a bucket list, and this is one of them,” said Wood, 82, of Crossville, Tenn.

Wood grew up in Cedar Rapids, living for many years in the former Ellis Park mansion, before moving to Michigan for much of his working life as a horticulturist for Ford Motor Co.

All along he kept his a reproduction of one of Iowa native Grant Wood’s most famous landscape paintings, “Stone City, Iowa.”

“I have never been to Stone City, although I’d heard of it,” David Wood said. The small valley hamlet on the Wapsipinicon River 22 miles northeast of Cedar Rapids once had several active limestone quarries and still has one working quarry. Much of the inhabited portion is a National Historic District.

Wood liked the idea of a quarry garden because of his familiarity with The Butchart Gardens, a group of floral display gardens built in a quarry on Canada’s Vancouver Island. It is one of the world’s most famous floral gardens.

Wood’s three previous gardening books combine fact with fancy. Wood uses the device of telepathic “gardening fairies” to direct landowners in the design and layout of gardens.

The plants and growing conditions in the hardiness zones are realistic and thoroughly researched.

Writing the books “was kind of a mission,” Wood said.

“My goal in life is to get kids out from behind their computers and video games,” Wood said.

“I do it because I love to work with kids. I have three books in the series: One on Florida, one on Ohio, one on Georgia and now the Midwest.”

When Wood contacted the non-profit Stone City Foundation to learn more, he found himself stepping back in time. He was placed in contact with Robert Hatcher of Stone City, who heads Jones County’s tourism office.

“We found out we were both from Cedar Rapids,” Hatcher said. “We later found out we lived two doors apart on Ellis Boulevard, we both went to the same school and we both had five brothers and five sisters.”

The book discusses gardening at a time “when there was still a lot of hardscrabble farming going on in Iowa,” Wood said. It discusses sod houses, arboretums, Boy Scout tree planting projects, barbed wire and tractors.

Wood has gardening in his blood. His father was a professional gardener from England, who oversaw Ellis Park in Cedar Rapids. His wife is a gardening author, who wrote the Lasagna Gardening book series. His son, Tim Wood, is an internationally known horticulturist and author.

Wood joined Ford Motor Co. in 1956 to help a European gardener who was designing rooftop, indoor and ground gardens for a new 12-story office building Henry Ford II was having built. He became well acquainted with the “whiz kids,” a group of 10 U.S. Army Air Force veterans of World War II who became Ford Motor Co. executives in 1946.

The whiz kids all rose through the ranks to high positions in Ford, partly because of their Air Force background in management science and logistics.

Hatcher was surprised when a “small gift” that Wood had offered to send the Stone City Foundation turned out to be $5,000. The small foundation wasn’t used to receiving gifts so large. The donation will be used to pay for electrification of the old Stone City blacksmith shop, he said.

The fund, Wood said, came from a philanthropic foundation set up by former Ford President Arjay R. Miller of Nebraska, who wanted to thank Wood for helping with his personal arboretum project.

Wood also did some work for another person with connections to both Ford and Cedar Rapids: J. Edward Lundby, a major benefactor to Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.

Hatcher said he’s hopeful that having Stone City featured in the book will bring more visitors to the county. Even though the real Stone City has no grand gardens, it has natural beauty that has lured visitors for many years.

Three days later the same room will be welcoming its next guest, looking to the untrained eye like a room in a freshly built hotel.

Holiday Inn Express Coralville General Manager Neal Roth and Manager Amanda Turner in the renovated exercise room of the hotel. The renovations included such touches as treadmill-mounted flat-screen televisions. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette)

Renovating a 80-room hotel , at a cost of $1.2 million, without closing for a single day isn’t easy. But it’s a challenge best not avoided in a growing hotel market such as Iowa City-Coralville.

The Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites at 970 25th Ave., Coralville, which opened just more than 12 years ago next to the Coral Ridge Mall, was the top ranked hotel in guest satisfaction on TripAdvisor, a position it held regularly over the past several years.

It also had the benefit of a franchise affiliation that provided one of the best guest rewards programs.

Neal Roth, the hotel’s veteran general manager, knew that tougher competition was ahead. Several new hotels were slated to open in the Iowa City area.

Not only would they be new, several were associated with top hotel brands such as Hilton and Marriott that offer strong rewards programs to keep guests coming back.

Kinseth Hospitality, the North Liberty-based owner of Holiday Inn Express Coralville, decided two years ago it was time to refresh the hotel and seek an extension of its licensing agreement with the Holiday Inn brand from Intercontinental Hotels Group.

After sending a team of designers to determine what the hotel would need for a new license agreement, Intercontinental provided more than 30 pages of recommendations that provided a starting point for the project.

Freshening the look of the hotel was only part of the equation. Regulations and industry norms have changed since the hotel was built.

The list included items such as a lower wheelchair accessible front desk counter next to the existing counter and lifts for helping people with disabilities enter the swimming pool, along with a number of cosmetic updates.

Then it was time for Kinseth’s own design team to provide its input. Kinseth likes its hotels to have a unique look and feel, Roth said, but a crucial issue was how everything tied together.

When it was all submitted and approved by Intercontinental, the cost estimates were about 25 percent higher than the minimum required.

The end result was “everything you can see, touch and feel” had to change inside the hotel, Roth said. Kinseth wants its renovated hotels to have a look that won’t be dated one decade from now, he added.

Some of the touches might seem unnecessary, such as exercise room treadmills equipped with on-board televisions. But they could be the difference a guest notices when determining whether to return.

Mixing old and new finishes is dangerous territory.

“If you don’t do certain things, they stand out,” Roth explained.

More important, renovating rooms in an operating hotel requires careful scheduling and planning.

Work is scheduled to avoid the heaviest occupancy seasons, primarily the fall months that bring thousands to Iowa City and Coralville for University of Iowa football games.

The project started with renovations to the lobby-front desk area, the club room where breakfast is served to guests, and the fitness room.

Once the renovations got to the upper guest room floors, it became a matter of scheduling work around guest reservations.

Work takes places only during the day time when rooms are generally unoccupied. Managing guest expectations is important, according to Amanda Turner, manager at the hotel.

The most common approach is to close off an entire floor to guests while it is renovated so that there’s no reason for guests to come face-to-face with renovation work or trip on an extension cord.

If a guest needs a room and the only one available is on a floor in renovation, they might be offered a discounted rate. Guests who need to sleep during the day are booked into a “quiet zone” away from the renovations, Turner said.

Placards placed on lobby and breakfast room make playful references to the construction work under way, and a notice to guests is posted in the elevator. Otherwise, there’s typically no discussion about the renovation at check-in time unless the guest will be on an affected floor.

Very rarely does a hotel general manager’s first renovation go smoothly, Roth said, because there are so many different factors to consider and so much more work than normal. Roth has been through several such on-the-fly hotel renovations, however.

“We’re fortunate to have a great team of experienced people,” Roth said. “Even though it’s a challenge because you’re selling rooms while you’re renovating, at least you have a good team.”

Kinseth tries to stick with known contractors who have worked on hotel renovations before and understand its renovation process. Much of the work, such as moving furnishings in and out of rooms and hanging wall fixtures, is done by Kinseth’s own personnel.

Because Kinseth has other properties in the area, it can bring in additional staff from other hotels when there’s a special need, such as clearing out the furnishings and fixtures from a series of rooms, or cleaning up a renovated floor to get it ready for occupancy.

Roth insists on getting his own hands dirty on occasion. In fact, he’d rather perform certain tasks such as hanging wall lamps and bathroom curtains himself. That’s because moving a fixture once it’s been installed leaves behind holes that require a costly and time consuming repair of the wall’s finish.

More hotel renovations are expected in the Iowa City-Coralville-North Liberty market, according to Josh Schamberger, president of the Iowa City/Coralville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Within a two-year period, Schamberger expects five hotels to open.

A new 95-room Homewood Suites is coming soon to the Iowa River Landing area of Coralville. A new 93-room Hampton Inn opened recently in Iowa City, and a new 100-room Residence Inn debuted this year just a shout from the Holiday Inn Express.

In addition to those hotels, Schamberger said Kinseth is expected to build a new Holiday Inn/Staybridge Suites combination hotel to downtown Iowa City, and a new Drury Inn is anticipated to open at the former Econo Lodge location at Iowa River Landing.

“It’s probably the largest amount of (room) inventory that has come on line since I’ve been here,” Schamberger said. “I’m sure many properties will start renovating to stay competitive.”

Schamberger said the Heartland Inn in Coralville, which renovated one floor after the June 2008 flood, already is considering renovating other floors in the next year or two. He said Peter Patel, owner of the Big Ten Inn and the Best Western Canterbury Inn, recently bought and renovated the former Motel 6 into a Super 7 hotel.

Occupancy in the Iowa City-Coralville hotel market has been growing about four percent annually, Schamberger said. In the midst of that growth, he said the Holiday Inn Express Coralville has had one of the highest occupancy rates.

It’s averaged 80 percent occupancy, he said, compared to 60 percent for hotels in that category.

MopedU reported revenue growth of 300 percent in 2012. The company announced Friday that it has obtained financing from MidWestOne Bank of Belle Plaine for the expansion.

MopedU is owned by Bryan Ilg, Josh Bass and Tommy Le.

The expansion will include two more positions at the company’s dealership at 410 Highland Ave. and four in an undisclosed new location.

The new out-of-state location is expected to be in a southern state. Locating in a climate with a year-around demand for scooter rentals is expected to accelerate the company’s growth, according to Le.

Cody Wisner, formerly of J & P Cycles in Anamosa, recently joined the company as dealership manager.

MopedU co-owner Bryan Ilg explains how a moped works to Luke Fevold (seated) in this 2011 photo. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette)

Wellmark’s Nov. 7 request would affect roughly 150,000 of Wellmark’s 1.8 million Iowa members under age 65 who have individual policies rather than policies issued through an employer.

Wellmark's Nov. 7 request would affect roughly 150,000 of Wellmark's 1.8 million Iowa members under age 65 who have individual policies rather than policies issued through an employer. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

The amount varies by insurance product, from a 3 percent proposed increase in Wellmark’s HMO-Blue Advantage to a 12.2 percent increase in the company’s Direct Pay and Blue Transitions plan, and a 13.3 percent increase in Farm Bureau, Basic and Standard plans.

The Iowa Insurance Division could approve the request as is, or modify the level of increase if it finds the request is not warranted.

Not everyone is pleased by the request.

Rick and Sarah Fromm of Decorah would see their Blue Cross Blue Shield Major Medical premiums go up from $24,000 per year to $26,000 per year, according to Rick, managing editor at Decorah Newspapers.

Rick said he’s stayed with Wellmark since 1985 because he didn’t want to go through underwriting again after experiencing a manageable heart condition. But his insurance premiums skyrocketed when he recently hit 60, which he said was the top age bracket in Wellmark’s classification system for determining rates.

“I’m very much opposed,” Fromm said of Wellmark’s rate hike. “I don’t understand how a person with an average salary can afford it.”

An increase in the size of large claims, an increase in the use of out-of-state health service providers, and an increase in musculoskeletal claims were the main drivers of the increase, according to Wellmark.

The state’s largest medical insurer cited a continuing rise in the number of members with claims over $100,000, associated with serious conditions such as heart failure, septicemia and meningitis.

Wellmark said the number of visits to out-of-state providers increased 8 percent in 2012, while total medical claims paid to out-of-state providers increased by 6 percent.

Nearly $45 million was reimbursed for visits to out-of-state offices and clinics, where services on average cost two times more than they would if delivered by an Iowa-based provider, Wellmark indicated.

The state’s largest medical insurance provider also saw an increase in claims for things such as chiropractic services and knee replacement surgeries that it linked to sedentary lifestyles and body weight issues.

The increased use of expensive drugs was also a factor. The number of people using cholesterol-lowering drugs increased 13 percent, and the amount of claims paid increased 16 percent, the company said.

Wellmark Executive Vice President of Health Care Policy and Strategy Laura Jackson said Wellmark would prefer not to be bringing such an increase to the state for approval. She said the company’s goal is to bring rate increases into line with the consumer price index over a period of time by taking waste out of the system and improving the health of the populations the company serves.

Jackson noted that the vast majority of insured are in employer-sponsored health plans, which often include wellness and education components that help improve health and use patterns. She said the individual health plan market includes self-employed and unemployed Iowans, and tends to include more individuals who don’t have full-time employment due to health-related issues.

The cost of Wellmark’s operations are only 7.5 cents of every premium dollar, according to the company, while payments for health care services are 86.9 cents per dollar. The remaining 5.6 cents includes 4 cents in broker commissions, 1.3 cents in corporate earnings and 0.3 cents in premium taxes.

The Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to spend 80 cents of each premium dollar on medical claims in the Individual Under 65 market.

Some of Wellmark’s medical plans, including Medicare Supplement plans, will have no increase in base rates. Jackson said Wellmark’s premiums were among the lowest in the country, citing  a report issued by eHealth in November 2012.

The state insurance regulator approved a 9.35 percent overall increase for Wellmark’s individual plan for 2012.

Wellmark boosted rates on individual health policies by 18 percent in 2010 and by 8.5 percent in 2011.

The new rates when approved are expected to take effect in April.

Golden Rule Insurance, a United Healthcare company, requested permission to raise individual health insurance base premiums by 15 percent in 2013, according to the Iowa Insurance Consumer Advocate’s office. Hearings on that request are scheduled for 11 a.m., Jan. 12.

If you go:

The Iowa Insurance Division will conduct the hearing on Wellmark’s rate requests at 11 a.m. via teleconference at Iowa Communications Network locations statewide, including Linn Hall Room 2184 at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids.

The mall was transferred Dec. 31 to A. Shapiro LLC, an investor group represented by Scott Byers of Cedar Rapids and leased by Westdale CR Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of Denver-based Frew Development Group, according to letters delivered to mall tenants on Wednesday.

Mall hours will remain the same and tenants who want to stay are being encouraged to do so, developer John Frew said in an email. It lists about 35 tenants within the mall itself.

Veteran Westdale Mall General Manager Kerry Sanders and two of his team have been retained to oversee the mall, Frew indicated.

Frew previously has discussed plans to demolish much of the mall except three anchor stores — the currently leased J.C. Penney and Younkers spaces, and the vacant Von Maur space.

In place of the enclosed complex of stores, Frew’s group has pledged to the city of Cedar Rapids that $90 million will be invested to redevelop the property. A mixture of retail, residential, parks and hospitality space are planned on the former mall footprint and adjacent parking areas.

The new retail design is expected to be built in strip fashion rather than with enclosed public spaces.

Plans for Westdale Mall by developer John Frew call for the demolition of most of the mall, keeping J.C. Penny and Younkers. A number of the smaller tenants have said they want to stay. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Exactly what will come down first is on the minds of mall tenants, who don’t want to be left out in the cold. Several of them said they’ve already started exploring options for leasing space elsewhere, but would prefer to stay at Westdale if possible.

“It’s tough running a business when I literally don’t know what’s going to happen in three days,” Jim Johnson, manager of Solid Wood Furniture, said last week.

Johnson said he’s on a month-to-month lease, leading him to believe that he’ll be “safe-ish” at least until Jan. 29.

Many of the mall tenants seemed happy with their lease terms, despite the high vacancy rate of the mall that has cut into retail traffic.

Creative Iowans, which opened in Westdale, has been extremely pleased with the reception since opening in Westdale last May.

Creative Iowans is “not going anywhere unless they boot us out,” said Christina Klees, one of the owners.

Klees said the shop, which offers crafts and artwork by close to 40 Iowans in a 5,000 square foot space, has become a destination for many people since it opened last May.

One of the most frustrating things in process of acquiring the mall property was that the buyers could not communicate with the mall tenants, Frew indicated.

One reason it wasn’t possible to communicate with tenants was apparently the uncertainty that the deal would go through. Frew indicated the transaction was complex, and wasn’t a done deal until the “very, very end.”

The new owner may not have too many timetable specifics to share with tenants in next week’s meetings. It will take “a number of months to rezone, plan, secure permits, etc., so nothing will happen for a while,” Frew wrote.

He said the phasing of the development has not been decided.

Mall retailers contacted by The Gazette were supportive of the redevelopment effort, believing regardless of how they personally affected that major redevelopment is needed to reverse the mall’s slide.

Secret Nails owner Amy Hoang said she can remember at time when every space at the mall was full and it was hard to find a convenient parking space. Now, she said, longtime regulars complain about the dwindling shopping opportunities when they come to have their nails done.

Hoang said she plans to remain at Westdale.

“We survived because we’ve been here so long,” she said. “We have regular customers.”

Leo Young of the Popcorn Shoppe said the mall wouldn’t renew his one-year lease when it came up for renewal recently, so he’s on a month-to-month lease. He said some of the retailer concerns may be due to a previous unsuccessful bid to buy the mall, in which retailer’s were told the mall’s doors would close almost immediately.

Referring to Frew, Young said, “He’s earning something if he can keep these businesses open while he does his redevelopment,” Young said.

The total number of bankruptcy cases filed in Iowa’s bankruptcy courts fell 20.2 percent from 7,861 in 2011 to 6,277 in 2012.

Bankruptcy forgives repayment of certain debts and can often help a debtor keep possession of debt-encumbered property such as their house or car. In exchange, it provides a system for ensuring that the debtor pays as much of the debt as they can, and helps assure all creditors rights are honored equally.

The chief negative for debtors filing bankruptcy is likely to be a lowered credit score and reduced access to borrowing in the short term.

Bankruptcy filings statewide in 2012 were at their lowest level since 2007. In the Cedar Rapids Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the 762 bankruptcy filings were the lowest since 2006.

While key measures of Iowa’s economy improved during 2012, bankruptcy attorneys said they strongly suspect other factors weighed more heavily in the trend.

Not for everyone

Kevin Ahrenholz, a Cedar Rapids attorney who specializes in debt law, pointed out that many long-term unemployed aren’t good candidates for bankruptcy. That’s because they no longer have income for creditors to garnish or equity in a home that is at risk of foreclosure. The inability to come up with the filing fees and attorney’s fees also can prevent the most disadvantaged debtors from filing.

Bankruptcies spiked nationwide in 2005 before a federal law change that increased the requirements for obtaining bankruptcy protection from creditors, then again in 2009 after the economy went into recession.

Ahrenholz noted that federal law now prevents a debtor from filing Chapter 7, the most common form of bankruptcy, more frequently than every eight years. As a result, he said, many debtors are in a period during which they can’t file another Chapter 7.

American Bankruptcy Institute Executive Director Samuel Gerdano said last month that the leading bankruptcy research organization expects fewer than 1.4 million consumer bankruptcies nationwide in 2012, fewer than in 2011.

Flood factors

The decrease runs contrary to concerns that bankruptcies would soar in the years following the Floods of 2008, although one Cedar Rapids attorney believes business bankruptcies in Cedar Rapids are probably up.

“I’ve done a lot more work for businesses over the past few years than I’d done before,” said Cedar Rapids attorney John Heckel. He said many business owners file bankruptcy under their own names, making it difficult to easily distinguish the percentage of bankruptcies filed by businesses.

The flood forced many businesses that didn’t have flood insurance to take on a heavy layer of additional debt to restore their buildings and replace inventory and equipment.

Heckel said he’s heard that one factor in the overall bankruptcy decline has been the tightening up of credit by banks and other credit card issuers several years ago. With less access to credit, Americans are having less trouble paying it off, some experts believe.

Heckel said most bankruptcy filers he’s worked with over the last year have the same kind of debt problems he’s seen in previous years — unexpected loss of employment, loss of work hours, medical expenses or divorce that threw their previous household budget out of kilter.

Most bankruptcy filers in the area have household incomes of about $35,000 to $70,000, Heckel said, and haven’t been irresponsible in managing their household finances.

“Everybody wants to think they’re in control of their destiny and above it all, but most of are dependent on our regular income to cover our expenses,” Heckel said.

Lisbon’s new grocery store came with a bonus, however. It’s the first in the growing Brothers Market chain to have a in-store coffee cafe and coffee roaster.

Brothers Markets partnered with Cabin Coffee of Clear Lake to incorporate the coffee house into its new store, located along Highway 30 on Lisbon’s west side.

The Brothers Market chain was started by the DeVries brothers — Dusty, Darian, Jay and Jared DeVries — who were acclaimed prep athletes during their high school years in Aplington. After the Parkersburg tornado caused the local market in their hometown community to close in 2008, they decided to open their first grocery to bring back a food market to the town.

They later opened their second market in Cascade.

The Lisbon location is the first "store within a store" for Cabin Coffee. (Brothers Market/Cabin Coffee photo)

The Lisbon location is the first “store within a store” for Cabin Coffee, according to Brad Barber, who founded the business with his wife, Angie, in Clear Lake 10 years ago.

Jared DeVries, the former Detroit Lions defensive end, was a longtime customer of Cabin Coffee’s Clear Lake cafe, Barber said.

After the DeVries brothers made their first run at incorporating a coffee shop into their new store in Cascade, they decided to bring in outside expertise to help with their next store in Lisbon.

The Lisbon coffee shop is a more extensive affair than most in-store Starbucks counters. It features a cozy fireplace, rustic wood decor, coffee roaster, retail coffee bean selection and a breakfast and lunch menu.

Customers who want fresh-roast coffee to take home can make their selection before they do their shopping, then pick up the coffee later.

With its contemporary styling, the new Brothers Market breaks from the antiquated stereotype of small-town markets. It hopes to draw from a much larger market than Lisbon, even though neighboring Mount Vernon also has a grocery store.

Lisbon Mayor Beryl O’Connor said that while she’s highly impressed by the store, one of the best things the market gives her local constituents is a store they can visit on foot or bicycle.

Most of the customers will come in by car, from a broader area. The city provided the store with a turning lane on Highway 30, and O’Connor expects other retailers to locate in the new commercial subdivision.

Local leaders have been working for over a year to court Brothers Market, paying more than $5,000 for a study that helped validate the ability of a new grocery to succeed in Lisbon, and providing for other incentives that could be worth $870,000 over a 10-year period.

Barber said connecting with the local community is a key ingredient in Cabin Coffee’s success. The chain has fundraising programs for community schools and other groups, and provides local jobs.

“You can sell a good cup of coffee, but the first thing you have to have is a warm friendly smile,” he said. “We really want to make their day.”

MidAmerican Energy added 407 megawatts of wind power in 2012, including the 106-megawatt Vienna wind project the company acquired in Marshall and Tama counties, the 200-megawatt Eclipse wind farm in Guthrie and Audubon counties, and the 101-megawatt Morning Light wind project in Adair County.

“MidAmerican Energy had approval from the Iowa Utilities Board to add up to 1,001 megawatts of wind-powered generation before 2013, and I’m proud to say that we fulfilled that commitment,” said Bill Fehrman, CEO of Des Moines-based MidAmerican, in a statement released Monday.

With the completion of three Iowa wind power projects in 2012, Iowa's largest utility now gets about 30 percent of its total power generation from wind. (MidAmerican Energy photo)

The 176 wind turbines added by MidAmerican were supplied by Siemens AG, which manufactured the blades in Fort Madison. The Vienna wind development was constructed by Mortenson Construction.

The Eclipse and Morning Light wind projects were built by Wanzek Construction.

A key federal tax credit used to help finance many wind developments, the Production Tax Credit, was due to expire at the end of 2012.

MidAmerican Energy has invested some $3.9 billion in wind generation projects in Iowa since its first project in 2004. The utility now owns 2,285 megawatts of wind-generation capacity.

Because of variable wind speeds and other factors, the output of wind turbines is substantially less than their rated capacity.

MidAmerican provides electric service to 732,000 customers and natural gas to 714,000 customers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota.

(The Gazette)

Alliant Energy customers will be hearing a lot more about light emitting diodes (LEDs) and opportunities to make apartments and condominiums energy efficient under a new long-term energy efficiency plan presented to the Iowa Utilities Board.

Alliant’s current five-year energy efficiency plan expires at the end of 2013. The company’s Interstate Power and Light subsidiary submitted a proposed new plan to replace it from 2014 through 2018 last month.

The new plan calls for spending $399 million over the five-year period, down $1 million from $400 million in the last five-year plan.

Customers fund the state-mandated program through their utility bills. For customers who use the many programs offered, however, reduced energy consumption, rebates and other incentives can more than compensate for the extra cost.

The plan is forecast to result in $768 million in direct benefits to participants in the form of lower energy bills. .

Alliant spokesman Justin Foss said one reason energy efficiency spending can be lowered is the improved availability and adoption of energy efficient products and building methods. As a result, he said, Alliant often doesn’t have to use rebates or other incentives to induce energy efficient chooices.

“If one of our customers is going to buy a new furnace, they are probably going to buy an energy efficient one, because the furnaces available now in Iowa are almost all energy efficient models,” Foss said. “It doesn’t depend as much on whether we offer a rebate.”

The spending is projected to yield electricity savings of 815 gigawatt hours, or 1.13 percent of IPL’s electric load forecast on average. The previous plan had projected savings of 1.05 percent per year.

Left out of the new plan is a current renewable power generation pilot program that provides financial and technical assistance to conduct feasibility studies and provide cash rebates to install equipment.

Foss said the programs were omitted partly because renewable generation, while desirable, does not necessarily lower overall energy use.

Alliant eliminated a Performance Contracting program, which helps develop energy efficiency projects for nonresidential customers that pay for themselves out of savings, and a program called Home Performance With Energy Star, which provides a home energy inspection and cash rewards for homeowners who meet or exceed identified energy savings goals.

Three tree-planting programs currently in effect also are left out of the new program.

The programs were eliminated because of low cost-effectiveness, lack of customer interest, and limited support outside the company to deliver the programs, Alliant’s Jeanine Penticoff said in written testimony to the board.

While the pilot renewable energy program was dropped, Alliant plans to continue supporting its customers’ installation of renewable technologies such as solar and wind power through power purchase agreements, interconnection agreement and tariff agreements. The agreements set forth the terms under which Alliant will interconnect with customer-owned generation and credit their bills for power generated beyond what they consume.

One of the new programs will address energy efficency needs of multifamily housing, mainly apartments. Historically, it’s been a challenge to get landlords to invest in energy efficiency because they see renters, rather than themselves, as benefiting from lower utility costs.

The new “Change-a-Light” program expands an existing seasonal program into a year-around program, according to Penticoff, director of economic development, energy efficiency and account management for Alliant. It will focus on getting customers to use highly-efficient LED bulbs and fixtures on a everyday basis, while the current program focuses on holiday lights.

A third new program offers three types of energy efficient assessments and lighting efficiency opportunities for businesses.

Foss said the energy efficiency plan is just one component of an overall strategic plan the utility follows to maximize the cost-effective and reliable delivery of electricity and natural gas. The plan includes power generation planning, fuel sourcing, distribution planning and other elements.

The Iowa Utilities Board is expected to act on the energy efficiency plan in the final four months of 2013. The impact on customer bills is expected to be small, Foss said.

The Iowa City MSA ended November down 1,100 nonfarm jobs from October levels. Employment was 800 below year-ago levels, with a year-over-year decline of 1,000 in service-providing industries, according to Iowa Workforce Development. The unemployment rate declined to 3.2 percent from October’s 3.4 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.

The Cedar Rapids MSA shed 200 nonfarm jobs from October. At 139,500 jobs, the Cedar Rapids MSA was 500 jobs higher than in October 2011. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.8 percent.

Manufacturing employment in the Cedar Rapids MSA was unchanged from October, but down 800 from November 2011 levels.

Total nonfarm jobs also declined in the Ames MSA (-300) the Des Moines MSA (-1,100) the Dubuque MSA (-100) and the Sioux City MSA (-200).

The Waterloo/Cedar Falls MSA gained 800 jobs from October, but remained 300 below year-earlier levels.

Iowa’s statewide unemployment rate for November of 4.9 percent was reported last week. That rate, which is seasonally adjusted, was an improvement over October’s 5.1 percent rate.

Quinton McClain plans to open White Elephant Brewing Co., a 10-barrel brewpub, by renovating and expanding this historic building at 1010 Third St. SE. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette)

The historic White Elephant building in Cedar Rapids’ New Bohemia district will experience new life as a brewpub.

Quinton McClain, a former brewer at Fort Collins Brewery in Fort Collins, Colo., plans to open the White Elephant Brewing Co. by renovating and expanding what remains of the structure at 1010 Third St. SE after the 2008 flood.

McClain, who is from Cedar Rapids, recently moved back to town to pursue the project. He has become a spokesman for the brewer’s art since his return, writing a column on craft beers for The Gazette’s Hoopla publication.

“The goal is to make delicious beer, revitalize part of a historic district, bring the White Elephant to a new generation of Cedar Rapidians and provide another draw to the downtown,” McClain wrote in an email.

The 10-barrel brewpub will be a relatively small venture, McClain added, with a small food menu. McClain said the brewpub’s tap room will be modeled after his experiences in Colorado, Portland, Ore., and visits to breweries in Europe.

McClain did not have a timetable for the redevelopment of the property, which was purchased from the Thorland Co. for $68,000 on Dec. 12.

A brewpub was one of the things Cedar Rapids area residents would most like to see added to the New Bo/Czech Village Main Street District, according to an online survey conducted as part of the district’s master planning process, said Jennifer Pruden, the district’s executive director.

The White Elephant building is a contributing structure to the Bohemian Commercial Historic District in Cedar Rapids. The main street district had an architectural consultant for Main Street Iowa prepare renderings of what the restored building could look like, according to Pruden.

More than 120 years old, the White Elephant building is one of the last remaining storefronts in the district that is built on the front of the original business owner’s residence, according to Mark Stoffer Hunter, Cedar Rapids historian. He said it was owned by the Suchy family, who later moved their jewelry business into a more modern building next door that is now Bata’s restaurant.

The original building was later converted by two Cedar Rapids school teachers into a resale store called the White Elephant and operated under that name for decades.

Pruden said a brewpub will help create the concentration of retail stores needed to make New Bohemia a vibrant shopping area, and will complement businesses such as the Bata’s restaurant, which opened next door to the White Elephant Building earlier this year.

McClain’s family formerly operated the Corner House Gallery and Frame at 2753 First Ave. SE, which closed earlier this year to make way for a new medical office building. David Chadima of the Thorland Co. said his family and the McClain family were formerly neighbors, so he felt confident their business would also be a good neighbor in the New Bo district.

Chadima said the business will add to the list of locally made products available in Cedar Rapids and help save one of the dwindling number of historic buildings remaining after the flood.

Brewpubs tend to be smaller than microbreweries, which sell most of their production off-premises, and also tend to focus more on dining options. Cedar Rapids has one other brewpub, Third Base Brewery at 500 Blairs Ferry Road NE, as well as Granite City Food & Brewery, at 4755 First Ave. SE, which produces beer from wort prepared at a central facility.

During the renovation of the nearby Suchy Building that now houses Bata’s Restaurant, David Chadima said a beer bottle labeled “Parlor City Beer” was found, denoting an earlier era of production breweries in Cedar Rapids. He said the Czech immigrants who settled in the area had a rich brewing tradition.

Iowa is undergoing its biggest brewery boom in many decades due to the rising popularity of craft beers. Backpocket Brewing Co. opened earlier this year in Coralville’s Iowa River Landing in a building leased from the city of Coralville, and the Solon City Council has approved incentives for a microbrewery at 101 W. Main St., the former site of Joensy’s Restaurant.

Wapsipinicon State Park ranger Dennis Murphy walks out of the Ice Cave during a tour of the historic park Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, in Anamosa, Iowa. Park visitors also can explore bowl-shaped Horse Thief Cave. Legend has it that two thieves used the used the cave for their camp and to hide their stolen horses. The cave also served as a shelter for prehistoric American Indian cultures. (Jim Slosiarek/Gazette-KCRG)

ANAMOSA — Wapsipinicon State Park, built with inmate labor on land originally donated by community residents, will make a bid to become Iowa’s first state park designated a National Historic District in its entirety.

The State Historical Society of Iowa recently announced the award of a $7,350 grant to the Jones County Historic Preservation Commission for a $13,950 project to research and prepare the historic district application to the National Park Service.

A National Register of Historic Places designation could help the Iowa Department of Natural Resources that maintains and manages the 400-acre park obtain more grant funding for preserve sites in the park. It could also shape the planning of future projects in the park to protect its historic appeal.

“It says, “this is special,” said John Maehl, district supervisor for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Iowa’s older parks are dotted with rustic pavilions, lodges and bridges built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Many of the rustic structures in those parks are already on the historic register, based in part on their connection to the depression-era public works project.

That’s not the case with Wapsipinicon State Park, which has even older structures.

LOCAL MATERIALS

Most of the structures in Wapsipinicon State Park were built in the early 1920s, about 10 years before the CCC structures, using locally quarried limestone from the Anamosa area and labor from the Anamosa State Reformatory, according to archaeological and historical consultant Leah Rogers of Tallgrass Historical LC, Iowa City.

In fact, it was a potential deal between the reformatory and the landowner of what’s now the oldest section of park that led Anamosa citizens to buy land in the area and donate it to the state to build the park.

The reformatory had made an agreement with Asa Smith, who raised horses on 183.5 land that is now part of the park, to harvest the land’s timber in exchange for one-half of the harvested wood to use at the reformatory.

Townspeople, who didn’t want to see the area logged, raised $22,936 to buy the 183 acres of land, and immediately donated it to what was then the Iowa Board of Conservation to create a state park.

INMATE BUILDERS

Inmate crews built shelters and other park features, including a transportation network dominated by a scenic loop drive that followed the sharp contours of the hilly landscape, and included two limestone arch bridges.

Developing the park took nearly five years, according to Rose Rohr, executive director of the Jones County Historic Preservation Commission. For years afterward, inmates helped maintain the park.

The park was a source of immense pride to many of the inmates. Rohr said the work bolstered the self-esteem of inmates who could, decades later after their release. show their families and friends the lasting contribution they’d made to their state.

One of the early park features was a stone swimming pool made by damming a creek. The pool was later closed for public health reasons, but remains one of the most poignant memories of Anamosa residents who visited the park in its early years.

The hilly park is best known for its white pine forest, limestone bluffs, a riverfront picnicking and fishing area, rustic picnic shelters, the Wapsipinicon Golf Club, the Horse Thief Cave and Ice cave.

Park Manager Dennis Murphy said the regular daily use of the park by residents of the adjacent Anamosa community sets it apart from most of the other Iowa state parks. About 200 Anamosa area residents visit the park faithfully to jog, bicycle, picnic, fish or view wildlife almost regardless of the weather, Murphy said.

Bob Hatcher, executive director of the Jones County Tourism Association, often directs visitors looking for interesting local sights to try the park’s visually stunning, roller coaster ride of a park drive.

“They’ll say, Why? It’s just a park. I tell them, “You drive through it and THEN tell me it’s just a park,” Hatcher said.

PREHISTORIC SITES

Eleven archaeological sites have been recorded within the park boundaries, providing evidence of human habitation dating back more than 5,500 years B.C.

The historic district application is expected to include all of the park and the river bridges that link it to the town, and the inhabitants of the park before recorded history. It will even include the “view shed,” or view from key vantage points, Rohr said.

Murphy, the park manager, says one of the issues facing older parks with historic structures is that the DNR’s limited budget makes it a challenge to maintain and restore them. Obtaining a historic district designation could be some help, he said.

Rohr said the historic preservation commission will enlist volunteers to help with the project and will use its fundraising dinners at the Hale Bridge at Wapsipinicon State Park to provide local matching funds for the grant.

Rohr expects a consultant to be selected for the nomination research by the end of April and a final nomination for the National Register of Historic Places to be submitted in June 2014.

So off to the fueling pump with our 2003 Volkswagen Golf we went.

One of the area's first E15 pumps is shown at the Linn Co-op Oil Co. in Marion. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette)

Product: E15

What it is: Automotive fuel with 15 percent ethyl alcohol (ethanol) — 50 percent more ethanol than the E10 that has become the most common motor fuel in Iowa. It was approved for use in most newer cars by the EPA in August.

Where to find it:

Linn Co-op Oil Co., 375 35th St., Marion

What it cost:

Nov. 30: $3.11 per gal

Dec. 7: $3.05 per gal

Dec. 14: $2.95 per gal

How it compares to E10:

Nov. 30: 2 cents per gal. more than E10 at nearby stations

Dec. 7: approximately same price as E10 at nearby stations

Dec. 14: approximately same price as E10 at nearby stations

Fuel economy:

Higher ethanol concentrations in gasoline can be associated with a loss in fuel economy. We tested E15 in a 2003 Volkswagen Golf with a 2.0 liter, 4-cylinder engine with a typical fuel economy range of 28 to 32 miles per gallon, depending on factors such as driving conditions, speed, tire inflation, load and weather.

The fuel economy we experienced with E15 was within this range, at 31.5 miles per gallon on the first fill-up and 28.6 miles per gallon on a second fill-up.

Engine performance:

A pump at the Linn Co-op Oil Co., Marion, shows the price of E15 on Dec. 14, 2012. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette)

Some groups have warned motorists that E15 use can void warranties on vehicles not designed to use E15, damage engines or otherwise affect engine performance. Because of the age of the vehicle being used for this story, warranty considerations were not an issue, and engine performance did not appear to be impaired. If there was any difference in performance, it was a slight change in the pitch of the engine’s sound.

Availability/convenience:

E15 was only available at one location in the Cedar Rapids metro area, Linn Co-op Oil Co. in Marion, which had E15 on only some of its pumps.

E15 can be used in 2001 and newer cars, light duty trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Other issues:

AAA has called for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to repeal its approval of E15 because of the warranty issues and also claims that motorists could inadvertently fill with E15, causing motorists to void their warranty or risk engine damage.

We found no evidence that there is any greater risk motorists accidentally would fill their tank with E15 any more than they might accidentally fill with diesel fuel or E85 (the fuel blend with 85 percent ethanol).

Bottom line:

We found no significant advantage or disadvantage to using E15 versus E10, except the disadvantage of having to fuel at one particular location that is less convenient than most. Because of competitive factors in the local market where E15 is available, pricing seemed to favor E10 slightly over E15.

These concerns may be alleviated as more convenience stores begin to offer E15 and prices decline with increased availability. For now, the decision to use E15 may rest on more personal preferences, such as the motorists’ views on ethanol and warranty considerations with their particular model of vehicle.

The State Historical Society of Iowa recently announced the award of a $7,350 grant to the Jones County Historic Preservation Commission for a $13,950 project to research and prepare the historic district application to the National Park Service.

A National Register of Historic Places designation could help the Iowa Department of Natural Resources that maintains and manages the 400-acre park obtain more grant funding to main preserve sites in the park. It could also shape the planning of future projects in the park to protect its historic appeal.

“It says, “this is special,” said John Mael, district supervisor for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Iowa’s older parks are dotted with rustic pavillions, lodges and bridges built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Many of the rustic structures in those parks are already on the historic register, based in part on their connection to the depression-era public works project.

That’s not the case with Wapsipinicon State Park, which has even older structures.

Most of the structures in Wapsipinicon State Park were built in the early 1920s, about 10 years before the CCC structures, using locally quarried limestone from the Anamosa area and labor from the Anamosa State Reformatory, according to archaeological and historical consultant Leah Rogers of Tallgrass Historical LC, Iowa City.

In fact, it was a potential deal between the reformatory and the landowner of what’s now the oldest section of park that led Anamosa citizens to buy land in the area and donate it to the state to build the park.

The reformatory had made an agreement with Asa Smith, who raised horses on 183.5 land that is now part of the park, to harvest the land’s timber in exchange for one-half of the harvested wood to use at the reformatory.

Towns people, who didn’t want to see the area logged, raised $22,936 to buy the 183 acres of land, and immediately donated it to what was then the Iowa Board of Conservation to create a state park.

Inmate crews built shelters and other park features, the inmates mainly built a transportation network dominated by a scenic loop drive that followed the sharp contours of the hilly landscape, and included two limestone arch bridges.

Developing the park took nearly five years, according to Rose Rohr, executive director of the Jones County Historic Preservation Commission. For years afterward, inmates helped maintain the park.

The park was a source of immense pride to many of the inmates. Rohr said the work bolstered the self-esteem of inmates who could, decades later after their release. show their families and friends the lasting contribution they’d made to their state.

One of the early park features was a stone swimming pool made by damming a creek. The pool was later closed for public health reasons, but remains one of the most poignant memories of Anamosans who visited the park in its early years.

The hilly park is best known for its white pine forest, limestone bluffs, a riverfront picnicking and fishing area, rustic picnic shelters, the Wapsipinicon Golf Club, the Horse Thief Cave and Ice cave.

Park Manager Dennis Murphy said the regular daily use of the park by residents of the adjacent Anamosa community sets it apart from most of the other Iowa state parks. About 200 Anamosa area residents visit the park faithfully to jog, bicycle, picnic, fish or view wildllife almost regardless of the weather, Murphy said.

Robert Hatcher of the Stone City Foundation in rural Anamosa, often directs visitors looking for interesting local sights to try the park’s visually stunning, rollercoaster ride of a park drive.

“They’ll say, Why? It’s just a park. I tell them, “You drive through it and THEN tell me it’s just a park,” Hatcher said.

Eleven archaeological sites have been recorded within the park boundaries, providing evidence of human habitation dating back more than 5,500 years B.C.

The historic district application is expected to include all of the park and the river bridges that link it to the town, and the inhabitants of the park before recorded history. It will even include the “viewshed,” or view from key vantage points, Rohr said.

Murphy, the park manager, says one of the issues facing older parks with historic structures is that the DNR’s limited budget makes it a challenge to maintain and restore them. Obtaining a historic district designation could be some help, he said.

The historic preservation commission will enlist volunteer workers to provide the work equivalent of the local match required for the grant, Rohr said the historic preservation commission will enlist volunteers to help out with the project and will use its fundraising dinners at the Hale Bridge at Wapsipinicon State Park to provide local matching funds for the grant.

Rohr expects a consultant to be selected for the nomination research by the end of April 2013 and a final nomination for the National Register of Historic Places to be submitted in June 2014.

(AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Iowa’s unemployment rate dipped to 4.9 percent in November, a 0.2 percent change that brought it below 5 percent for the first time since December 2008.

Manufacturing added 1,000 jobs, more than any other sector, according to Iowa Workforce Development. It was the second consecutive month of growth in manufacturing jobs after a string of losses in four out of five months going beginning in May 2012.

The number of working Iowans rose 4,600 and the number of unemployed Iowans dropped 3,200 from October’s level. Total nonfarm employment in Iowa is 12,300 higher than one year ago.

Health care services fueled a gain of 700 jobs in education and health services.

Retail hiring of 1,500 resulted in a gain of 400 jobs in the trade and transportation sector.

The 4.9 percent November unemployment rate compared to a statewide rate of 5.6 percent in November 2011.

The national unemployment rate of 7.7 percent for November was also a decline of 0.2 percent from October’s 7.9 percent rate.

(Courtesy photo/Larada Sciences)

When one of Mary Jensen’s daughters — and many of her school classmates — came down with lice, Jensen did the same thing as most of the other mothers.

The Cedar Rapids sales representative bought a bottle of chemical lice treatment, applied it, and combed her daughter’s hair regularly for almost two weeks while checking for more signs of lice.

Ten days later, Jensen’s other, older daughter also found lice in her hair. The same chemical treatment she’d used on the earlier outbreak provoked a recurrence of her daughter’s asthma.

The experience sent Jensen on a search for alternative lice treatments and led to the opening last week of Bug Bunnies Lice Removal of Iowa by Jensen and business partner Valerie McDowell.

The business uses a device called the LouseBuster to remove lice and their eggs without chemicals. The LouseBuster uses a carefully controlled stream of hot air that is applied to each section of the scalp for 30 seconds while the scalp is combed in a circular motion using a curious looking brush attachment.

Jensen said the FDA-approved medical device kills the lice and eggs in the simplest way by causing them to dry up.

“In the past two months, I’ve learned more about lice than I ever imagined there was to know,” Jensen said.

Jensen said she initially was concerned that the chemical lice treatments can be absorbed through the skin. She later learned, she said, that lice are becoming more resistant to the chemicals.

Bug Bunnies charges $25 for a lice inspection. If a customer has lice, it applies the $25 assessment to the $189 cost of lice treatment using the Louse Buster.

Jensen acknowledged that it isn’t cheap, but said treatment is reimbursable under Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Accounts. And, when it comes to creepy-crawly lice, she said most parents don’t want to mess around.

Jensen has heard of parents who’ve been so desperate to remove lice that they’ve resorted to folk remedies such as applying kerosene and mayonnaise to infested hair.

Jensen and McDowell take appointments by reservation. Their first clients were three siblings and a mother who all had lice infestations last Friday, Jensen said. The progress of the treatment is dramatic, Jensen said, as the dead lice fall out and land on the cowl the client wears to protect their clothing.

Valerie McDowell (left) and Mary Jensen are the owners of the Bug Bunnies in Cedar Rapids. (Courtesy photo/Larada Sciences)

The procedure takes less than 30 minutes.

To get the word out about the lice treatments, Jensen and McDowell have been explaining the process to school nurses, day-care centers and pediatricians, among others.

Jensen said one thing she learned early on is that people don’t like to talk about head lice even though it’s one of the more common issues children face because of the stigma that associates it with lack of personal hygiene.

“You don’t see moms posting on Facebook, ‘The kids all have lice,’” she said.

While it’s common to think that frequent shampooing will keep head lice away, Jensen said lice actually have a harder time reproducing in oily hair than in clean hair because they need to be able to lay their eggs on the shaft of the hair. If the hair is too oily, Jensen explained, the eggs won’t stay attached.

She can reached on the company’s website at http://bugbunnies.com.

The Regional Economic Development Institute plans to work in rehabilitating older housing like this duplex at 1444 and 1446 Bever Ave. SE to provide more affordable housing for low income families. The duplex was under consideration for demolition before being rehabilitated by RED-I, which is in the process of obtaining property through a donation from the Affordable Housing Network. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette

A minority-focused economic development organization is concluding its first year with its first housing initiative under way and a community gardening initiative planned.

The Regional Economic Development Institute (RED-I) was launched early this year in Cedar Rapids to fill a need for more economic-development assistance, career assistance and housing opportunities for blacks and other minority groups.

Cedar Rapids has about 8,400 minority residents, said Executive Director Karl Cassell, who is also executive director of the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission. Only about half of them are adults.

Financially, the not-for-profit group is still operating on a shoestring with the efforts of its volunteer board, Cassell said. That may improve next year if the group is successful in obtaining a federal certified economic-development corporation status and other certifications that could help it obtain grants and funding to administer projects.

RED-I recently completed the redevelopment of a duplex in the Wellington Heights neighborhood that will be leased to low-income households, Cassell said. The project used community volunteers and a minority contractor.

The old foursquare duplex, in poor condition and threatened with demolition, was provided to RED-I by the Affordable Housing Network so that it could be preserved and meet housing needs.

Cassell said RED-I would like to redevelop other older properties to add decent low-income housing using leveraging equity built up in the Wellington Heights duplex to obtain financing.

The dislocation of low-income families from rental housing in the city’s near-downtown neighborhoods increased in recent years due to the economy, and could escalate because of a newly passed city nuisance ordinance, Cassell said. The ordinance will allow for penalties against the owners of properties that are the subject of frequent police calls or violations of city building and property maintenance codes.

Cassell fears the ordinance, combined with the disappearance of affordable single-family houses for parking in the city’s medical and college areas, could lead to higher rental costs and fewer housing opportunities for low-income families.

“We want to be the balance,” Cassell said. “We want to be the other option.”

The community has a scarcity of minority housing contractors. Cassell hopes the low-income housing efforts could foster startup minority contractors, such as the one who worked on the duplex.

RED-I also is working with local building trades to help bring more minority apprentices into the trades, Cassell said. A group of retired electricians made the duplex renovation possible by volunteering thousands of dollars worth of electrical wiring and other assistance.

One of the group’s next projects will be to provide support for community gardens on whatever vacant property it is allowed to use in the city’s lower income neighborhoods. Adults and children will be encouraged to garden, for reasons both nutritional and financial, Cassell said.

Inclusivity is one of the guiding principles of the group’s efforts, Cassell said.

“We want to incorporate the people who are less inclined to ask or less inclined to be asked to be asked to be involved in opportunities in our community,” Cassell said.

RED-I has rented space in the Paul Engle Center for Neighborhood Arts at 1600 4th Ave. SE, but the group is expected to give up the space for the time being because it’s not offering any community-based social programs. RED-I’s main office, where its board meets about every two weeks, will remain at 375 Collins Road NE, Suite 103.

The Iowa Policy Project’s annual State of Working Iowa report said the current job recovery is taking place more slowly than any of the modern recessions in 1980, 1981, 1990 or 2007.

Iowa’s economy has added an average of 1,000 jobs per month since the recovery began in the end of 2009, according to the report, issued Tuesday by the Iowa City-based policy group. The pace has accelerated this year to 1,500 to 2,500 jobs per month.

Report author Colin Gordon said the recovery has been a “long, tortuous process.”

“We still have a substantial jobs deficit,” Gordon said. “We’re in some respects swimming against the current because we’re adding people to the labor force at almost the same rate we’re adding jobs.”

The state is still 36,000 jobs short of the peak employment levels before the recession, Gordon said. To preserve the ratio of jobs to population that would have existed at peak employment would require another 89,000 jobs — a deficit that would take nearly three years to make up at a monthly job creation rate of 2,500.

The slow pace of job creation wasn’t the biggest concern cited in the report. A bigger issue, Gordon said, is the shift in the economy from better-paying manufacturing jobs to service-sector jobs.

“Not only are we trading good wages for lousy wages, but benefits for no benefits,” Gordon said.

About one-fourth of Iowans earn less than $10.73 per hour, the wage needed to life a full-time worker above the poverty level for a family of four, the report said. Iowa ranks in the middle of the pack on the percentage of workers at or below poverty level wages.

(Courtesy of the Iowa Policy Project)

The percentage of Iowa workers at 100 to 200 percent of poverty level wages, 48.5 percent, was higher than any state except North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Where Iowa didn’t stack up at all was in the percentage of Iowans in the high-earner category making more than 300 percent of poverty-level wages.

Only three states — Arkansas, South Dakota and Alabama — have a smaller percentage of workers in that high-earner category.

Real median wages in the United States have risen only 4 percent from 1973 to 2011, the report said, while labor productivity rose 80.4 percent over that period. Iowa has tracked with the national trend, the report said.

The issues of wage stagnation have been complicated by rising costs for everything from health insurance to housing.

A full-time worker in Iowa making the median state wage needed to work for 10 weeks to pay a family health insurance premium in 1999, the report said. By 2011, the number of weeks’ paychecks needed to cover a family health insurance premium had risen to nearly 25 weeks.

As in previous years, the report recommended the state consider such policies as expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to help Iowans working at low wage jobs and to invest more resources in education and infrastructure rather than “chasing private investment with tax breaks and low labor or regulatory standards.”

“There is actually some doubt as to what a state can do to create jobs,” Gordon said.

What states can do, he said, is help bolster the wages and benefits of the jobs it does have. If those wages and benefits can be lifted, he said it tends to filter upward into the higher-wage jobs.

A spokesman for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings.

(Courtesy of the Iowa Policy Project)

Alliant Energy is removing the remnants of the steam lines that used to pass over the railroad tracks to carry steam from the Sixth Street Generating Station to downtown Cedar Rapids. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Alliant Energy began taking down elevated steam lines and the trestles that carry them near Cedar Lake this week in a cleanup operation caused by the flood of 2008.]

The lines carried steam to industries and other businesses from the Sixth Street Generating Station, which was abandoned due to damage caused by the June 2008 flood.

Crews from D.W. Zinser Co. and Coonrod Crane removed one trestle that carries the elevated steam line Monday and three more of the support structures that carry the steam lines across the Canadian National Railway tracks Tuesday.

The project will also involve removal of 13 small support structures inside an ash pond containment area and general cleanup of area, Alliant spokesman Ryan Stensland said.

D.W. Zinser of Walford expects to complete the work by the end of the month.

Alliant removed several hundred feet of steam line from the area last June as part of a project to lease a new parking site to St. Luke’s Hospital.

A three-year retransmission agreement between DISH Network and KCRG originally expired at midnight Nov. 30, but was extended by KCRG until noon Tuesday in hopes of a settlement.

A decision was made by The Gazette Co., which owns KCRG-TV9 and The Gazette newspaper, not to extend the deadline again, according to Tim McDougall, vice president of products for The Gazette Co.

KCRG made its last counter offer about one week ago and had received no response late Tuesday morning, McDougall said.

“We’d prefer to work something out,” McDougall said. “That would be our preference, but we’re having a hard time getting them to the table.”

DISH Network issued a statement stating KCRG “rejected DISH’s offer to pay a sizable rate increase that aligns with the rate our primary competitor pays. Without a signed contract, DISH no longer has the legal right to carry those channels.”

Andrew Le Cuyer, DISH vice president of programming, said DISH is hopeful that KCRG will negotiate “in more realistic terms as soon as possible, so we can bring this channel back to our customers.”

The amount sought for KCRG-TV9 is more than six times what DISH pays now for the same content, according to DISH.

KCRG leaders said the multiple of the increase it is seeking sounds large because it comes from a low base.

KCRG and many other network affiliates had not been charging satellite providers at all to run their programming until the economics of broadcasting shifted in recent years. The major networks began requiring local affiliates to pay for their programming instead of paying them to broadcast their programming. Local network affiliates like KCRG-TV9 are also facing higher costs of syndicated programming and producing local news, McDougall said.

McDougall said KCRG consistently has more viewers in its market than any other station, including both broadcast affiliates and non-broadcast channels such as ESPN.

“DISH resells our signal to subscribers at a marked-up rate and, while we respect them as a partner, we believe they should pay a fair price for retransmitting our signal,” McDougall said last week.

KCRG was advising DISH Network subscribers who want to continue viewing KCRG to install an off-air antenna, to switch to a cable TV provider or another satellite TV provider, or to contact DISH Network to express their desire to keep KCRG-TV9.

KCRG-TV9 also has sought in negotiations for DISH Network to add its KCRG 9.2 sister station. The amount KCRG was asking for retransmission rights was not disclosed.

Viewers can also watch live streaming newscasts on mobile devices by downloading the Syncbak app from Google Play or the Apple Store, and obtain updated information on the KCRG-TV9 Mobile news app, and the KCRG-TVI First Alert weather app.

Rockwell CEO, Chairman and President Clay Jones. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Clay Jones, the top executive at Rockwell Collins, earned about $20,000 more in the company’s 2012 fiscal year, as lower incentive compensation helped offset a 3.5 percent base pay raise and higher stock compensation.

The total compensation package for Jones, Rockwell Collins chairman, president and CEO, came to $6.35 million in fiscal 2012 — up from $6.33 million in fiscal 2011 — using the Associated Press methodology for calculating executive pay.

Jones’s total compensation, as the company reports it for shareholders, was placed at $7.255 million.

Jones’s base salary went up 3.5 percent, to $1,128,876, from $1,083,751 the previous year, which the company said is consistent with average increases provided to other employees, and recognizes his performance in leading the company during a challenging market climate.

The largest part of Jones’s compensation package was a long-term incentive grant with a target value of $4 million, consisting half of performance shares and half of stock options.

Performance shares are shares granted if corporate performance meets specific objectives.

Jones also received incentive compensation of $541,860, down from $1,335,181 in fiscal 2011. The incentive payout was lower than the previous year because the company did not meet performance goals in earnings per share, operating cash flow and sales.

Rockwell Collins faced a slowdown in military spending in its 2012 fiscal year, although commercial aerospace markets continued to recover from the recession.

Five other top Rockwell Collins executives who have compensation set by the board of directors all had higher total compensation than in fiscal 2011, with total packages ranging from about $2.34 million to $2.4 million.

Shareholders again will have a “say on pay” vote on executive pay on the agenda for its Feb. 7 annual shareholders meeting at the Cedar Rapids Marriott Hotel. Last year, the company said 96 percent of the votes cast were supportive of the company’s executive pay structure, not counting abstention and shares not voted by brokers.

The company said its executive compensation package was largely unchanged from 2011, and continued to emphasize performance-based compensation.

Shareholders also will vote on a resolution urging the Rockwell Collins board to require all directors be elected annually after the 2014 annual meeting of shareholders instead of the current “classified board” system, in which a minority stand for re-election every year.

Pension Reserve Investment Trust, which presented the resolution, says that having directors stand for re-election annually makes directors more accountable to shareholders and could contribute to improved corporate performance. It cites a trend in public companies away from classified boards.

The board has remained neutral on the vote, noting that it recognizes that the classified board system is a controversial issue and wants to know shareholder sentiment. Traditional arguments for keeping a classified board include a better defense against hostile takeovers, as it takes two election cycles to replace a board majority, and more stability in board leadership, the proxy states.

Three of Rockwell Collins’s eight non-employee directors will stand for re-election in February. They are John Edwards, chairman of the CDW Corp. board, Andrew Policano, dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, and Jeffrey L. Turner, chairman and CEO of Spirit Aero System Holdings Inc.

(The Gazette)

ImOn Communications said it is raising cable TV rates this month due to higher programming costs, but  keeping phone costs the same in 2013.

In a letter to subscribers, the Cedar Rapids-based cable, phone and Internet service company said it is raising cable rates in response to a 16 percent increase in overall programming costs, effective Dec. 16.

The monthly cost of the popular Digital Cable package will increase $7, or 8.8 percent, to $85.98 before taxes and regulatory charges.

Local Cable, ImOn’s basic package, will increase $4, or 16.6 percent, to $27.98 per month. Local Plus Cable will increase $9 per month, or 14 percent, to $72.98.

The changes will not affect customers who are on a promotional packages until those packages expire, according to Jeff Janssen, director of sales and marketing for ImOn. He said the increases are a direct pass-through of programming cost increases.

In a letter to customers, ImOn particularly cited higher costs it expects to incur to carry the local network affiliates of CBS (KGAN), Fox 28 (KFXA-TV) and NBC (KWWL-TV).

In ongoing negotiations with the operator of KGAN and KFXA, the letter said Sinclair Broadcast Group is asking three times the current rate to carry the CBS and Fox affiliates.

Sinclair Broadcast Group did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

ImOn’s retransmission consent agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group expires Dec. 31. Janssen described negotiations with Sinclair as “good faith on both sides.”

ImOn is also changing its channel lineup in an effort to keep programming costs as low as possible, Janssen said. Beginning Jan. 1, it will replace Univision with Telemundo. Telemundo, which ImOn described as “more reasonably priced,” will be available as an a la carte option.

The company said it also will offer the Encore channels only as an a la carte option or packaged with Starz as the result of a contract change. At least eight new high definition channels will be added in 2013 at no additional cost.

ImOn expects to maintain its current phone rates for 2013 due in part to a new phone switch system it has installed that will help it control costs.

Janssen said ImOn has doubled its available bandwidth to Internet service customers this year due to growing demand for bandwidth-intensive applications such as video and gaming. Rates for some Internet service plans will increase $4 per month, while rates for one high-bandwidth plan will decline $35.

The Gazette Co., which owns The Gazette, is a minority shareholder in ImOn.

The waveform will provide a higher throughput and low latency networking capacity to satisfy new and evolving mission requirements, according to Bob Haag, vice president and general manager of Communication and Navigation Products for Rockwell Collins.

“TTNT will provide the Department of Defense with a unique networking capability that the warfighter (personnel) does not have today,” Haag said in prepared remarks.

The waveform has been used in demonstrations on more than a dozen airborne platforms, including the F-16, F-22 and B-52.

The contract modification extends the current contract value and scope for completion of the TTNT waveform development effort. The waveform will be made available for the Joint Tactical Networking Center’s Information Repository.

Phil Kurka of Oxford (left), Heath Janssen of Tiffin, and Alan Watkins of North English with PK Construction lift a wall as they work to frame a pre-sold home for Mike Roberts Construction in North Liberty. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Rich and Carie Hatch of North Liberty had a decision to make as interest rates crept into the lower reaches of the 3 percent to 4 percent range.

“With interest rates so low, do we refinance our house or sell it and buy something else?” recounted Rich, a Realtor. “We decided to sell and go ahead with the building process.”

The Hatchs put their existing $300,000-plus North Liberty home on the market and, to their amazement, had it sold in three weeks. The Hatch family — Rich, Carie and three children — are now living with Rich’s parents over the winter while they await the April completion of their new home a few blocks away from the last.

“There is a recovery happening,” said contractor Mike Roberts, whose North Liberty-based Mike Roberts Construction is building the family’s new home.

“I’ve got five pre-sold houses under construction now,” Roberts said. “I’ve never had that many. I think that’s pent-up demand.”

A key housing construction indicator watched by state revenue officials is the 12-month moving average of building permits issued. In October 2012, the 12-month average of new monthly permit issues rose to 795, from 753 in September, and stood at its highest level since May 2008.

For the first nine months of 2012, residential building permits issued for the state of Iowa climbed 27.7 percent from the same period of 2011. Residential permits are up 22.3 percent in Johnson County during that same nine-month period, but down 12.5 percent in Linn County.

Overall, however, demand certainly hasn’t come close to the levels it reached eight years ago during the peak of the housing boom, Roberts said. On the other hand, there are fewer contractors to split the pie of available housing demand.

Many competitors have gone out of business.

Mike Roberts Construction lost hundreds of thousands of dollars during the mortgage crisis and real estate downturn that began in 2008, Roberts said.

PK Construction employee Alan Watkins of North English works to frame a pre-sold home for Mike Roberts Construction. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

As with a lot of other builders, Roberts said he’s grateful the market didn’t collapse completely here. It was supported by a huge influx of government spending in the recovery from the June 2008 floods, and sustained by the strong Midwestern farm economy.

The 1,163 permits issued for residential construction in October 2012 statewide represented an increase of 77 percent from the October 2011 levels, according to the Iowa Department of Revenue. The 12-month moving average of residential building permits for the period ending in October was increased to 795 monthly permits from 753 in September 2012.

Linn County might be one of the few places in Iowa where home builders can complain about the industry trend. It remained one of the healthiest home building markets in the nation during the recession, due mainly to the flood recovery demand for housing.

Now that the flood recovery has peaked, new home demand is tapering off.

“Our business has been down significantly,” said Drew Retz, vice president-operations for Jerry’s Homes in Cedar Rapids. He added that the flood recovery demand has tapered off, but the fundamental underlying market hasn’t increased enough to compensate.

In fact, Retz worries about a “housing hangover” in Cedar Rapids for the next several years due to the loan forgiveness feature of a program by the city of Cedar Rapids which offered incentives for construction of new homes after the 2008 flood.

The program gave five-year forgivable loans to home buyers of between $25,000 and $30,000. The loans were intended to bridge what’s been called an “appraisal gap” between the cost of constructing new homes in areas that experienced flooding, and the valuation appraisers would place on the homes due to the flood’s impact the neighborhood.

The loan forgiveness, phased in over five years, means some homeowners will be able to sell houses below market value without losing money, said Retz, who serves on the executive committee of the Home Builders Association of Iowa.

Paul Brundell of Allan Custom Homes in Cedar Rapids is more upbeat about the dwindling Linn County numbers.

“We’re probably dropping back more to where we would have been had we not had that flood,” said Brundell, second vice president of the Greater Cedar Rapids Area Home Builders Association. “Things are probably improving even though the permit count is down.”

Randy Rempel of Rempel Construction & Cabinets in Iowa City isn’t complaining, however.

“The past year, we were as busy as we ever have been,” Rempel said. “Next year’s on pace to be the same or even better.”

Rempel sees an interesting trend in the market as younger buyers who purchased town homes as their first new house five to seven years ago during a boomlet in local town home construction begin to move up to single-family detached homes.

Interest rates remain near all-time lows. The website Bankrate.com said the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage last week was 3.39 percent, down from 3.42 percent the preceding week. The rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage was only 2.81 percent.

“The interest rates are certainly a driving factor,” Rempel said. “The confidence seems to be up, too.”

Rempel, president-elect of the Greater Iowa City Area Homebuilders Association, has noticed some subtle changes in home preferences since before the recession. The amount of space buyers want in their homes has moderated, but Rempel said buyers seem more interested in nicer interior finishes, energy efficiency and “comfort features” such as already-installed audio systems.

The moderation in size may have something to do with resale values, Rempel added.

PK Construction employee Heath Janssen of Tiffin works on the frame of a pre-sold home for Mike Roberts Construction. Home builder Mike Roberts has five pre-sold houses under construction going into winter. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Rempel Construction managed to get through the downturn by relying on fewer subcontractors and handling more work with its own crew. Doing more work in-house also allowed Rempel Construction to give better quotes on new home construction projects, Rempel said.

While there are strong signs of recovery now, builders said they really need to see sustained growth in the state economy to generate the kind of market they really want. That could be derailed by failure of Congress to agree on a budget compromise to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, or in the view of some continued deficit spending that could fuel inflation.

“Unless we see job creation and job growth, I don’t anticipate demand is going to grow,” Retz said.

New home buyer Rich Hatch, however, sees brighter times ahead.

“I’m a Realtor,” he said. “We’re seeing houses getting moved and inventory going down. Business has been picking up.”

The alliance is the first by ACT that extends to greater China, although ACT has had a more limited presence in Hong Kong and other markets within the country, ACT spokesman Ed Colby said.

In a statement, the companies said the alliance will “address key education and work force development needs in the greater China market,” including the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Units.

ACT Chief Executive Officer Jon Whitmore said the companies’ areas of expertise are “highly complementary and synergistic.”

“Having a local partner adds value to our future strategic market development,” Whitmore said. “With this partnership, we are aiming to provide better services to students, educators employers and other stakeholders in China.”

Colby said one immediate opportunity will be to increase the ACT test’s exposure and availability to Chinese students planning to attend an educational institution in the United States. The ACT is also used for admissions at some colleges and universities some other English-speaking countries, including Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

ATA President Walter Wang said working with ACT “will promote the development of local education and talent markets.”

ATA is a provider of computer-based testing and assessment services in China. It has a network of 2,572 authorized test centers throughout China and has delivered more than 42.6 million billable tests since it began operations in 1999.

(The Gazette)

Alliant Energy has reached agreement to sell its renewable energy services business, RMT, to the corporate parent of one of RMT’s rivals.

Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives LLC of Chicago has agreed to acquire Madison, Wis.-based RMT Inc., an Alliant unit that provides engineering and construction services to connect renewable energy generation to the power network.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Alliant said earlier this year that it had decided to sell RMT because it would be better served by an owner more aligned with RMT’s engineering and construction business.

“We are pleased that we found a partner in IEA that offers a good fit for RMT and can move the business forward successfully,” RMT Chairman and CEO Patricia Kampling said in prepared remarks.

Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives last year acquired White Construction. The Clinton, Ind.-based company is one of the nation’s largest providers of renewable energy contractors.

Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives CEO Paul Daily said IEA will “leverage” the capabilities of IEA across its subsidiaries. He said the acquisition positions IEA for continued growth in North American renewable and infrastructure markets.

RMT’s headquarters will remain in Madison, Wis., where Alliant is based.

Separately, Alliant announced that 60 new Vestas wind turbines totaling 100 megawatts of nameplate generating capacity were activated Tuesday at the company’s Franklin County wind farm south of Mason City.

The added power capacity is not included in the company’s utility rate base.

The West Branch McDonald's restaurant owned by Creative Management combines cheerful vintage decor with the legacy of an American president known for the Great Depression. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette)

The new McDonald’s restaurant here, replacing one in which depression-era President Herbert Hoover’s image has been peeking over diners’ shoulders for 15 years, has a more cheerful look.

Creative Management of Iowa City opened the new McDonald’s, with its hot pink and deep orange colors, on Thursday. It’s been compared to the set of the 1960s TV comedy show, “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in” or a 1960s ice cream parlor.

Images of the 31st president look down from wall murals and from circular translucent panels in a room dividing screen. Hoover is hard to miss with his rounded shirt collars, thick hair, and intense gaze.

The McDonald’s was built by Creative Management, the Iowa City-based McDonald’s restaurant franchisee, last fall as part of its modernization program. Renovating the old restaurant at 610 S. Downey St. to current needs would have been more expensive than building all-new.

The restaurant is just a short distance across I-80 and a sharp stylistic contrast from Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum. The museum is in West Branch because Hoover was born here in 1874.

Creative Management President Kevin O’Brien attempted to describe the restaurant’s decor, then seemed to give up.

“It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” he shrugged. “You just have to see it.”

Timothy Walch, former director of the Herbert Hoover presidential library, says the late president might have been pleased by the McDonald’s that honors him if her were alive today.

Walch said Hoover liked salty foods, was known to grab quick snacks from some of the first automated vending machines called automats at the early Horn & Hardart cafes, and was the type of person who probably ate quickly in order to return his focus to the conversation at hand.

If Hoover had misgivings about McDonald’s dining, Walch said, it would probably be about over-consumption. He said Hoover, who led humanitarian nutrition efforts in Europe after W.W. I, “was very attentive to physical health, exercise and calorie counts.”

Walch played a role in the incorporation of a Hoover theme into the first West Branch McDonald’s about 16 years ago. The O’Brien family that was expanding their McDonald’s franchises to West Branch wanted to tie the restaurant thematically to the community. Walch recommended the Herbert Hoover theme because of the tight historical connection.

“We thought this might be a way to attract people traveling across the country, and get them to head north of Interstate 80 to the museum and to shop in West Branch,” he said.

Workers prepare the new West Branch McDonald's restaurant, themed after the presidency of Herbert Hoover, for opening. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette)

The restaurant’s Herbert Hoover displays included pictures and an enclosed case with articles of Herbert Hoover relevance, although none were originals. Museum brochures were displayed for diners to peruse over their Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets.

Many McDonald’s diners have, in fact, taken time to visit the museum and library. Getting travelers to veer off the interstate and their trip itinerary for an hour or two is harder than it sounds, Walch said, because many travelers have a limited amount of time allotted for their trip.

Promoting a presidential library in a McDonald’s isn’t the oddest thing a presidential library director ever did to attract visitors, according to Walch.

“All the presidential library directors are very entrepreneurial,” he said.