Moody’s Investors Service, a credit rating agency, on Thursday assigned a Aaa rating to $7.2 million in general obligation bonds and $520,000 in taxable general obligation bonds the city plans to sell this month. Aaa is the highest rating the company gives.

In a report, Moody’s said the rating “reflects the city’s stable tax base and economy that are anchored by the University of Iowa, … history of favorable financial operations and expected maintenance of healthy reserves, and manageable debt profile.”

The Aaa rating will allow the city to get better interest rates on loans, thus saving taxpayers money.

The city said in a news release that this was the 37^th straight year it had received the top rating.

“We are pleased that Moody’s has reaffirmed the City’s Aaa GO (general obligation) bond rating,” Iowa City Finance Director Dennis Bockenstedt said in a statement. “We understand that a bond rating is a snapshot in time, and that the City must continue its diligence in conducting its financial affairs. The rating reflects those efforts as well as the quality of the community as a whole.”

The City Council is to vote on the bond issues June 18. The money would be used on various city projects.

Moody’s Iowa City rating came one week after the agency downgraded several bond ratings for neighboring Coralville, which led to renewed criticism of that city’s financial practices.

Johnson County residents forced to leave their homes because of flooding can return. (Perry Walton/Courtesy photo)

The county lifted all mandatory evacuation orders, effective at 4 p.m. Friday.

Several small neighborhoods along the Iowa River north and south of Iowa City had been emptied for the past couple of weeks.

The county in a news release warned residents to use caution when reentering flooded properties. Power may not yet be restored to homes, and inspections will not start until Monday, according to the release.

Coralville Lake continues to fall, and the Iowa River at Iowa City went below flood stage Friday.

The streets where evacuations occurred were:

• Izaak Walton Road Southeast
• Camino Del Rio Southeast
• Driftwood Lane Southeast
• Ocean Boulevard Southeast
• River Front Estates Southeast
• 6979 and 6951 Tri County Bridge Rd.
• Lola Lane Southeast

The evacuation order for Sand Road Southeast was lifted earlier this week.

Eastern Iowa communities hit hard in the Flood of 2008 — and threatened again this year — have not shied away from waterfront development in recent years. They also are aware of the risks.

The Veterans Memorial Building is reflected in water of the Cedar River as it inundates Riverfront Park along First St. SW on Thursday, May 30, 2013, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

Many communities try to strike a balance between connecting residents with the water, which often features prominently in a city or county, while also being cautious of the dangers that presents.

“I don’t think there’s a single answer there” on what the right balance is, says Eric Tate, a University of Iowa geography professor. “If your river is flood-prone, you need to take that into account.”

He studies the social dimensions of flooding and has been an environmental engineer who helped build models calculating the economic and physical damage of flooding.

Tate also grew up in San Antonio, where the famed River Walk is a national model for bringing people to a river. It was done, he says, with a lot of economic development and placement of businesses along the river.

If you go up the highway to Austin, Texas, there are a lot of greenways and trails along the river that are heavily used, which he considers a success, too.

An eye to the future

The same dynamic can be found in Eastern Iowa.

Cedar Rapids has a multitude of projects, public and private, either completed or planned near the Cedar River, including City Hall, a proposed casino and an amphitheater.

Artist's rendering of condominiums to be built in southwest Cedar Rapids near the old Wells Fargo bank that was damaged in Floods of 2008.Area has been referred to as West Village and Kingston Village. Fred Timko is the developer. (VANTAGE POINT LLC)

Developer Fred Timko says it’s not realistic to avoid rebuilding along the Cedar River, because the waterway cuts through the heart of town.

“You’d blade off all the downtown,” he says.

He’s renovating a bank building at 101 Third Ave. SW into offices and a restaurant, and building condos next door. The condominium building is in the 100-year flood plain but will be elevated half a foot above that mark.

Timko is also the developer of Bottleworks Condos on the edge of New Bohemia Village. The building was being gutted in 2008, when the flood hit, causing about $1 million in damage.

The Cedar River’s rise a couple of weeks ago has not changed his view, but he says that should lead to a renewed effort to pass a local-option sales tax to pay for a flood-protection system for both sides of the river.

Cedar Rapids and many other Eastern Iowa communities have already completed some flood-mitigation projects that officials say worked well in this year’s flooding.

In Coralville, some of those efforts are ongoing, and the city is partnering with a developer for a $24 million residential and commercial project along Clear Creek. A berm and an elevated site are intended to protect it from flooding.

An artist's rendering shows Iowa City's proposed Riverfront Crossings project looking south from Clinton Street's intersection with Burlington Street. Iowa City has a specific vision for an area that will include a riverfront park and high density development within walking distance of the Pentacrest. (City of Iowa City)

In Iowa City, the most visible redevelopment plan takes more of a recreational approach. The city hopes to bring more people to the Iowa River by modifying the Burlington Street dam to improve public safety, river access, the wildlife habitat and possibly adding a white-water rafting course.

The city also is encouraging a major redevelopment of the area southeast of the dam, known as Riverfront Crossings. Part of the plan calls for a 26-acre park. City officials have said any commercial and residential development would need to be above the flood plain.

“I think the flood really brought a respect and an awareness of the river,” says Steve Long, Iowa City’s community development coordinator.

A white-water course opened on the Cedar River in Charles City in northern Iowa in 2011. City Administrator Tom Brownlow says license plates from other counties and states are now a common sight in town, and those people stay and eat there.

The river flooded there in 2008, and again to a lesser extent this spring, but Brownlow says most residents view it as an asset.

“Here, people think of the river as one of the defining features of the community,” he says. “It runs right through the middle of Charles City.”

Rivers are economic engines

Rivers are big business in Iowa. A 2012 study by Iowa State University researchers found that 73 river segments in Iowa supported more than 6,300 jobs and accounted for $520.4 million in direct spending annually.

Rosalyn Lehman, executive director of Iowa Rivers Revival, a Des Moines-based organization that promotes restoring and protecting rivers, says investing in rivers is advantageous for local and state economies.

She also says that her organization believes it’s important to let a river be a river and avoid overdevelopment, putting up levees and stuffing banks with riprap.

“We can’t keep building up to the riverside and wonder, ‘Well, why did this property flood out?’ ” she says.

Larry Gullett, director of the Jones County Conservation Department, enjoys the view Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010, from a new observation deck at the Mon-Maq Dam in Monticello. Improvements at the dam were part of a $1 million upgrade to the Maquoketa River Water Trail. (Orlan Love/The Gazette-KCRG)

Jones County Conservation Director Larry Gullett has tried to make the Maquoketa River more visitor-friendly while also being conscious of the effects of development.

Before designing a feature — for example, a parking lot, restroom facility or trail — in the flood plain, officials study the site when the water is high so they know how it will handle flooding, he says.

“We may study an area for years before we do something with it … and we design our infrastructure to be compatible with the flows,” Gullett says.

Perhaps no one knows more about coexisting with a river than the people at Lake Delhi. The dam on the Maquoketa River there was breached in 2010, draining the 400-acre lake. The lake was an important economic engine for the area, and the more than 800 homes around it have decreased in value and the hundreds of people who used to flock to the lake on summer weekends now go elsewhere.

Supporters hope to have a new dam and the lake filling up in 2015. A structure is being designed to support twice the water flow and to better handle runoff from farmland upstream, says Steve Leonard, president of the Lake Delhi Combined Recreational Facility and Water Quality District.

“There’s a balance of economic activity and any eventual flooding,” he says.

The district’s approximately 900 teachers would receive a 4.5 percent total package increase each of the next two school years under the proposal. That number represents not only salary but also benefits and retirement contributions.

The school board will vote on the contracts June 18. It also is to vote on two-year deals that include various increases in compensation with unions representing paraeducators, physical plant employees, secretaries and food service workers.

All together, those five collective bargaining units account for about 1,600 of the school district’s approximately 1,800 employees, said Chace Ramey, the district’s chief human resources officer.

Negotiations between the district and the Iowa City Education Association, the teachers union, were more amicable than in recent years, said Mitch Gross, chief negotiator for the union and a West High School teacher.

The school district’s initial offer was a 1.63 percent total package increase for teachers; the union proposed a 6.75 percent bump, said Ramey, who started with the district last July.

Gross said the pay increase would be reasonable and reflective of the importance of teachers in what he classified the top school district in the state.

“We would argue that we should be paid accordingly,” Gross said.

Ramey said the teachers deserve the pay they receive and the proposed contracts leave enough room to hire more teachers for the growing district.

“We value all of our employees very much, and our teachers, we value the contributions they make in the classroom,” he said.

The new Von Maur store near the new Homewood Suites at the Iowa River Landing. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

CORALVILLE – A ratings agency has downgraded several bond ratings for Coralville, continuing a trend from recent years and coming during an ongoing debate over the city’s financial practices.

Lower ratings mean higher interest rates for the city. Such ratings also are often viewed as a measure of a local government’s financial health.

A member of a group that has been critical of how the city does business said the report from Moody’s Investors Service does not come as a surprise.

“It’s a downward trend. And I think up to this point city officials have been kind of dismissive about it, and I think this is kind of a wake-up call,” said Tom Bender, a developer with property in Coralville and a member of Citizens for Responsible Growth and Taxation.

Moody’s last Friday issued several ratings downgrades for Coralville, including its general obligation unlimited tax rating, tax increment financing revenue debt, sewer enterprise revenue and water enterprise revenue.

The action follows a string of rating reductions for Coralville by Moody’s in the past few years. Criticism of the city’s debt level and its use of tax increment financing has increased in that time, particularly following the millions of dollars the city gave to Von Maur in 2011 to build a department store in town.

Tony Roetlin, the city’s finance director, said city staffers and elected officials take the downgrades seriously and will look at a “host” of strategies to try to bring the ratings back up. He said it would be premature to say how that may be done.

He also said the Moody’s ratings are not the sole indicator of a city’s financial well-being.

“It’s one element, so that opinion on the finances doesn’t necessarily mean bad decisions were made or Coralville is a bad place to live or anything like that,” said Roetlin.

However, the ratings downgrades will have negative financial consequences for the city. Much like a person, credit ratings affect the interest rates paid by a local government.

The city’s outstanding debt – it was the third-highest among Iowa towns last June 30 at nearly $279 million – played a key role in Moody’s decisions. The downgrade of the general obligation unlimited tax rating “reflects the city’s markedly elevated debt burden and highly leveraged TIF districts, with only limited financial cushion to shield against future stress,” according to a Moody’s report.

That rating, abbreviated as GOULT, is the most important one, with the other downgrades flowing from it.

The GOULT rating has dropped six notches since April 2012 and is now to Baa2, with a negative outlook. That’s a significant drop in a short period of time, said David Jacobson, a Moody’s spokesman.

At Baa2, Moody’s considers the city’s financial obligations to be a moderate credit risk for investors. That’s two notches above what is unofficially termed junk status.

Coralville also had two short-term ratings for bond anticipation notes downgraded to what is known as MIG 3, which Jacobson said is low for a note. And he pointed out that all of the new ratings have negative outlooks.

“Which means there’s downward pressure on all the ratings, and there’s a chance they could be downgraded again,” he said.

Moody’s also takes Coralville to task for issuing debt for what the agency characterizes as non-essential government purposes. That includes the city-owned Coralville Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, Brown Deer Golf Club, the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts and Backpocket Brewing.

The report said the city is an “outlier among local governments nationwide” for its ownership stake in those enterprises and the level of risk to which they expose the city.

It also notes that the city has more projects in the works, including a possible parking ramp and the purchase of more retail space.

“The city’s continued investment in economic development projects overshadows recent progress made to reduce its debt burden and restore government-wide liquidity and is a key factor in this downgrade,” the report states.

Mayor Jim Fausett said Coralville plans to reduce its debt as quickly as is feasible. He also said that while the ratings downgrades are a concern, he believes the projects cited by Moody’s are good for the city.

“I guess it’s not enough of a concern that we have pulled back in our horns, so to speak, and are afraid to do our projects as planned,” he said.

Doug Paul, another Citizens for Responsible Growth and Taxation member, compared the city to a drug addict who refuses to acknowledge he has a problem.

“These downgrades are extreme and they are going to get worse unless the City Council puts a stop to the abuses,” he wrote in an email.

Workers have begun a project to to patch the bridge deck and retrofit the barrier rails of the 12th Ave Bridge over Interstate 80 Monday, June 10, 2013 in Coralville. The bridge is expected to be closed until June 26 when it will reopen for 30 days and then close again from July 29-Aug. 2. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

CORALVILLE – Another important north-south road has closed in the Iowa City metro area, but this one is not due to the weather.

The section of Coralville’s 12^th Avenue over Interstate 80 was closed Monday for repair work.

Iowa City’s Dubuque Street is closed just south of the interstate because of flooding. The goal is to have it reopened early next week, said Rick Fosse, Iowa City’s public works director.

The new closure means increased traffic headaches for drivers. Twelfth Avenue is a popular route to and from North Liberty and Coralville north of I-80.

“We have already noticed people being late because they have to reroute,” Tara Giberson, a stylist at Lotus Salon, which is about one mile north of the construction site, said early Monday afternoon.

She planned to send an email to clients making them aware of the closure.

The 12^th Avenue bridge work is an Iowa Department of Transportation project. The DOT and the city of Coralville discussed whether to delay it because of the closure of Dubuque Street, but that would risk pushing construction into next school year, which could be a bigger nuisance for drivers, said Scott Larson, Coralville’s assistant city engineer.

The bridge is to be closed until June 26 to patch the bridge deck and retrofit the barrier rails, he said. A 30-day break is needed to let the concrete strengthen, and then the bridge is to be closed July 29-Aug. 2 to finish the job.

“It’s not as simple as saying, ‘Let’s push it off for two weeks and see if Dubuque Street opens,’ because there’s a 30-day waiting period,” Larson said.

The 12^th Avenue bridge saw an average of 10,300 vehicles a day in 2010, the most recent traffic count from the DOT.

The section of Dubuque Street that is closed had more than 21,000 vehicles a day on average in 2010.

A lot of that traffic, and now that from 12^th Avenue, is detouring to First Avenue in Coralville. The First Avenue-Highway 6 intersection is the second-busiest in Johnson County.

After Dubuque Street closed late last month, transportation planners in both cities adjusted the traffic signals on Highway 6 at First Avenue and at Hawkins Drive to accommodate the increased traffic, said John Yapp, transportation planner for Iowa City and executive director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County.

He said since the University of Iowa and K-12 school years ended, traffic has stabilized. He agreed that the right decision was to go ahead with the 12^th Avenue bridge work.

“Summertime is the best time to close things,” he said. “There’s just less overall traffic in general.”

The pedestrian portion of the 12th Avenue bridge will remain open during construction.

Workers have begun a project to to patch the bridge deck and retrofit the barrier rails of the 12th Ave Bridge over Interstate 80 Monday, June 10, 2013 in Coralville. The bridge is expected to be closed until June 26 when it will reopen for 30 days and then close again from July 29-Aug. 2. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

Marc Moen’s plan for The Chauncey development is the Iowa City Council’s first choice to fill city-owned land at the northeast corner of College and Gilbert streets. The 20-story mixed-use building has an estimated cost of $53.8 million, and Moen is asking officials for more than $13 million in tax incentives. (The Chauncey LLC)

IOWA CITY – Opponents of a high-rise building proposed for downtown Iowa City, a project that has been the source of controversy for months, have taken their fight to court.

Iowa Coalition Against the Shadow, a citizen group formed during the debate over the project, filed a petition in Johnson County District Court Monday appealing the City Council’s denial of the group’s request to rezone the land where the building is to be located.

The rezoning application was an attempt to stop Marc Moen and the city from moving forward with a building up to 20 stories tall on city-owned land at the intersection of College and Gilbert streets.

The primary argument laid out in the court papers is the same one the group made at city meetings: The project would violate the city’s comprehensive plan.

They say that plan calls for a transition between the intensity of the central business district downtown and surrounding residential neighborhoods, and at 20 stories high, Moen’s building is not compatible with that.

Rockne Cole, co-chair of Iowa Coalition Against the Shadow and the only plaintiff individually named in the lawsuit, said in an interview that he does not believe the city has adequately laid out the criteria for what makes a transition zone and his group’s legal action has meaning beyond just this one project.

“We think it’s absolutely critical to define, especially, what constitutes a transitional zone,” he said.

Moen could not be reached on his cell and work phones and did not immediately return an email message seeking comment Monday.

City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes said she could not answer specific questions until she had more time to review the petition. She said in an email that, generally, courts give a “strong presumption of validity” to zoning decisions made by a city council. That is, “if reasonable minds can differ the zoning action will be upheld,” she wrote.

“In this case, I am confident that the decision of the City Council was a reasonable one that will be upheld by the courts,” she said.

Moen has proposed a building, known at The Chauncey, with two movie theaters, a bowling alley, office space, a hotel and residential units. The city and Moen are the process of negotiating a development agreement.

Three members of Iowa Coalition Against the Shadow, including Cole, sought to have the site zoned in a way that allows buildings only up to 75 feet, thereby preventing Moen’s building to go up as proposed.

The City Council rejected that request on a 5-2 vote last month. The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission recommended against the rezoning by the same margin.

Moen’s building, which would be 233 feet high, or 191 feet under a 16-story alternative being considered, also would require the land be rezoned, which city officials have said will be applied for at a later date.

In the three-count lawsuit, opponents argue that their rezoning application was denied because city “decision makers had already prejudged” the issue and decided to grant zoning that would support Moen’s project. They say the council’s decision was “arbitrary, discriminatory and constituted a denial of due process”

They also argue that approving the zoning needed for Moen’s building would be illegal spot zoning in which a developer is given special privileges. They say granting zoning for Moen’s building would be for his benefit and would violate the city’s comprehensive plan.

Iowa City attorney Christopher Warnock is representing Iowa Coalition Against the Shadow free of charge. Cole, an attorney, also will help with the case.

“If we’re unsuccessful in the district court, we will appeal to the (Iowa) Supreme Court,” he said.

Mayor Matt Hayek, who voted with the council majority to enter into negotiations with Moen and to deny the rezoning application from project opponents, declined comment because of the pending litigation against the city.

City Administrator Kelly Hayworth and City Engineer Dan Holderness used a fire department boat to observe various places to see what was flooding and when as Coralville Lake, the Iowa River and Clear Creek continued to rise.

Scott Larson, the assistant city engineer, took to the air to shoot photographs.

And the city hired a consultant to take measurements of the flood.

All of this was done to prepare for post-flood work. And now, five years later, Coralville is nearly finished with most of its flood-related projects.

“With that information, we were able to turn around and make plans for how to protect ourselves in the future,” Hayworth said.

The city lists five flood-protection projects, some of them with multiple components, costing $64.2 million.

The biggest is $37.1 million spent on the First Avenue corridor between Interstate 80 and Second Street. The southern end of that is where the Iowa River and Clear Creek converge, and the area was under several feet of water in 2008. That was problematic for more than just Coralville residents because First Avenue and Second Street is the busiest intersection in Johnson County with lot of the traffic going to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

The work, mostly completed in 2011, included building a higher and longer First Avenue bridge over the creek, allowing 100-year-flood levels to pass underneath. First Avenue also was widened and storm water pump stations, storm sewer upgrades, berms and flood walls were installed along the Iowa River.

Another major project, at $11.7 million, is the elevation of the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railroad from near the Iowa River Power Restaurant on First Avenue to Rocky Shore Drive to help keep the river at bay. Work got underway last fall and is to finish next year.

Other measures include more pump stations, backflow prevention and berms and floodwalls along Clear Creek and Biscuit Creek in an area where redevelopment is occurring.

City officials pointed to the work already done as helping to keep water back in the 2013 flood, with Coralville avoiding any significant damage so far.

Holderness said all of the projects offer protection at least up to 100-year-flood levels plus one foot. Removable walls that can be installed as needed will extend those up to 500-year levels, which would be comparable with the flooding seen in 2008.

“It’s a significant improvement over where we were in ’08,” Holderness said.

In Iowa City, construction on most of the major flood-related projects is still to come. Its plans are grander than in Coralville, with 15 projects costing about $150 million proposed.

Iowa City also has seen its plans altered. The City Council last fall chose not to build a levee along Taft Speedway in the face of criticism from the people who live in the nine homes still on the street who would have been between the levee and the Iowa River.

That decision was condemned by the residents of the 92-unit Idyllwild condominium complex the levee was meant to protect. In current flooding, however, the complex remains dry because of other measures put in place.

The city also killed a levee proposed for the east side of the Iowa River on the south side of town after costs spiraled out of control.

The city’s top two flood projects are moving ahead, though. One is the largest public works project in Iowa City history: the $54.8 million relocation of the north wastewater treatment plant, which flooded in 2008, to the south plant. Construction is underway and is to finish next year.

The other priority is what the city is calling the Gateway Project, which is the elevation of Dubuque Street and Park Road bridge by City Park on a main entryway into town. A portion of Dubuque Street frequently floods, and the bridge acted like a dam in 2008 with 52 tons of debris removed from its upstream side, said Rick Fosse, Iowa City’s public works director.

The $40 million project is in the preliminary design phase, with construction slated for 2015-16.

The current flood sent water over Dubuque Street, causing the city to shut down a section of it in late May. Officials hope it reopens in the second half of this month.

Fosse said this spring’s flood should be a reminder of the importance of these projects.

“The further you get from a disaster, the more momentum you lose for mitigation,” he said.

Other projects include a new animal shelter, a levee on the west side of the river on the south side of town and the CRANDIC project with Coralville.

Fosse pointed to that last project, which the University of Iowa also is involved in, as an example of the government cooperation.

Some people have said they don’t believe the cities and the UI are taking into consideration how a project can affect water flow and levels up and down stream.

But Fosse said Iowa City, UI and Coralville are all aware of what the others are doing and work off a single hydraulic model to predict the effects of the various projects.

Much of the cost for the projects in both cities is being covered by the federal and state governments. A voter-approved local-option sales tax is estimated to generate $32.8 million for Iowa City’s wastewater plant and Gateway projects over its four-year life.

Floodwaters from the Coralville Lake flow up to the emergency spillway Wednesday at the lake in Iowa City. The lake was at 708.2 feet above sea level Thursday morning, down from Wednesday’s crest of 708.44 feet. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

The lake was at 708.2 feet above sea level Thursday morning, down from Wednesday’s crest of 708.44 feet. The lake’s emergency spillway, which officials just days ago predicted would be topped, sits at 712 feet.

A storm is expected to bring up to 1 inch of rain Saturday night into Sunday, according to a news release from Johnson County Emergency Management. But the National Weather Service is concerned that the storm system is strengthening and could stall over the area, with rain lasting into Monday, according to the release.

The Iowa River in Iowa City was at 24.89 feet at noon Thursday, which is just below “major” flood stage, according to the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities. The river is predicted to reach 25 feet on Friday and stay at that level for several days.

The Board of Supervisors voted Thursday to hire Dana Aschenbrenner, a deputy treasurer for the county, as the department’s director.  He starts in his new role June 10.

The plan is to have the three-person department – the other two will be hired soon – operational as close as possible to July 1, the start of the fiscal year.

The Finance Department’s duties will initially consist primarily of helping prepare the county budget, auditing functions, fleet management and working with the county’s insurance carriers.

“It will bring things together, it will move expertise into a common area,” county Treasurer Tom Kriz said. “So it just makes for better county government, more efficient county government.”

The supervisors pursued the idea after they were caught off guard last fall by $67,000 in purchases made by former county Auditor Tom Slockett, whose term ended at the end of last year. That led to a huge fight between the supervisors, who considered the purchases an unauthorized spending spree of items not in the county budget, and Slockett, who said he was acting within his rights as an elected official overseeing a department.

County officials said Thursday that having a Finance Department will create more checks and balances and be more efficient. Currently, a lot of the work is performed by the offices of the treasurer and auditor, and it can result in poor communication and even multiple sets of numbers on the same matter, Auditor Travis Weipert said.

“All the financial stuff will be in one area and it will make all of our duties easier,” he said.

Aschenbrenner echoed that, saying county employees will know where to go with financial questions.

They are “trying to be a one-stop shop,” he said.

Kriz first suggested the creation of a Finance Department several years ago, but there needed to be agreement between the treasurer, supervisors and the auditor, and he said that did not occur until Weipert took office this year.

“It’s a new team atmosphere where people share information and share employees,” said Janelle Rettig, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors.

The offices of the treasurer, auditor and supervisors are each eliminating one position, so the three finance employees will not result in an increase of the county’s staffing level.

Aschenbrenner is a 10-year county employee, serving as a deputy auditor before spending the last two as deputy treasurer. He is a certified public accountant, although he said his license is currently inactive.

His annual salary as finance director will be $73,945.

County officials said they spoke with Linn County officials and modeled their Finance Department partly on Linn County’s Finance and Budget Department.

A red light camera on First Avenue East, facing northbound traffic at the intersection with 10th Street SE. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Iowa City likely will be free of red-light and speed cameras for the next two years, but there’s no guarantee that will extend beyond that time frame.

The City Council voted 7-0 Tuesday night on the first consideration to repeal an ordinance it approved last year allowing traffic-enforcement cameras. The proposal also would add a new chapter to City Code that prohibits the use of automatic traffic-surveillance systems, drones and automatic license-plate readers unless a police officer or parking attendant is on the scene.

Two more votes are needed for the changes to take effect.

The council indicated last month it was heading in this direction after a petition sought to either ban the devices or allow the public to vote on their use.

City staffers recommended the council repeal the traffic-camera ordinance because the city does not have any cameras installed yet and likely would not until next year as it waits for the state to develop rules on their use.

The City Council could reconsider the issue two years after the ordinance is repealed. Four of the seven council members and police Chief Sam Hargadine have already said they are interested in eventually using red-light cameras.

That included council member Susan Mims.

“My feeling is it doesn’t necessarily prevent us from doing what council may or may not want to do two years from now,” she said.

Also Tuesday night, the City Council voted in favor of an agreement that eliminates Sunday rides and discounted fares for SEATS, a public transit service for the elderly and people with disabilities. But it came with the caveat that city staff will explore ways to save those services.

City officials have suggested the cuts to save money after Johnson County, which runs the service on contract for Iowa City and Coralville, said it would reduce its financial support.

The cities, along with North Liberty, have been negotiating and often fighting with Johnson County over SEATS for several months. Johnson County officials maintain the county has been subsidizing the cities, a position city officials reject.

About 10 people spoke at the council meeting, all but one of them opposed to Iowa City eliminating Sunday service and half-fares for people who qualify.

Terry Cunningham, addressing the council from his wheelchair, said many people rely on Sunday service to get to work, church and stores and doing away with it would keep them at home as if they were in an institution.

“If you can’t get out and participate, then you’re locked up,” he said.

The council asked staff to search for possible alternatives, but there was no consensus on what members would find acceptable.

Mayor Matt Hayek pushed for the cuts, saying SEATS would not be solvent in the long term without them and noting staff could find no other city in Iowa that offered half-fares.

City Manager Tom Markus was blunter, telling council member Jim Throgmorton, “At the end of the day, Jim, it’s all about money.”

Throgmorton disagreed, saying the city had a moral obligation to help those most in need. He suggested a transition that would more slowly phase out those services over the coming years rather than by this September, as was proposed.

“It’s really a question about what we value,” he said.

The city and county, along with Coralville, ultimately must reach an agreement by July 1. Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Janelle Rettig has already been critical of the possibility of cutting Sunday service and half-fares.

Water rushes through the dam at Coralville Lake Sunday, June 2, 2013. The lake is no longer predicted to go over its emergency spillway (left) but flood conditions will continue this week as the lake nears a projected crest at 711.5 feet on June 7. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

IOWA CITY – Coralville Lake is no longer predicted to go over its emergency spillway, but don’t take that to mean the threat of major flooding has passed.

Underscoring that was Iowa City’s request Sunday for a small number of voluntary evacuations, the pending closure of the road over the dam at Coralville Lake and the possibility of more road closures throughout the county.

“It’s important for folks to understand that this is going to be a prolonged event,” Terrence Neuzil, a Johnson County supervisor serving as spokesman for the county’s Emergency Management Agency, said Sunday. “The (Iowa) River is going to be flooded for a while.”

The Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the lake, is now forecasting the lake will crest at 711.5 feet above sea level on June 7. That’s down from the 712.8 foot prediction made Saturday, and it is below the spillway, which is at 712 feet.

Receiving just a few hundredths of an inch of precipitation in the Iowa River basin on Saturday and dry forecasts for Sunday and Monday helped bring the lake forecast down, Neuzil said.

But the lake is still high – just over 707 feet Sunday compared with the normal summer elevation of 683 feet – and it will be high for some time, officials said. They are expecting the flood threat to remain much of the summer, and another wet stretch like what was seen last week could send predictions soaring again.

The National Water Service is forecasting the Iowa River in Iowa City to crest at 25 feet, which is right at “major” flood stage, on June 4.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Dee Goldman, the lake operations manager. “There’s still a very real risk there. But every little bit we can get out of the reservoir” helps.

The amount of water going through the dam’s gates, which are wide open, was 18,100 cubic feet per second Sunday morning. That’s expected to hit 19,500 cfs as the lake crests. That’s also an improvement from Saturday.

The corps moved to 24-hour operations at the lake Sunday to monitor the situation, including inspecting the dam and reading gauges, Goldman said. Everything is working as it should be at this time, he said.

Flooding remains a concern.

Iowa City police officers on Sunday delivered voluntary evacuation notices to three homes on the 800 block of Normandy Drive, which has been closed by floodwaters, and nine homes on Taft Speedway.

“Just a recommendation to them, a heads up, that we have concerns that emergency personnel would not be able to make it in later,” city spokeswoman Shannon McMahon said.

Taft Speedway resident Joel Wilcox, his wife and two kids moved Friday to his mother’s home, across the street in the Idyllwild neighborhood

They raised their house 8 feet after the 1993 flood and currently have about 16 inches on the lowest level, which is not lived in, he said. Water is knee deep outside the home, making it difficult to enter and exit.

“It is daunting and incredible that a week ago I wasn’t even thinking that there was going to be a flood,” said Wilcox, 60. “The realization of it came up awfully suddenly.”

In addition to the flood damage and mandatory home evacuations that already have occurred, the county is keeping an eye on Winter Eagle Road just south of Terry Trueblood Recreation Area in southern Iowa City and Ely and Swan Lake roads near the lake.

In  Hills south of Iowa City, about 2,000 feet of berms have been installed and the the small town should be OK at the predicted flow of 19,500 cfs, Neuzil said.

Three groups from two special law enforcement water teams – one based out of Cedar Rapids; the other in Johnson County – were on the Iowa River Sunday shooting video and still photographs of water damage.

About 30 Johnson County buildings, mostly homes, are currently damaged or under water with an estimated $2 million in damage, Neuzil said.

The worst-case scenario, based on a lake outflow of 21,000 cfs, would threaten 64 buildings and has the potential to cause $23 million in damage, he said. About 20 miles of roads would be affected by floodwaters in that situation and about 15,000 tons of debris would be in the Iowa River, he said.

IOWA CITY — With everything around them covered in mud, the six ceramic figurines sat on the door dry and clean.

Drew and Judy Dillman had placed the items on a bedroom door, set horizontally on two sawhorses 3 feet off the ground, as the Iowa River was on its way to a record height in June 2008.

The water would reach 4 1/2 feet high in their ranch home in Iowa City’s Parkview Terrace neighborhood, taking the door up with it.

When the Dillmans returned after a mandatory evacuation, the door had floated from the dining room to a bedroom 20 feet away on the downstream side of the house. It had settled on the floor, the figurines — a grandmother and grandfather with children, pheasants, a kingfisher and two ducks — still atop it.

“So they had a little tour of the house,” says Judy Dillman, 62.

Unlike the figurines, few of the people who lived along the river in Iowa City and Coralville escaped the historic flood untouched. Nearly 800 homes in the two cities and rural Johnson County were damaged.

Across the Iowa River from Parkview Terrace, Taft Speedway residents mostly rejected government offers to buy their properties and successfully fought a city plan to build a levee. The levee would have protected the nearby Idyllwild neighborhood, which has seen half its residents leave since the flood.

No sense of neighborhood

Upriver, Coralville’s Edgewater Drive is empty, the homes mostly bought and then demolished by the city.

Parkview Terrace lost nearly 90 of its 140 homes to buyouts.

Patricia and Jack Salladay sold because of uncertainty over the future of the neighborhood and the devaluation of their Normandy Drive home, says Patricia Salladay, who is in her 70s.

“It’s sad,” she says of a neighborhood she loved for its people and wildlife. “But it wouldn’t be the neighborhood now because everyone is gone except just a couple.”

There is no sense of neighborhood anymore, Judy Dillman says. It’s too far between the homes, with large grassy spaces separating many of them.

They would have taken a buyout, too, but with the flood insurance payout deducted from the amount, it didn’t work financially, says Drew Dillman, 64. So they rebuilt their home on five feet of fill, left the first floor a garage and work space and set the living quarters 10 feet above ground.

“But you’re never safe,” he says. “When you build in the flood plain, you have to expect flooding.”

That was underscored with the ongoing flooding in recent weeks, which left water lapping at, but not entering, their home.

Across the river, the people living in the 92-unit Idyllwild condominium complex were not eligible for buyouts despite extensive damage because, as a condo association, it was classified as one property that mostly was outside the 100-year flood plain.

Residents pushed for a levee along Taft Speedway to their south. But the City Council last fall voted against pursuing the project after residents on the other side of Taft Speedway protested they would be between the levee and the Iowa River.

Sally Cline, president of the condo association, says people were “terribly disappointed” in the decision. But the neighborhood has rebounded since the flood, she says.

Only one unit is vacant, she says. After the flood, the bylaws were changed to allow rentals until 2016, and about 40 of the 92 units are rented out.

It’s still a beautiful area with good recreational opportunities and is close to downtown, says Cline, 67, whose condo underwent $70,000 in repairs following the flood.

On Taft Speedway, nine of the 13 homes that stood before the flood remain, the owners refusing buyouts. Joel Wilcox says he and his wife moved into their home in 1992 and, with their two kids, are still among the newer residents.

After 1993, they elevated their home 9 feet and had less damage in 2008. The lowest level, which is not lived in, took on about 1 1/2 feet of water in the 2013 flooding.

“I guess the long and short of it for me is, the best way to prepare to survive down there is to prepare to let the river do what it’s going to do and not try to prevent it from doing what it’s going to do,” says Wilcox, 60. “Just live with the river.”

Linda Liedtke compared Coralville’s Edgewater Drive with Taft Speedway. It was a self-contained neighborhood of about 30 homes, all of them gone now.

Liedtke, 63, moved to Edgewater Drive in 1979 with her late husband.

In 1993, they got about 6 inches of water in their home. Even after raising it a couple of feet, there was 1 1/2 feet of water inside in 2008.

She took a buyout, reluctantly, and now lives in a condominium just a few hundred feet from her old home. She doesn’t like it as much, though. She has to look across a large parking lot to see the river.

“It was a perfect house,” she says. “It was just the way we wanted it.”

Congressman Dave Loebsack addresses a meeting of the residents of the Parkview Terrace Neighborhood Association during a meeting with city, county, state, and federal officials Saturday, June 21, 2008 at the Iowa City Public Library in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

This year, with flooding again a concern, they have a new tool that is more precise and as simple to use as getting on the Internet.

Since the historic 2008 floods, the Iowa Flood Center at the University of Iowa has developed a web-based model that creates flood inundation maps based on river conditions in the Iowa City area, Cedar Rapids and eight other towns in Iowa, with a few more coming soon.

It allows people to map out what-if scenarios at various river heights and flows.

That’s a tool local communities have used this week as wet weather has led to predictions Coralville Lake could reach its emergency spillway, threatening downstream communities with potentially significant flooding.

Coralville has consulted the model to help develop plans for protecting the community should flooding turn serious. It also asked the Iowa Flood Center for a separate calculation considering different flows for Clear Creek, which meets the Iowa River near First Avenue and Highway 6.

Should flooding occur this year, the city expects to have a much better idea where water will go than it did in 2008.

“That’s really the advantage,  to give us a heads up and give us plenty of time to prepare,” City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said. “And it tells us where to start and where to prioritize.”

In 2008, as record-setting floods wreaked havoc on the state, local government officials were asking researchers at the UI’s IIHR – Hydroscience & Engineering (the Iowa Flood Center was created after the flood) to calculate where the water would reach.

The problem was it takes several weeks to build a proper model, plus the river forecasts were constantly changing, said Larry Weber, director of IIHR –Hydroscience & Engineering, one of the nation’s premier hydraulics laboratories.

Now, the flood center has validated flood maps at 6-inch increments based off data obtained from river and stream gauges. They take into account landscape and many of the flood-protection projects communities completed following the 2008 flood, Weber said.

Instead of those rough calculations in 2008, Weber and his colleagues now tell people with specific questions to go to the website for detailed, real-time answers.

The model is easy to use and available to anyone with Internet access. Looking at the Iowa City and Coralville map, one just has to click on a controller and slide it to the right to increase the height and discharge on the Iowa River, and the water expands accordingly on a Google Map.

“It will improve public safety and hopefully protect property as well,” Weber said. “We all have heard of the stories of, ‘We just didn’t think it could get this far.’”

“Now we have all these visual tools to be able to show people that for this flow, this is the extent and you need to prepare.”

Rick Fosse, Iowa City’s public works director, said Iowa City also is using the model this week to develop flood-protection plans. It partnered with the flood center and the National Weather Service on the project, spending about $9,000, he said.

“Which was a bargain considering what we get out of it,” he said.

Cedar Rapids Public Works Director David Elgin said the city already had a comparable application for its own internal use, but the Iowa Flood Center and similar National Weather Service maps are valuable for homeowners, businesses and industries near the river.

“It’s a very convenient tool for people to use and it does save time,” he said.

CORALVILLE – During the 2008 flood, Coralville officials went around by boat and even plane surveying the water with an eye toward the future.

City Administrator Kelly Hayworth and City Engineer Dan Holderness used a fire department boat to observe various places to see what was flooding and when as Coralville Lake, the Iowa River and Clear Creek continued to rise.

Scott Larson, the assistant city engineer, took to the air to shoot photographs.

And the city hired a consultant to take measurements of the flood.

All of this was done to prepare for post-flood work. And now, five years later, Coralville is nearly finished with most of its flood-related projects.

“With that information, we were able to turn around and make plans for how to protect ourselves in the future,” Hayworth said.

The city lists five flood-protection projects, some of them with multiple components, costing $64.2 million.

The biggest is $37.1 million spent on the First Avenue corridor between Interstate 80 and Second Street. The southern end of that is where the Iowa River and Clear Creek converge, and the area was under several feet of water in 2008. That was problematic for more than just Coralville residents because First Avenue and Second Street is the busiest intersection in Johnson County with lot of the traffic going to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

The work, mostly completed in 2011, included building a higher and longer First Avenue bridge over the creek, allowing 100-year-flood levels to pass underneath. First Avenue also was widened and storm water pump stations, storm sewer upgrades, berms and flood walls were installed along the Iowa River.

Another major project, at $11.7 million, is the elevation of the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railroad from near the Iowa River Power Restaurant on First Avenue to Rocky Shore Drive to help keep the river at bay. Work got underway last fall and is to finish next year.

Other measures include more pump stations, backflow prevention and berms and floodwalls along Clear Creek and Biscuit and an area where redevelopment is occurring.

The city also has three projects totaling $8.8 million it says are needed to complete the flood-protection system, but there is no funding for those at this time.

Holderness said all of the projects offer protection at least up to 100-year-flood levels plus one foot. Removable walls that can be installed as needed will extend those up to 500-year levels, which would be comparable with the flooding seen in 2008.

“It’s a significant improvement over where we were in ’08,” Holderness said.

In Iowa City, construction on most of the major flood-related projects is still to come. Its plans are grander than in Coralville, with 15 projects costing about $150 million proposed.

Iowa City also has seen its plans altered. The City Council last fall chose not to build a levee along Taft Speedway in the face of intense criticism from the people who live in the nine homes still on the street who would have been between the levee and the Iowa River.

That decision was condemned by the residents of the 92-unit Idyllwild condominium complex the levee was meant to protect.

The city also killed a levee proposed for the east side of the Iowa River on the south side of town after costs spiraled out of control.

The city’s top two flood projects are moving ahead, though. One is the largest public works project in Iowa City history: the $54.8 million relocation of the north wastewater treatment plant, which flooded in 2008, to the south plant. Construction is underway and is to finish next year.

The other priority is what the city is calling the Gateway Project, which is the elevation of Dubuque Street and Park Road bridge by City Park on a main entryway into town. A portion of Dubuque Street frequently floods, and the bridge acted like a dam in 2008 with 52 tons of debris removed from its upstream side, said Rick Fosse, Iowa City’s public works director.

The $40 million project is in the preliminary design phase, with construction slated for 2015-16.

Other projects include a new animal shelter, a levee on the west side of the river on the south side of town and the CRANDIC project with Coralville.

Fosse pointed to that last project, which the University of Iowa also is involved in, as an example of the government cooperation.

Some people have said they don’t believe the cities and the UI are taking into consideration how a project can affect water flow and levels up and down stream.

But Fosse said Iowa City, UI and Coralville are all aware of what the others are doing and work off a single hydraulic model to predict the effects of the various projects.

Much of the cost for the projects in both cities is being covered by the federal and state governments. A voter-approved local-option sales tax is estimated to generate $32.8 million for Iowa City’s wastewater plant and Gateway projects over its four-year life.

IOWA CITY – Jan Omann isn’t panicking, but she isn’t going to wait for flooding, either.

She has lived in her home on Iowa City’s Normandy Drive, with the Iowa River flowing past her backyard, since 1968, through the floods of 1993 (no water in her home) and 2008 (38 inches).

With flooding again a possibility, Omann on Tuesday afternoon was moving family photographs, movies and documents to the attic above her garage.

“I don’t know what to expect,” she said. “I just pray for no rain.”

Many local officials expressed similar sentiments Tuesday as they undertook planning for possibly significant flooding almost exactly five years after the record 2008 flood.

The Army Corps of Engineers is predicting Coralville Lake, which it oversees, will come within inches of its emergency spillway next week. Officials are not yet saying there’s a concern a major flood will occur, but with rain in the forecast all week, the threat is at least there.

“This thing can go either way,” said Rick Fosse, Iowa City’s public works director.

Iowa City removed the amusement park rides it has in City Park and was formulating plans in case conditions worsened, including for the possible closure of a flood-prone section of Dubuque Street by City Park.

The University of Iowa was taking the most action, installing temporary barriers around Mayflower Residence Hall, Art Building West and a UI water treatment plant – all in low-lying areas near the Iowa River.  (See related story.)

Coralville is comparing the forecasts with computer models it has to see where it may be vulnerable, City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said. The biggest concern right now is the neighborhoods along Clear Creek, where flood-protection efforts undertaken after the 2008 floods are not as far along as those on the Iowa River, he said.

A lot of the worry comes from the situation at Coralville Lake. The Army Corps of Engineers increased the lake’s outflow from 1,000 cubic feet per second to 3,000 cfs Monday morning and then 6,000 cfs in the afternoon in order to increase storage capacity, said Dee Goldman, the lake’s operations manager.

Outflow is expected to increase to 10,000 cfs Wednesday morning. The corps has a protocol it follows, and Goldman also said it must balance flooding concerns downstream from Iowa City when deciding whether to increase the amount of water leaving the lake.

Coralville Lake is forecast to crest at 711.28 feet above sea level on June 7. The dam’s emergency spillway is at 712 feet and has only been topped in the floods of 1993 and 2008.

That prediction takes into account the weather over the next 24 hours. There is a chance of rain in the Iowa City area each day the rest of this week.

“It’s definitely a concern,” Goldman said.

Dave Cousins, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities, said this week’s rain total could be anywhere from 2 to 5 inches in the Iowa City area, with the best chance Thursday through Friday. Next week the area is looking at normal to slightly above normal precipitation, he said.

The weather service is predicting the Iowa River in Iowa City will remain below flood stage. Cousins said that’s in part because the river’s height is determined not just by rainfall but how much water the corps is releasing from Coralville Lake.

Fosse, Iowa City’s public works director, said the situation should be manageable if lake outflow can stay at 10,000 cfs for the next two weeks. But that’s contingent on no significant rain over that period, something he acknowledged is unlikely in early June.

At this time, however, officials are not expecting a repeat of 2008 or 1993, said Dave Wilson, Johnson County’s emergency management coordinator. The flood-protection projects and home buyouts that have occurred since 2008 puts a lot less property at risk should there be flooding, he said.

“What I don’t want to undersell, though, is there’s no risk,” Wilson said. “There is a risk.”

Private property owners in flood-prone areas will want to consider their risk and take the necessary precautions, he said. Iowa City and Johnson County both have sandbags available for residents.

Johnson County Tuesday night asked the governor’s office to add it to a list of 13 counties included in a disaster proclamation issued earlier in the day.

Representatives from local governments, the corps and the National Weather Service discussed the flood outlook Tuesday morning. They will continue to meet each morning for the foreseeable future.

A three-story apartment building, which would include commercial space on the first floor, located along Fifth Street in Coralville is shown in this rendering. Watts Development Team and Fusion Architects Inc. are proposing a million development in the city’s “Old Town.” (Fusion Architects Inc.)

A plan for a $24 million redevelopment of flood-prone land in the oldest section of Coralville will go before the City Council next week.

The project, from Iowa City-based Watts Development Team and Hiawatha-based Fusion Architects Inc., calls for 154 housing units, 10,000 square feet of commercial space and public areas south of Fifth Street between Biscuit Creek and Second Avenue.

The 20-acre site was under several feet of water in the 2008 flood, but the land will be built up and a berm will be constructed as part of the project.

“It will basically take kind of a blighted area that had the flood damage, and take it in and be one of the nicer multi-use areas in Coralville,” developer Gary Watts said Friday.

The City Council will hold public hearings and votes on a few items related to the project May 28, including rezoning the land, vacating streets running through the property and the preliminary plat.

The site, which the city now calls Old Town Coralville, was home to houses, apartments and city buildings before the 2008 flood. The city bought out the properties and has spent the years since exploring options for the area.

“I think it’s great,” City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said of the Watts-Fusion proposal. “It’s an excellent location. It’s right in the heart of our community, close to the interstate, close to the University of Iowa.”

A year ago the city selected Watts-Fusion over a competing proposal and entered into negotiations.

The cost estimate is $22 million to $24 million, Watts said. No financial assistance or tax breaks are being provided by the city, Hayworth and Watts said.

The housing includes 42 two- and three-bedroom townhouses throughout the site that would sell for between $185,000 and $215,000.

Also, there’s a building with 72 apartments and another with 40 apartments and 10,000 square feet of commercial space. Watts hopes to get a restaurant with an outdoor patio and perhaps some officer users in the commercial space.

That building would the first to be constructed along with eight to 10 of the townhouses, with construction starting this spring and finishing about 12 months from now, Watts said.

The full project would to be done in phases, with construction finished in 2018, according to the city.

Watts said the goal is to buy more property to the east as it becomes available over the next few years. With expansion, the development would approach $40 million, he said.

The plan calls for public space on the southwest corner of the property. Early ideas for that included an amphitheater, farmers market and an ice rink, but the city has not decided what public amenities, which itwould pay for, would be there.

A berm is to be built to 1 foot above the 2008 flood level and the entire site would be 1 foot above the 100-year flood elevation. A city storm-sewer pump station is near the property.

The council also is to vote on vacating Second Avenue Place, a portion of Third Avenue, Third Avenue Place and Fourth Street.

Robert Coleman, a driver with Johnson County SEATS, helps Rachel Villhauer over some uneven concrete as he walks her to her door after driving her home Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, in Iowa City, Iowa. Villhauer uses the service to get to and from her work. Villhauer has been using the service for about 20 years. The program serves senior citizens and persons with disabilities who are unable to use regular bus service. (Jim Slosiarek/Gazette)

Iowa City is proposing cutting Sunday service and discounted fares from a public transit service for the elderly and people with disabilities.

The proposal is the latest in a months-long dispute between Iowa City, and also Coralville, and Johnson County over the SEATS program.

No Sunday service could hurt people with jobs, and the loss of discounted fares would affect low-income people, said Janelle Rettig, chairwoman of the county’s Board of Supervisors.

“As a resident, I’m concerned about Iowa City’s commitment to paratransit and how this will affect riders,” she said.

The cities and the county have been fighting over the costs of the program, which federal law requires Iowa City and Coralville to offer. The county runs SEATS under contract with the cities, with Coralville providing service to North Liberty.

The county supervisors say the county has been subsidizing the cities in the program, an argument the city officials disagree with.

The county is paying the cities $600,000 this fiscal year under a contract that expires June 30. The supervisors initially suggested reducing that amount to nothing in the coming years, but have since softened that stance.

The draft for a five-year contract sent by Iowa City to Johnson County this week stipulates that Iowa City receive $154,000 from the county in the fiscal year starting July 1, with that amount increasing up to 3 percent annually.

More likely to draw attention in the proposal is the lack of Sunday service and the reduced fares Iowa City residents are eligible for.

Chris O’Brien, director of transportation services for Iowa City, said that is the direction he got from the City Council earlier this month.

SEATS users have said they were concerned about reductions in services, including Sunday service.

Harry Olmstead of Iowa City uses a wheelchair and rides SEATS two to three times a week, including on Sundays. He also is eligible for discounted fares. The cuts would cause riders to miss church and also would force them to make tough decisions on how to spend their limited incomes, he said.

“Obviously, we’re going to end up giving up social activities,” said Olmstead, who is on the SEATS advisory committee and also is a member of Iowa City’s Human Rights Commission but said he was speaking on behalf of himself.

The city’s stance is driven by finances, O’Brien said, and would save the city about $200,000 a year.

“In the end, we have to make this a sustainable operation for the long term,” he said.

Rettig countered: “Iowa City should have been concerned about that for the last 20 years, too. But they didn’t seem to care about that as much when they didn’t have to pay the bills.”

Sunday service is not offered in the unincorporated areas, which the county oversees.

O’Brien described the proposed contract as something to get the basic language set and not a “hard-core” draft. But something needs to be before the City Council in June so a new contract is in place by July 1, he said.

Coralville has not discussed a SEATS contract yet and it will be up to the City Council to decide whether to propose any cuts in service, said Vicky Robrock, director of parking and transportation.

With state lawmakers working on a plan to reduce commercial property taxes, Rettig said this may just be the start in cuts to a variety of programs. State officials have promised to give money to local governments to make up for the loss in property tax revenue, but many local government officials doubt that the state will provide enough funding.

The school board voted 7-0 Tuesday night not to apply for a Community Oriented Policing Services grant to place one school resource officer at City High and another at West High.

With the application having to be submitted May 22, Superintendent Stephen Murley recommended against moving forward because of concerns over the cost and a desire for more community input on an issue that just came up this month.

But he said he would like to continue the discussion with the Iowa City Police Department, which the school district would have partnered with on the grant, and explore other funding sources. The Iowa City Council voted last week to apply for the grant.

Some school board members, though, said the district needed to take a further step back and see what community members thought about the basic question of whether armed police officers should be in schools.

The consensus of the several members of the public who spoke at the meeting was officers should not be based in schools.

Research casts doubt on whether having school resource officers improves safety but has found that the practice causes relatively minor offenses to be treated as crimes.

“Kids act out. They do dumb things,” said Andrew Coghill-Behrends, a parent of three kids in the Iowa City school district. “But we need to remember that we owe them our guidance and not our punishment at all times.”

The Rev. Dorothy Whiston, the pastor at First Baptist Church in Iowa City, said there was  “grave concern” over statistics that show racial minorities are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system.

“We have a lot of concerns about the relationship between the (Iowa City) Police Department and minority youth in this town,” she said.

The cost of the program was a worry for school officials. The city’s proposal called for the school district to cover the local matching funds required in the grant and for the two officers’ compensation after the grant expires.

The federal money would stop after three years. The four-year agreement envisioned by the city and the school district would require $211,498 in local matching funds.

“We’ve got significant concerns about that cost component. … We do not have the funding available to participate in that grant,” Murley said.

School board member Patti Fields said she did not think it was a good idea to create a program to go after funding.

Having police officers in schools “is a philosophy we’ve got to embrace first before we chase money,” she said.

Johnson County Recorder Kim Painter, shown here outside the Johnson County Administration Building in 2009, will be recognized by the White House this week with an honor named after a gay-rights icon.(Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Painter is one of 10 elected or appointed officials who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered who have been named “Harvey Milk Champions of Change.”

Painter, county recorder since 1998 and a Democrat, was the first openly gay person to win election to public office in Iowa.

“Harvey Milk is very evocative and important to anyone who’s grown up and become a public servant as an openly gay individual,” Painter said Monday.

Milk was a gay-rights activist who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the 1970s. He was assassinated by a former supervisor in 1978.

May 22 was Milk’s birthday, and Painter and the other honorees are being recognized at an event in Washington, D.C., that day. Painter had a previous commitment and cannot attend.

She learned of the award a little more than a week ago when she was contacted by a White House LGBT liaison.

“It came out of the blue, and I was startled and very happy,” she said. “It’s a very nice honor.”

Painter’s office issues marriage licenses in Johnson County. As a lesbian, that job has affected her personally.

In 2004, she denied the marriage-license applications of dozens of same-sex couples, some of whom she knew, despite her personal belief that the Iowa law banning gay marriage was unconstitutional.

“I had to do the hard job of saying no to those people,” Painter said.

Then she got to do the reverse after the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that same-sex couples could wed.

Painter and Jessica Kardon married in 2009 and have now been together 17 years.

The Harvey Milk award is part of the Champions of Change program, which was created as an opportunity for the White House to feature groups of Americans who are doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of their communities, according to a news release.

To watch Wednesday’s event live, visit www.whitehouse.gov/live at 2 p.m. Iowa time.

Cedar Rapids Police School Resource Officer Charity Hansel watches as students leave Kennedy High School at the end of the school day on Monday, May 20, 2013, in Cedar Rapids. Hansel has been Kennedy's SRO since January, and says that a majority of the job is counseling and teaching in addition to law enforcement, with the goal to keep students and staff safe. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — The national debate over whether armed police officers belong in schools has come to the Iowa City school district — and the idea is receiving plenty of scrutiny from the community.

“The thought of it is horrific to me,” said Royceann Porter of Iowa City, a member of Johnson County’s Juvenile Crime Prevention Policy Council. “I don’t think Iowa City has gotten to the point where that’s needed.”

Some studies back up concerns, including an oft-cited one that found having what are known as school resource officers leads to minor offenses being criminalized and does not improve safety.

The Iowa City school board is to vote today on whether to join Iowa City in applying for a federal Community Oriented Policing Services grant to help fund the hiring of two police officers to be based out of City High and West High.

Shooting response

In response to the Newtown, Conn., school shooting last December, President Barack Obama proposed putting more police officers in schools. A task force associated with the National Rifle Association recently called for an armed officer in every school in America.

The Connecticut school shooting, and the grant availability, spurred the Iowa City school district’s interest, Superintendent Stephen Murley said. The initial thought was to have two officers for the high schools and junior high schools, but Iowa City police thought that would spread the officers too thin.

A 2011 study in Justice Quarterly, which did its own data analysis and also reviewed other studies, found no proof that school resource officers decrease crime.

Supporters, though, point to crime statistics to back their view. In the 2009-10 school year, the most recent available, there were about 40 crimes per 1,000 students in public schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Just Monday, an Iowa City police officer was stationed at City High in anticipation of problems, and five juveniles were arrested after a fight occurred.

Previous debate

The district had this debate in 1994, with community opposition focused on guns causing the school board to drop a plan to place armed police officers in the junior high schools.

The issue of guns in schools has drawn opposition again.

“No one can predict what will happen when armed security personnel are stationed full-time in the schools, especially given that they’ll be intervening in student conflicts,” Chris Liebig, an Iowa City parent of three kids in the school district, wrote in an email. “Police officers are well-intentioned, but everybody’s fallible. It certainly won’t make me feel like my kids are any safer.“

Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine said school resource officers must carry guns.

“There are times we deal with guns showing up at school, and one of the first rules we all learn in the academy is you don’t come to a gunfight with a knife,” he said.

The federal report for 2009-10 found that, in schools of 1,000 or more students, like City High and West High, 74.6 percent had security staff that routinely carried a gun.

Another concern from the public is more kids ending up in the criminal justice system.

The Justice Quarterly study found that schools with police officers tend to shift discipline away from staff to the police and minor behavioral problems get treated like crimes.

Murley said Iowa City school officials would be heavily involved in the hiring of each officer and would want someone focused on diversion programs, which try to address problems without criminal charges, as opposed to punishment.

“You’re looking for somebody who has that judgment to make the right decision for kids, the school, the community,” he said.

Minority fears

Another fear is minority students could be unfairly targeted.

The Justice Quarterly study found this not to be the case, but a January report by a group of civil rights organizations cited several examples in which minority students were arrested at disproportionately high rates.

Valerie Horton, who is black and has twin 15-year-olds at West High, believes that could happen here.

“I feel like they put those police officers in those schools, our kids will end up with records,” said Horton, of Iowa City.

In the Iowa City school district last school year, black students made up 44.8 percent of students school staff referred to police, but just 16.6 percent of total enrollment. Another 17.9 percent of police referrals were for Hispanic students, who were 8.9 percent of all students.

School and city officials said an officer who better knows the students may be able to improve the situation. Disproportionate minority contact, as it’s called, is already an issue here and nationwide, City Manager Tom Markus said.

“It seems to me that, without burying that problem, you should try to make it better,” he said.

Iowa City parent Dana Taylor, who is black and has a child at City High and another in elementary school, agreed it may be a good way to build trusting relationships with youths.

“And the police officer gets to know the kid and sees their side, too,” she said.

That’s what has happened in Cedar Rapids, where the three comprehensive high schools each have school resource officers, said Deputy Superintendent Gary O’Malley.

“They actually counsel and support our students and their families,” he said.

He said he has not seen any problems with students being arrested for minor offenses or with minority students being treated unfairly.

Sgt. Cristy Hamblin, spokeswoman for the Cedar Rapids Police Department, said there is a racial disparity in school arrests and, while she does not believe officers are targeting students of color, they are trying to determine the reason.

In calendar year 2012, black students accounted for 42 percent of the 151 arrests at Jefferson, Kennedy and Washington, but are just 12.7 percent of total enrollment at the three high schools this school year.

Marc Moen’s plan for The Chauncey development, at the northeast corner of College and Gilbert streets. The 20-story mixed-use building has an estimated cost of $53.8 million, and Moen is asking officials for more than $13 million in tax incentives. (The Chauncey LLC)

Intense criticism will not keep the city of Iowa City from moving forward with a developer planning to construct a high-rise building on city-owned land.

The City Council rejected Tuesday night a rezoning proposal aimed at preventing Marc Moen from building a $53.8 million, 20-story building he’s calling The Chauncey at the intersection of College and Gilbert streets on the eastern edge of downtown.

The building is expected to have two movie theaters, a bowling alley, office space, a hotel and residential units.

The council voted 5-2 against the rezoning request, with Michelle Payne and Jim Throgmorton in the minority.

“It’s a great piece of property that we can infill with,” council member Terry Dickens said.

The council’s decision was focused on the land-use of the property, not the merits of the project.

The property would need to be rezoned to accommodate the height of Moen’s building, which would be 233 feet high or, under a 16-story alternative being considered, 191 feet.

Opponents organized as the anti-Chauncey group Iowa Coalition Against the Shadow applied to have the site zoned in a way that allows buildings only up to 75 feet.

The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-2 last month to recommend against the 75-foot rezoning.

To approve the rezoning would have effectively killed a project the council voted 5-1 in support of in January.

It also would have prevented the other two finalists from being built because they also would have run afoul of the height limitations.

Most of the speakers at the Planning and Zoning and the City Council meetings opposed Moen’s project. Critics have been speaking out since last fall against the building’s size, the $13.45 million in city financial assistance Moen says it will need and that it does not include New Pioneer Co-op, like the other finalists.

Rockne Cole, one of the applicants for the rezoning, called the council’s selection of Moen’s project a “breach of the public trust.”

“I know we’re not here to talk about the development, but quite frankly, public trust in this council is at an all-time low,” he said.

But the project also has its backers.

Nancy Quellhorst, president and CEO of the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, said a rezoning supporting a high-rise building would promote smart growth, walkability, add more foot traffic downtown and a building with housing for young professionals, office space and ground floor uses that will attract people.

The intent is to hire two new police officers to serve as what are known as school resource officers in the district’s three high schools and three junior high schools.

The move comes as school safety has taken on added significance following last December’s deadly elementary school shooting in Connecticut.

The City Council voted 6-1 to apply for the federal Community Oriented Policing Services grant, but not without some questions about the wisdom of such a choice.

Jim Throgmorton, Iowa City Council Member

Council member Jim Throgmorton, who cast the dissenting vote, said he was worried increasing the police presence in schools would increase the likelihood young people get drawn into the criminal justice system.

He said he supports the idea of improving connections between the police and youth, but “I’m not persuaded that having armed officers in City (High) and West (High) are the best way to do that.”

Council member Susan Mims, a former school board member, said, if officers do get assigned to the schools, there needs to be proper monitoring to make sure it does not lead primarily to more students getting in trouble with law enforcement.

“I think this is an opportunity to take a real leadership position and try to build some ties between the police department and the youth in this community,” she said.

Stephen Murley, Iowa City Schools Superintendent

The school board is expected to vote on the grant application May 21. Superintendent Stephen Murley has said while the officers would be used for security purposes, the goal also would be to improve relationships with kids. He also said the principals are supportive of the officers.

Police Chief Sam Hargadine noted that the city’s so-called ad hoc diversity committee recently recommended that police officers have more positive interactions with the public.

“The SRO program is probably where I see us being able to do that so much better, so much more effectively,” he said.

Kingsley Botchway II, chairman of the diversity committee, said what he had in mind was more of an extension of community policing efforts.

“It’s a little bit of a stretch as far as putting officers in schools,” he said.

Sam Hargadine, Iowa City Police Chief

Hargadine said that officers are regularly called to the schools now and are hired to be at many high school athletic events.

He also said the arming of the officers is not negotiable for him because part of the reason they would be in the schools is to protect against a public safety catastrophe.

If the grant is approved, the city would pay for training, equipment and patrol cars for the two officers, Hargadine said. The school district would cover the matching funds for the grant and for the officers’ compensation after the grant expires, he said.

The federal money would stop after three years. The four-year agreement envisioned by the city and the school district would require $211,498 in local matching funds.

Meeting in a work session, no City Council member voiced objections to a recommendation from city staffers that the ordinance allowing traffic-enforcement cameras, like red-light and speed cameras, be repealed.

The move comes in the face of a petition that sought to force the council to either ban the cameras, along with drones and automatic license plate readers when a peace officer at the scene does not write the ticket, or let voters decide the issue in a referendum.

The City Council voted 4-3 to in February 2012 in favor of an ordinance allowing traffic-enforcement cameras.

Tom Markus, City Manager, Iowa City

Iowa City residents Martha Hampel and Aleksey Gurtovoy later started the petition process. A petition was declared valid last week, but City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes, City Manager Tom Markus and other city officials offered the surprising recommendation that the camera ordinance be repealed and the other parts of the ordinance proposed in the petition be approved.

Their reasoning was that the city has not installed any cameras yet and probably wouldn’t until next year as it waits for the state to create rules on their use. The City Council can take up the issue again two years after the ordinance is repealed, at which time the guidelines and political fate of cameras should be clearer.

Matthew J. Hayek, Iowa City Mayor

“Referendum or not, the state is looking at it, and at some point will tell the cities what they can do,” said Mayor Matt Hayek, a supporter of red-light cameras. “It renders our proceeding with something like that of dubious value.”

But the city’s action may not be totally satisfactory to opponents.

Rita Bettis, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which supported the petition effort, wrote a letter to the City Council this week saying she disagrees with Dilkes’ interpretation of the validity of the portion of the petition dealing with the traffic-enforcement cameras. She also questioned the city’s planned use of license plate readers to identify parking violations.

Dilkes said the traffic camera part of the ordinance proposed in the petition is requesting a referendum (something for the council to reconsider) and the timeline for reviewing that has passed.

The sections on drones and license plates readers are an initiative (something new to be considered) and are valid, she said.

Bettis, who did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday, wrote that the City Charter does not contemplate a hybrid initiative-referendum and the proposed ordinance must be wholly one or the other. In her opinion, it’s an initiative.

Eleanor Dilkes, City Attorney of Iowa City

Dilkes said that would render the referendum process meaningless because someone would only need to add provisions to a proposal seeking to repeal something in order to bypass the deadlines that go with a referendum.

Bettis also took issue with Dilkes’ opinion that “peace officer” includes parking enforcement attendants. The petitioners’ proposal says a peace officer must be present to write a ticket. The city’s plans for using license plate readers for parking violations would include staff placing tickets on vehicles.

Bettis argued that city and state law considers peace officers to be sworn law enforcement officers. But Dilkes countered that the laws include officers authorized to regulate parking violations in the definition of “peace officer.”

An ordinance is expected to be before the City Council at its next meeting.

Bicyclists, led in this picture by Tom Keegan of Iowa City, participated in the First Annual Iowa City Tweed Ride sponsored by Q7 benefiting local riding trails. (Justin Torner/Freelance)

IOWA CITY – On a day a bicyclist beat a car and a bus in a race between Coralville and Iowa City, a national organization said Iowa City has become more bicycle friendly.

The League of American Bicyclists announced Monday that Iowa City’s Bicycle Friendly Communities status had been upgraded from bronze to silver.

It’s a designation sought after by local government officials nationwide, and Iowa City is one of just five Bicycle Friendly Communities in Iowa. At silver, it is the most highly regarded of the five, with Cedar Rapids, University Heights, Cedar Falls and Des Moines all receiving bronze rankings.

“It’s a pretty cool achievement,” said Kris Ackerson, Iowa City assistant transportation planner. “The city has made a lot of effort over the last five years to try to make the community more bike friendly, and I think it’s paying off.”

There are 259 Bicycle Friendly Communities in 47 states, according to the League of American Bicyclists. Iowa City first joined that group in 2009.

The announcement comes on the first day of Bike to Work Week and also on the day of the annual bike-bus-car race from the Coralville Public Library to the Iowa City Public Library.

This year, county Supervisor Terrence Neuzil rode a bicycle and beat a car-bound Iowa City Council member Jim Throgmorton by three minutes. University Heights City Council member Mike Haverkamp brought up the rear by bus about 10 minutes later.

The League of American Bicyclists cited Iowa City’s investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, policies and infrastructure, according to a news release.

One bicycling advocate said Iowa City can make even more improvements.

“I think there’s a lot left to do,” said Mark Wyatt, executive director of the Coralville-based Iowa Bicycle Coalition. “I think we should go for gold and platinum.”

Improving infrastructure is the next step, he said. For example, Wyatt would like to see the protected bike lanes some larger cities have. These place bike lanes between curbs and on-street parking, so there are parked vehicles between bicyclists and traffic.

Ackerson said the city is awaiting feedback from the League of American Bicyclists on its application, but he said more on-street improvements are likely to be the recommendation coming from the organization. Those could be things like more bike lanes and signed bike routes.

Ackerson said city staffers are aware of protected bike lanes but said intersections can be challenging with cyclists making left turns from behind parked cars.

Wyatt said in such a setup, bicycles and vehicles often have different traffic signals.

An aerial view of the fire in the liner system at the Iowa City Landfill on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, in Iowa City, Iowa. The fire started Saturday evening and is expected to burn for several days. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

IOWA CITY – Iowa City could be headed to court over insurance coverage for its landfill after a fire last year caused $3.5 million in damage.

The city and its insurance company, Travelers Companies Inc. of Hartford, Conn., disagree on the insurance coverage related to the fire, City Manager Tom Markus wrote in an email released Thursday.

Last May, a fire broke out in a 7.5-acre section of the city’s landfill and burned for weeks.  It’s believed to have been sparked when someone dropped off waste that included something hot, igniting a cell liner made up of shredded tires.

Two insurance experts told The Gazette in June that the fire did not appear to be covered because the actual landfill is not mentioned in the city’s property insurance policy.

Markus did not immediately return a message seeking comment, but Melissa Miller, Iowa City’s revenue and risk manager, said the city and Travelers are trying to resolve the question over insurance coverage, but the matter could end up in litigation.

Travelers initial decision in January was for $154,708, and the city has received that payment, Miller said. But the city believes all of the damage, currently estimated at $3.5 million, should be covered by insurance, she said.

A copy of the city’s asset inventory included in Markus’ email does not list landfill cells. Miller said the city is going through the insurance renewal process now and exploring what coverage is possible for the cells.

The provision, which faces an uncertain future in the Legislature, would allow Johnson County to borrow up to $1.2 million through a bond issue for a project of any size without going to voters.

Currently, the county and others its size cannot bond for projects involving public buildings that cost more than $1.2 million without holding a referendum.

The change would apply to all 99 counties, but Johnson County in particular could benefit in the near term after voters this week denied the county’s request for a $43.5 million bond to pay for a justice center, which would have a new jail and expanded court space.

Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Janelle Rettig said having greater authority would be nice, but $1.2 million would come nowhere close to meeting the overall jail and courthouse needs.

“I know this sounds terrible, but $1.2 million doesn’t buy you much anymore,” she said.

Still, she and other county leaders have said there are critical jail and courthouse deficiencies that must be resolved if they are to remain in use. They have identified $3 million in jail repairs, including $1.6 million for new doors, locks and control mechanisms.

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said with voters rejecting justice center plans not just this week but also last November, the county is going to have to explore alternatives.

“Since the justice center was defeated, unfortunately, that’s something they may look at,” he said of the expanded bonding authority.

Johnson County Treasurer Tom Kriz said the county must consider a variety of options and this could be one of them.

A jail or courthouse project is eligible for what is known as general county purpose bonds. State code says counties can issue the bonds themselves as long as the “cost” of the project does not exceed financial limits based on population. For Johnson County, the ceiling is $1.2 million. It’s $1.5 million for Linn County.

The new language would replace “cost” with “principal amount of the bonds,” meaning a project’s price tag could be higher than the amount borrowed.

So, right now, bonds could not be issued for a $1.6 million project like what Johnson County says is needed at the jail without voter approval. But under the proposed bill, the county would be able to borrow $1.2 million and then cover the rest another way.

The county can always pay for such projects out of its general fund, but one of the advantages of bonding, Kriz said, is counties can collect a certain tax levy on otherwise-exempt properties in tax increment financing districts to pay off the bonds, spreading the expense more evenly among property owners in the county.

He said the proposed language in the bill would give counties more latitude in paying for projects.

“It certainly would be a shame not to do a project that’s going to be $1.3 million or $1.6 million because of the restrictions as they are now,” he said.

Even for bond issues less than $1.2 million, the public can petition for a special election.

Dvorsky said he was not sure what chance the language, pushed for by Polk County, had in surviving the legislative process. He said the Democrat-controlled Senate inserted it in the standings appropriation bill, the Republican-controlled House then removed it and the Senate put it back in.

The bill, Senate File 452, is in a conference committee of House and Senate members who will try to reach a compromise on the wide-ranging piece of legislation.

Oh, and cameras are not even installed yet and were not going to be any time soon.

Got that?

Those related and complicated pieces of information came out of City Hall Thursday. The short of it is this: City staffers are recommending the City Council repeal the ordinance that allows red-light and speed cameras to be installed in Iowa City.

At least one council member who strongly supports the use of red-light cameras – the city had no plans to use speed cameras – said he’d follow that recommendation, albeit reluctantly.

“The biggest reason I hate to repeal it is I get tired of about being run over every time I go to the post office,” said Terry Dickens, adding he’d still like red-light cameras to eventually go up at Iowa City intersections.

The City Council will discuss the issue at a work session May 14.

Thursday’s developments come after a year-long fight over traffic-enforcement cameras. A pair of Iowa City residents, Aleksey Gurtovoy and Martha Hampel, filed a petition last June seeking to ban the cameras.

After City Eleanor Dilkes denied two attempts on legal grounds, a third petition was deemed valid by the city on Thursday.

The petition proposes an ordinance that would outlaw traffic-enforcement cameras, drones and automatic license-plate recognition systems in Iowa City.

A successful petition forces the City Council to either adopt the proposed ordinance or send the matter to voters in an election.

However, Dilkes wrote in a memorandum dated Thursday that the portion of the petition dealing with traffic-enforcement cameras is a referendum and is untimely, because the City Charter says a referendum petition must be filed within 60 days of the adoption of the measure in question or not until two years after adoption.

The council adopted the traffic-enforcement camera ordinance on Feb. 1, 2012.

Dilkes said the sections on drones and license-plate readers were initiatives and timely, but the council has not authorized the use of those technologies and the city does not use them.

However, Dilkes, City Manager Tom Markus and other staff whose departments are affected by the matter are recommending the council repeal the camera ordinance anyway and adopt one similar in substance to the initiative portion of the petition.

Their reasoning is that the city has no immediate plans to install red-light cameras because the Iowa Department of Transportation is developing guidelines for the use of those and speed cameras on state routes, a process expected to last through the end of the year. Most of the intersections where Iowa City wants the cameras are state roads.

Dilkes also cited political opposition to the cameras by Gov. Terry Branstad and others in the Legislature.

“It is difficult to know when, if ever, the City’s ordinance will be viable,” she wrote.

If the council were to take such action, it could revisit the matter in two years.  That means the debate over traffic-enforcement cameras is not dead.

The council voted 4-3 in support of the camera ordinance last year. With a city election scheduled for this fall, the make-up of the council could be different in two years.

Dilkes said in an interview that even though her opinion is the city does not have to act on the camera portion of the petition, the petition did provide the impetus to recommend repeal of the ordinance. In that sense, the petition was successful.

Police Chief Sam Hargadine said he supports repealing the ordinance, but he wants red-light cameras in Iowa City at some point.

“I’ve not changed my mind that it would potentially save lives,” he said.

Council member Michelle Payne, who voted against the camera ordinance last year, said she has heard from very few residents who support the use of traffic-enforcement cameras, and she hopes the ordinance is repealed.

“I actually think that’s the best thing to do at this point because of the political climate,” she said. “We need more clear direction first.”

Gurtovoy and Hampel did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

As it stands now, the alcohol compliance checks occur across the spectrum of establishments with liquor licenses. But some restaurant owners say it’s not fair that they get checked as frequently as bars that see significant numbers of underage drinkers.

“There is no method to the madness, so that is the frustration to restaurants,” said George Etre, owner of Takanami and Formosa.

The issue was discussed at a Wednesday meeting of the Partnership for Alcohol Safety. The group is made up of representatives from the University of Iowa, city of Iowa City, students and downtown businesses.

In compliance checks, police officers get underage people to go into businesses to try to buy alcohol.

Kelly Bender, the UI’s coordinator for campus-community harm reduction initiatives, said compliance checks are important for creating a standard for following the law and research has found best practice is to do at least two checks a year per establishment.

But Etre and Leah Cohen, owner of Bo-James restaurant and bar, said their businesses get checked just as often as the handful of downtown bars known to have problems with underage drinking.

Bo-James failed two stings within two years and lost its liquor license for a month last year. But Bo-James was a 21-and-older bar long before the city banned underage people from bars after 10 p.m. three years ago, and Cohen said the violations were more from a lack of experience.

“My staff is not used to minor IDs,” Cohen said.

The restaurant owners at the meeting said they were not opposed to compliance checks, but they think it only makes sense to go after the places that are known to have underage drinkers.

Iowa City and University of Iowa police would have to be involved in any decision to change the frequency with which establishments undergo stings.

Bender, who said she hoped to have a town hall-style meeting on compliance checks focusing on restaurants, said she’s supportive of going after problem bars.

“I fully believe if three places change what they’re doing, everything will change in the community,” she said.

The group also brainstormed ideas on providing more alcohol-free entertainment options for students. It’s a tricky problem, they said, because many students often are not interested in events that don’t allow drinking. That discussion will continue and public-private partnerships, both for making venues available and financial support, may be explored.

Not discussed Wednesday was the petition that is currently circulating attempting to overturn the 21-only law.

Updated renderings of the proposed Johnson County Justice Center. (Neumann Monson Architects)

IOWA CITY – Three strikes and now the question is whether plans for a Johnson County justice center are out.

Not enough voters in Tuesday’s special election supported a $43.5 million bond issue for a facility that would include a new 195-bed county jail and court space attached to the rear of the existing county courthouse.

County officials said they had no idea what was next after two failed votes in six months, plus the defeat of a jail plan in 2000.

“We’re still faced with the same set of needs,” county Supervisor Rod Sullivan said. “We just have to figure out how to address them.”

He added that it was impossible to say Tuesday night if something like the justice center would be part of discussion moving forward.

Fifty-four percent of voters backed the bond issue and 46 percent were against it, but 60 percent was needed for approval.

The 13,648 votes was a turnout rate of 15.22 percent.

The justice center actually lost ground from November, when 56 percent of voters cast ballots for a slightly larger project that called for a 243-bed jail as part of a $48.1 million facility. Coming that close to the 60 percent supermajority gave county officials the confidence to call for another election as soon as it was legally allowed, albeit for a slightly altered project.

The new version was a $46.2 million building with 195 jail beds and four new courtrooms, plus space for other court functions and the ability to add more beds and courtrooms later.

Opponents, though, continued to spread their message that the plan was too costly, the jail too large, and the county needs to address what they consider high arrest rates in general and the disproportionately high arrest and incarceration rates of racial minorities in particular.

“I hope the county listens to what the people have to say this time … because they didn’t the first time around,” said Aleksey Gurtovoy of Iowa City, one of the leading voices against the justice center.

County officials have said they will investigate minority contact by law enforcement.

For now, the county will continue to send dozens inmates to other counties because there is no room for them in the 92-bed Johnson County Jail. That costs county taxpayers more than $1 million a year.

The county recently revealed that the jail, opened in 1981, would need more than $3 million in repairs if it were to remain in use. That includes $1.6 million for new doors, locks and control mechanisms, which would require the jail to be empty for a couple of months and inmates sent to other county jails.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek (right) talks with Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan (left) as they watch the returns come in on the Johnson County Justice Center vote Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at Bob's Your Uncle in Iowa City. The project was voted down after failing to reach the required supermajority. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said he still believes in the justice center concept.

“We have dire needs,” he said. “I can’t work for or support something that’s not a joint solution.”

Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Janelle Rettig agreed those needs remain but singled out the 112-year-old courthouse, saying its lack of adequate office space, courtrooms and safety features need to be addressed.

Noting the three electoral losses in the past 13 years, she was not sure what the future held for a new building.

“I think this was the best plan we had,” Rettig said. “I don’t know what you do to bring it back before voters.”

Results are unofficial until the canvass of votes by the Board of Supervisors May 14.

The supervisors plan to meet that same morning to discuss where to go from here on the jail and courthouse.

A district steering committee, made up mostly of school and local government representatives, helping the district develop a long-term facilities plan met Monday night to develop possibilities.

Ideas including maintaining the status quo, building a new high school and three elementary schools and other variations.

The district has scheduled community workshops to walk through the options on May 11, May 13 and May 14.

The district hired BLDD Architects, headquartered in Decatur, Ill., to physically assess the district’s schools and lead the planning process as the district tries to address growing enrollment.

The goal is to send six to seven scenarios to the public, Sam Johnson of BLDD said. Two are guaranteed to be presented, he said.

One is the status quo — just keeping the buildings in the district as they are now, with some renovations, and no additions or new buildings.

The other is what was referred to as scenario one. It calls for a new high school and three new elementary schools. That fits with what district leaders promised in the election earlier this year for a new revenue purpose statement, approved by voters, that made up to $100 million available for construction projects.

The total cost for scenario one, which includes work on existing buildings, is $143.2 million. But Johnson said with other funding sources, the district can afford everything BLDD presented.

Other possibilities include closing buildings, including the smaller Lincoln and Hills elementary schools, and adding onto existing schools.  Shuttering Hoover Elementary and using it as an expansion site for nearby City High also was discussed.

Hills Elementary has fought closure in the past and the suggestion of closing it, or any other school, likely would face objections from the neighborhoods they serve.

The longstanding "no alcohol" policy that has existed at the West Overlook Day Use beach has been expanded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to now include all areas of the beach, all parking lots, the volleyball court and picnic areas. "We realize this may be an inconvenience for some current park users, but feel it will make the area safer and more family oriented," according to the corps' news release. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

UPDATE: Coralville Lake boaters will see expanded areas where they must slow down and users of a popular beach area will have to put away their alcoholic drinks.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the lake, announced Friday that the measures are being implemented to improve safety and are effective immediately.

The actual beach of the West Overlook Day Use recreation area on the south side of the lake was already alcohol free, but now alcohol also is banned in all of the surrounding space, including the parking lot, picnic area and volleyball court.

Previously, people could drink just feet from the sand and then go swim, said Dee Goldman, the lake’s operations manager. He also said there have been some complaints about rowdy behavior.

“We really want this to be a place people bring their families, bring their kids,” he said.

Goldman also noted the beach area closes each day, so allowing alcohol creates the potential for people to drink and drive.

He acknowledged the decision will not be popular with everyone, but he said the corps believes alcohol and water do not mix.

Alcohol is still allowed in the space surrounding the lake’s other two beaches. The switch was made at West Overlook because it is by far the most popular of the three, especially with young adults, Goldman said.

The corps also is expanding two “idle speed” zones. Previously called a no-wake zone, idle speed sets a 5 mph speed limit within its boundaries.

The zone around Mehaffey Bridge is being expanded due to the construction of a new bridge.

Goldman estimated the previous zone extended about 100 feet from the bridge. Now it will be a bit longer to the north and nearly 1,800 feet to the south.

The bridge is a Johnson County project, and county engineer Greg Parker said one barge with a large crane is in the water, and soon another barge and crane will be needed to help set beams.

The idle-speed zone “slows the boating traffic through there so at least they’re going slower,” he said.

Not only will it improve safety around the construction area, Goldman said, but the new idle-speed zone also goes just past a boat ramp south of the bridge. People come into that area “pretty wide open,” he said, and it can be hard to get boats in and out of the water.

He said the change will last for at least for the next two years as the bridge is under construction and may be permanent.

The idle-speed zone by West Overlook beach is being extended east to the cove entrance to Coralville Lake Marina. There are fishermen, swimmers and idling boats near the swimming area and this will make things safer, Goldman said.

Ben Patience, who works in sales at the marina, said he had not seen the new buoy lines but doesn’t anticipate it being an issue with boaters.

“You’re going to spend a few more minutes idling through,” he said. “I don’t see that as a major inconvenience.”

Shuna Tosa and her husband, Tamene Gelashe, have adopted the five children of Shuna's dying sister in Ethiopia. They raised five children of their own, including one still in high school. Taken at their home in Cedar Rapids on Thursday, May 2, 2013. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

How do you calculate the value of five lives saved?

Lemi Tilahun of Cedar Rapids ponders that for his five cousins, ages 3 to 14, whom his family is trying to bring to the U.S. from Ethiopia.

“You look at the complete equation — the survival is pretty much day-to-day for them — I can almost just say it would be a waste of potential (for them to stay there), and not just one potential but times five,” the 22-year-old said.

The children’s mother, Hajo Tosa, is near death with brain cancer. Their father already is dead, the victim of malaria several years ago.

They live in a mud hut in a rural village in south-central Ethiopia on the Horn of Africa.

The hope is the children soon immigrate to Cedar Rapids, the same as Tilahun did with his parents and four siblings 11 years ago. His parents, Shuna Tosa and Tamene Gelashe of Cedar Rapids, have spent the past few months trying to gain governmental approval to bring the children to Iowa. The two Tosas are sisters.

Tosa, 45, and Gelashe, 52, hope to hear soon on an application that could lead to visas allowing the children to enter the country. The married couple adopted the children in Ethiopia in January with the consent of the kids’ mother.

They want for them the same as they sought for their kids. A good home life. An education. A chance.

“They get everything here, that’s why,” Tosa said.

Hard life

There, they have close to nothing. The village is almost completely lacking in infrastructure, including adequate roads and running water. During the dry season, as it is now, people walk up to three hours for clean water.

Hajo Tosa has been sick for a few years but has greatly worsened in the past several months. When Shuna Tosa visited in January, her sister was blind, unable to talk and immobile. Villagers held a ceremony for the sick woman that included sacrificing a goat.

Doctors from Germany, Pakistan, India and South Korea have been consulted and, after seeing an MRI of the tumor, determined there was nothing to do.

Working as a housekeeper at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Shuna Tosa searched for medical advice here, too, even hoping her sister could come to Iowa for treatment.

Dr. David Hasan, a neurosurgeon at the hospital, reviewed an MRI of Hajo Tosa earlier this year. What he saw was a very large tumor at the skull base.

Surgery would be high risk and they’d be lucky to remove 50 percent of the mass, he concluded. Radiation and chemotherapy were not options.

Nothing can be done medically, he said.

Offering help

But hospital employees have helped in other ways. Most notable has been fundraising to defray costs that include plane tickets, paperwork fees and to prepare for the possible addition of five children to Tosa and Gelashe’s household. About $15,000 has come in. An account is set up at Hills Bank and Trust Co.

Nursing assistant Barron Swenning, who has played a lead role in the effort, said it’s Shuna Tosa’s kindhearted and hardworking nature that has made people care so much.

“There’s been some people with tears in their eyes giving me money,” he said.

Tosa recently took a second job to help with the immigration-related expenses.

The story has also touched Westminster Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids, where the family worships. The church raised $7,000 for the family last fall with a traditional Ethiopian dinner of vegetables and meat on flatbread, plus coffee.

Dale Crosier, a church elder who has known the family since they immigrated, said he’s more impressed by Tosa and Gelashe than his fellow church members.

“In a way, it’s kind of a small thing for the rest of us to help them,” said Crosier, 82. “They’re extending their home and their livelihood to help” the five children.

Gelashe, who like his wife works two jobs, said their “dream” is to give his sister-in-law’s kids the life their children have received in Iowa.

“That is why we are here, to open opportunities,” he said.

The family had some luck in its immigration efforts, getting green cards through a visa lottery system run by the U.S. State Department. The oldest son is still in Africa, working through the visa process.

The seven family members here became U.S. citizens in 2006.

Tilahun knows firsthand his cousins would face an adjustment coming here. But he thinks they’d adapt fairly easy.

“That’s a very good age where you’re not really impacted by the environment as much or by the change as you would be as an adult,” he said.

Just look to him and his siblings for proof. Two older sisters work in Chicago and Indianapolis, a younger brother studies at Kirkwood Community College and another is a junior at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School.

Tilahun graduates from Coe College this month with a degree in political science and economics and a minor in Spanish.

Adding five school-age kids would test any family, but Tosa cast off any worry with a smile.

“It’s OK,” she said. “I can make that.”

Two people associated with downtown Iowa City bars want a public vote on the city ordinance that bans people younger than 21 from being in drinking establishments at night.

Late Tuesday, George Wittgraf, owner of the Union Bar, and Josh Erceg, a manager at Martinis, filed with the city an affidavit stating their intent to seek a referendum to repeal the so-called 21-only law, City Clerk Marian Karr said Wednesday.

They need the signatures of 2,500 registered Iowa City voters on a petition to require the City Council to either adopt the proposal to repeal 21-only or to send it to a public vote.

It’s an issue that has come up with regularity in this university town the past decade.

In spring 2010, the City Council passed an ordinance that bans people younger than 21 from being in places with liquor licenses after 10 p.m., with limited exceptions. After a petition forced an election, voters upheld the law, 52 percent to 48 percent, that November.

A public vote for a 21-only law failed in 2007. The City Council discussed, but never passed, an ordinance in 2004 and 2003.

Wittgraf said Wednesday that his primary reason for seeking a repeal is for students. He said the law has not had a great financial effect on his business because the 19- and 20-year-olds still come in but do so earlier and leave by 10 p.m.

“I think they’re tired of leaving at 10,” he said.

He said he’s confident they can get enough signatures in the next month, with the focus being on students. Those students will need to be registered to vote in Iowa City, though.

Also, the University of Iowa’s spring term ends in two and half weeks.

“The pressure is on. … The next three weeks we’ll know right away whether or not this will happen,” Wittgraf said.

If a valid petition is filed by June 10, the issue could be on the ballot in the November election, Karr said.

Opponents have argued the law would hurt downtown businesses and push drinking to house parties.

Supporters say that those predictions have not come true and that crime and drinking statistics show the law has reduced problem drinking.

A university-city group called the Partnership for Alcohol Safety in March reported decreases in possession of alcohol under the legal age citations, disorderly house arrests and calls for disturbances downtown.

It also said a health assessment found a 19 percent decrease in the number of frequent high-risk drinkers and an 18 percent decline in students drinking 10 or more days a month between 2009 and 2012.

Mayor Matt Hayek doubts the City Council will be interested in reversing the ordinance.

“Over the last three years downtown has become safer, more vibrant and better balanced,” he wrote in an email. “The university is stronger and the sky-is-falling predictions did not come to pass. I think the community recognizes 21-only is working.”

Nic Pottebaum, 22, who just completed a term as president of UI Student Government, said students probably would sign the petition. But with the law three years old, he thinks the issue has fallen off most students’ radars and he doesn’t hear a clamor for a return to 19-and-older bars.

“There has definitely been a huge cultural change downtown, as far as the students go,” he said, adding that he supports 21-only.

Jason Agne, a graduate student in electrical engineering from Illinois, signs a petition against traffic cameras and drones in Iowa City at a pot legalization, traffic camera, and drone protest in College Green Park in Iowa City. (Kaitlyn Bernauer/The Gazette)

Foes of red-light and speed cameras believe they finally have enough signatures on a petition they hope will lead to the technology being banned in Iowa City.

Organizers of the petition drive, aimed at outlawing automated traffic-enforcement cameras and drones, filed 1,240 more signatures with the city Tuesday. If 394 of those are valid, that would put them over the 2,500 signatures of registered Iowa City voters needed to force the city to take up the issue.

The City Clerk’s Office has 15 days to verify the signatures.

A petition filed a month ago fell short of the requirement after more than 1,200 signatures were struck by the clerk’s office. Organizers were given one final chance and a Tuesday deadline to get more.

Martha Hampel of Iowa City, one of the leaders of the effort, said they did checks on some of the new signatures themselves and believe at least 400 of them are valid, but they got as many as possible to be safe.

“When I heard 400 were needed, I thought immediately, we need three times that,” she said.

The City Council voted 4-3 a year ago to allow traffic-enforcement cameras, although only red-light cameras have been discussed. But none are installed as city officials wait for the state to create rules for the use of cameras on state routes, a process that may take until next year. Many of the Iowa City intersections marked for cameras are state roads.

The petition proposes an ordinance that would outlaw traffic-enforcement cameras, drones and automatic license-plate recognition systems.

A successful petition could force the City Council to either adopt the ordinance to put it before voters.

But a dispute over what sort of action the petitioners are seeking would still need to be settled. They say they are proposing an initiative, which is defined as a measure for the City Council to consider.

But City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes has previously classified it as a referendum that asks the council to reconsider an existing law. A referendum petition must be filed within 60 days of the adoption of the measure in question or not until two years after adoption. The current petition would fall between those periods and not be timely.

Dilkes said that if the petition is deemed sufficient, she expects to give a formal opinion to the council in time for its May 14 meeting.

The Johnson County Courthouse at 417 S. Clinton St. in Iowa City was dedicated on June 8, 1901. (The Gazette)

IOWA CITY – A public tour of the Johnson County Courthouse is being offered the day before a special election on a criminal justice center.

The 45-minute tour starts at 4 p.m. May 6. Call the Johnson County Attorney’s Office at (319) 339-6100 to reserve a spot.

A 45-minute tour of the county jail will be held at 6 p.m. May 2. Anyone interested should contact Capt. Dave Wagner at (319) 356-6020 ext. 1035 or dmwagner@co.johnson.ia.us.

Voters are being asked to approve a $43.5 million bond issue to help build a justice center, which would have a 195-bed jail and court space. County and court officials say the current jail and courthouse are too small and unsafe.

Sandbags are delivered to residents and volunteers as they work to protect homes along Duchess Drive in Solon due to flash flooding Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Heavy rains caused flash flooding throughout Eastern Iowa. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

The city of North Liberty is offering curbside collection of flood-damaged property all week following last week’s heavy rainfall.

Also, the city of Iowa City wants people to know that damaged carpet can be recycled, as long as it is dried out first.

The carpet can be taken to the Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center, 3900 Hebl Ave. The recycling fee is $38.50 per ton for Iowa City residents and businesses and $43.50 for other residents and businesses in Johnson County.

Wet carpet cannot be recycled and will be more expensive to landfill because of the added weight, according to a news release.

Magistrate Lynn Rose fills out paperwork during Driving Under Suspension diversion program court, also known as the "Rocket Docket," on Thursday, April 18, 2013, at the Johnson County District Courthouse in Iowa City. The DUS court allows defendants facing simple misdemeanor driving under suspension charges to pay past due fines and other financial obligations in order to get a valid driver's license in exchange for having their DUS charge dismissed. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — The group meets Monday mornings in the Johnson County Attorney’s Office to see who they can try to get out of the county jail.

One would expect public defender Tom Woods and jail alternatives counselor Emily Hurst to be trying to secure an inmate’s release. But Lt. Kevin Bell of the jail and Assistant County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith?

“I’m the only prosecutor whose job it is to get people out of jail,” Zimmermann Smith said.

What they are doing is called case expediting, and on a recent Monday they went through a list of 133 inmates booked in the 92-bed jail to see who could be moved through the legal system faster.

Justice center debate

It’s one of the so-called jail diversion programs the local criminal justice community is touting in the run-up to a May 7 special election on a $43.5 million bond issue to build a criminal justice center.

The justice center would have court space and a new 195-bed jail. It’s that latter function that has drawn the most attention, with critics of the proposal saying too many people are arrested, minorities are jailed at disproportionately higher rates and the justice center proposal is too expensive.

A public vote on a bond issue failed last November, and recently county officials have begun citing jail diversion programs as examples of how they seek alternatives to keeping some people behind bars.

Examples include case expediting, mental-health programs, substance abuse treatment, drug court, a program for first-time marijuana offenders, one aimed at people caught driving with suspended licenses and others.

In the case-expediting meeting, four potential candidates were identified. In a typical example, a man was arrested for drunken driving but skipped a pretrial conference. He already had served the minimum sentence, and his next hearing could be more than a month out, so getting a written guilty plea and releasing him from jail may serve everyone best, Zimmermann Smith said.

Another three inmates had mental health needs the group thought were best addressed outside of jail.

A judge must sign off on any deals.

These programs are tied to the justice center, supporters of the project said, because there is not enough space in the jail to fully implement them. The jail was designed for 46 inmates, is now double-bunked to fit 92 and between 120 and 150 people have been in custody on most days in recent weeks.

Critics speak out

Justice center critics are not sold, however.

Jeff Cox, a University of Iowa professor who has campaigned against the justice center, said he’d support more space for jail alternative programs and the expansion of court facilities. But he believes something closer to 150 jail beds, not the 195 proposed, is the appropriate number.

“They’re using (jail alternatives) as a kind of Trojan horse to expand the number of people incarcerated,” he said.

Robert Rigg, director of the Drake University Law School’s Criminal Defense Program, also cautioned against a bigger jail, but he said diversion programs are good for inmates.

He said that’s especially true for inmates with mental health issues, which is a subject he’s writing a scholarly article on.

“You don’t want individuals who really aren’t a risk to themselves or to others being incarcerated any longer than you absolutely have to,” he said. “You want to get them into treatment or a program.”

Diversion programs help reduce the jail population, Rigg said. But on the mental health side, studies show they do not lower the recidivism rate because those inmates often are dealing with chronic issues and eventually re-offend after leaving the program, he said.

He also said boosting the programs aimed at keeping people out of jail may be a better option than building a larger jail.

“If your concern is diversion programs, I think you should focus on those first, because if you have jail space, the inclination is to fill it up,” he said.

Johnson County officials say for one, jail overcrowding causes dozens of inmates to be held out of county and away from the programs. Also, they say, there’s not room for more programs and expanding the jail is not an option.

“I may be meeting with an inmate who’s suicidal and is freaking out, and they’re doing depositions on the other side” of the wall that can be heard, said Hurst, the county jail alternatives counselor.

Programs are working

The programs are making a difference, supporters said. Case expediting, for example, started in fall 2011. The average daily jail population was six inmates lower in fiscal year 2012 compared with 2011, translating into 2,227 fewer bed dates and a savings of $158,082 that year, according to numbers provided by the county.

The mental health program, which includes referral to treatment services, has potentially saved 23,829 jail beds and $1.7 million since it started in 2005, the county said.

One of the main criticisms of justice center opponents is that student arrests are too high, especially for drinking and drug offenses, and having a record hurts their job prospects.

Iowa City defense attorney Mark Thompson often represents students, and he backed the jail diversion programs and the justice center proposal.

He said he’s had up to 100 clients go through a drinking diversion program that is no longer active and another one for first-time marijuana offenders.

In the first two years of the marijuana program, which started in July 2010, 212 of 300 enrollees had successfully completed it, according to the county.

While the arrest remains a public record, Thompson said his clients would rather complete an educational program than pay a fine or spend more time in jail.

He also said he doesn’t feel his clients are getting off easy.

“I can’t say that anybody’s really avoiding justice there, because it is reserved for someone who it’s the first time they’ve ever been in trouble,” Thompson said.

Defense attorneys and county officials declined to refer to The Gazette people who have gone through a diversion program, saying publicity would not help those people.

Good for community

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said he believes the programs are good not only for inmates but also for the community by reducing the jail population and getting people treatment.

“To take a look at trying to see if there is someone else that is lingering in jail, that if there’s another way to get them out, I think is important,” he said. “It shows the public that we’re doing everything we can.”

Pulkrabek also said he thought Johnson County was doing more with diversion programs than anywhere else in Iowa.

That is not something the Iowa Judicial Branch tracks, but Rigg, the Drake professor, believes Pulkrabek may be right.

Martha Hampel of Iowa City, who is one of the leaders on the anti-justice center side, said she thought the jail diversion programs were fantastic, but she does not believe a new facility is necessary to do them.

She said alternatives could be found, like renting space, and voting down the justice center bond would force the county to think outside the box.

“I think they’re literally stuck in this giant box that is the proposed justice center,” Hampel said.

County officials said they are committed to continuing the programs no matter what happens May 7. But a justice center could allow for more mental health and substance abuse treatment in the jail and possibly the teaching of life skills to try to help keep people from returning to jail, said Jessica Peckover, the county’s jail alternatives coordinator.

Melvin Knox of Iowa City fishes near the Burlington Street dam in Iowa City in this 1997 file photo.

Iowa City will hold an open house April 29 to get public input on proposed modifications to the Burlington Street dam that may include a white-water rafting course.

The event will last from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center, 220 S. Gilbert St. It will start with a brief presentation. Participants can then stop by “information stations” to learn more about the renovation concepts, according to a news release.

Ideas for the project include modifying the dam to boost safety, improved river access and a white-water rafting course.