Aerial view of Coralville. Thursday, June 22, 2000.

CORALVILLE — On Tuesday, two teams of developers offered competing proposals for a major redevelopment of 60 acres in Coralville that took on several feet of water in the 2008 flood.

The neighborhood, which the city calls Old Town, is south of Fifth Street and north of Clear Creek between First Avenue and Biscuit Creek. It was home to houses, apartments and city buildings before the flood.

The city bought out the properties and now wants a neighborhood with public, residential and commercial space. Flood-mitigation projects have been undertaken in the area near the site, with more to come. Watts Team/Fusion Architects and Houser Enterprises/Baxter Construction are vying for the job.

Watts/Fusion representatives said they want their $40 million development to look, architecturally, like it had always been there.

It calls for a square with a plaza in the middle that includes an amphitheater and play area. A farmers market, ice rink and, during the holiday season, large Christmas tree could be included.

Surrounding the plaza would be three mid-rise buildings that would have 123 condominiums for sale or lease.

Elsewhere on the site would be seven turn-of-the-century-style row houses with about 40 town houses. In the future, a “game-day” condo building aimed at fans in town for Iowa football games could be constructed.

The developers would ask the city to pay for public parts of the project, like the amphitheater, a parking lot and trails. The cost of those is unknown, Gary Watts said.

The project has a five-year timeline, he said.

The Houser/Baxter team said their project would cost $55 million and have a minimum assessed value of $30 million.

They want a campus-town feel with two large buildings with 180 for-rent residential units surrounding a community plaza with a fountain in the center. The buildings would have green roofs, with vegetation on them, and be connected to a fitness center.

An amphitheater, clock tower and picnic pavilion are part of their plan, which calls for 63 percent of the site to be green space.

They said they could start construction this fall and be done in 13 months. A second phase, to be undertaken in 2015-16, calls for a building with high-end condos and more than 20,000-square-feet of office space.

They would seek a 10-year tax increment financing agreement with the city. Tony Baxter said the amount of the TIF is undetermined at this time, but he estimated the taxes on the property at up to $650,000 annually.

Mayor Jim Fausett said he expects the city to move fast on proceeding with the project, although the City Council does not have to pick one of the two proposals.

The council plans to discuss the proposals at a June 12 work session, Assistant City Administrator Ellen Habel said. She said the city would like construction to start by next spring.

Eight Iowa schools, seven from the eastern part of the state,  were represented in Newsweek magazine’s “America’s Best High Schools” list of the 1,000 top public high schools in America.

They are: Iowa City West (ranked 462^nd overall), Cedar Rapids Washington (723), Cedar Rapids Kennedy (842), Iowa City High (880), Cedar Falls (886), Decorah (972), and Mid-Prairie in Wellman (999).

Ames High School came in at 791.

The rankings are based on graduation rate, college matriculation rate, test scores and Advanced Placement courses offered per student.

The Washington Post also released the results of its annual “High School Challenge,” which included five Iowa schools, three from Eastern Iowa. Out of 1,900 top schools, Washington came in at 357, Kennedy at 643 and West at 1,210.

The other two Iowa schools on the list were Ames, at 831, and Des Moines Roosevelt, at 1,185,

The Post’s methodology used many of the same statistics as Newsweek, but with a greater emphasis on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses.

Slockett, a Democrat, reported $2,085 in cash contributions between Jan. 1 and May 14, compared with $4,961 for fellow Democrat and challenger Travis Weipert, according to campaign finance reports due Monday with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

Slockett loaned his campaign $10,000 and also had $725 left over from the previous reporting period. After expenses, he had $12,792 cash on hand heading into the final days of the race, versus $4,194 for Weipert.

Slockett had $6,607 in unpaid bills. Weipert owed $4,283.

Slockett and Weipert are running in the June 5 Democratic primary election for Johnson County auditor, which will decide who is the party’s candidate in the Nov. 6 general election. There is no Republican candidate for the office.

Slockett, 65, of Iowa City, has been Johnson County’s auditor and elections commissioner since 1977. Weipert, 31, of Tiffin, is an accountant and a City Council member.

Notable contributors to Slockett’s campaign include Iowa City Council member Jim Throgmorton; former Johnson County Attorney J. Patrick White; David Johnson, a West Branch Democrat running for state representative; and former Iowa City Council member Carol deProsse.

Weipert is the rare challenger to garner significant support from the party establishment against an incumbent in the same party.

Among his contributors were: state Rep. Mary Mascher; Terry Dahms, chairman of the Johnson County Democrats; Johnson County supervisors Rod Sullivan and Janelle Rettig; county Treasurer Tom Kriz, county Recorder Kim Painter; North Liberty City Council member Gerry Kuhl; and former Iowa City Mayor John Balmer.

Slockett is being investigated by the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board for circulating his re-election paperwork at work in March and other accusations of using public resources for political purposes in violation of state law.

The state board is expected to rule on the matter before the primary.

With Democrats dominating Johnson County politics, the Democratic primary in recent years has effectively decided who will be elected to county office.

Candidates not from the two main political parties can still get on the general election ballot by filing in August. Republicans also could nominate someone by convention to fill a ballot vacancy.

There are no other Johnson County contested races in the primary.

He then asks if they’re familiar with Interstate 80 and the Mississippi River.

Miller is co-owner of Cedar Rapids-based Hybrid Transit Systems Inc., a freight broker that does business nationally and internationally.

As businesses that compete globally know, you need to be on the map. And that’s just not the case for much of the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City corridor, according to area business leaders.

But an effort is under way to change that, and the first push came earlier this year with the re-branding of “Iowa’s Technology Corridor” as “Iowa’s Creative Corridor.”

Read more at Business380.com

The free rides, on Iowa City buses, will be available between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from June 5 through Aug. 9. The buses will stop at Old Capitol Town Center, three blocks from the library.

Kids in the twelfth-grade and younger and their adult caregivers can ride for free by showing an Iowa City Public Library card. They can ride home for free anytime the same day with a pass available at the library.

Last year, the library provided 1,126 rides as part of the program, according to a news release.

Beckham, a Beagle mix, plays with his potential new owners at the Iowa City animal shelter March 30. (Nikole Hanna/The Gazette/KCRG)

A nonprofit organization is ready to start a fundraising campaign for a new Iowa City animal shelter.

Friends of the Animal Shelter Foundation sent a letter to City Manager Tom Markus this month, saying that it plans to begin a $1 million capital campaign this summer.

The city is in the design phase for what is estimated to be a 12,225-square-foot, $3 million facility. The city’s old animal shelter was flooded in 2008 and the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center has been working out of a temporary home since then.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has committed $1.4 million toward the shelter, which is to be built on Napoleon Lane on the south side.

A major financial commitment from the Friends of the Animal Shelter Foundation has long been part of the plans for a new facility.

In the letter, the organization said it expects to give the city $200,000 a year for five years, starting in June 2013.

David Dude, the district’s executive director of operational services, said he received identical letters Wednesday afternoon from four families asking that their children be bused. District administrators will determine whether to uphold or deny the appeals, he said, and that decision can be appealed to the school board.

Parents and some residents have expressed safety concerns about the walk to school next fall for Miller-Orchard students.

They currently attend Roosevelt Elementary, which is within a quarter-mile of many of their homes, but the school is closing at the end of this school year.

About 30 students from the neighborhood have been told they’ll need to walk to their new school, Horn Elementary. The average walk would be 1.2 miles.

The concerns are that the route runs along busy Benton Street, up and down big hills and past the driveways of several large apartment complexes.

The district typically does not bus elementary school students who live within two miles of their school, but exceptions are made for hazardous conditions.

The district’s current position on the Miller-Orchard students is based on the determination of its bus contractor, Durham School Services, that the route is not hazardous.

The district has worked with Iowa City and University Heights to get four crossing guards for Horn next year, and the district is exploring having the kids walk in adult-supervised groups, a concept known as a “walking school bus.”

The council voted 6-0, with Terry Dickens absent, to pass an ordinance preventing the construction of multifamily dwellings with more than three bedrooms per unit.

The other ordinance requires more parking spaces for larger apartments in a defined zone that’s generally near the UI campus. That vote was 5-1, with Jim Throgmorton dissenting.

The council voted earlier this month to prohibit more than three unrelated people from living together.

Artist Eliezer Sotillo of Iowa City paints the cover on a piano outside of the Plaza Towers building on the Pedestrian Mall May 18, 2011, in downtown Iowa City. The design was based on a painting by Frank Lloyd Wright with Sotillo's own twist. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

The City Council Tuesday night gave its OK for a mural to be painted on the side of a five-story tall parking ramp downtown.

The mural, by Iowa City artist Eliezer Sotillo, is to depict more than a dozen arms and hands that interlock and hold each other. Sotillo plans to spend a month starting in June creating the piece, using spray paint and a durable paint meant for concrete, on the north side of the Dubuque Street parking ramp.

The ramp is owned by the city, and the council’s 6-0 vote allows the project to proceed. Developer Marc Moen, whose Plaza Towers is next to the parking ramp, is paying for the work, which he estimated would cost more than $10,000.

For many, the idea of forming a new district is more of a sign of how frustrated they have become at what they see as the school board’s wavering on whether to build a high school in the fast-growing North Liberty area.

But it is a notion some people take seriously, said parent Marisa Keeney, who added that she is not sure whether a separate school district would be in her town’s best interest.

“It usually comes up when people are getting frustrated with the lack of movement — I shouldn’t even say movement — the back and forth related to whether or not another comprehensive high school is going to be built on the north side,” said Keeney, who has three children at North Liberty’s Penn Elementary School.

West High, where North Liberty students attend, is over capacity and projected to continue to add students. Parents also want a high school closer to home.

Having part of a district split away would be unprecedented in Iowa history and is unlikely to happen, state education officials said.

“Not without going through a lot of hoops,” said Carol Greta, an attorney with the Iowa Department of Education.

There’s a state law on school district reorganization that focuses on consolidation and doesn’t even address breaking away. Greta said a split “seems counterintuitive to the intent of the law,” but the procedure would be the same as consolidation.

A petition with a certain number of signatures and other information would need to be submitted to the local Area Education Agency board, which would decide whether to send the matter to voters.

The trend in Iowa is consolidation of shrinking school districts done with the support of school boards. Greta wasn’t sure how an AEA board would view a proposed reorganization that lacked the backing of a school board.

Complicating matters for North Liberty is that a second school district, Clear Creek Amana, juts into the western edge of city limits.

Public school systems receive several thousand dollars in state aid for every student, and many Iowa school districts are struggling with the loss of funds from declining enrollment.

The Iowa City school district, which covers Iowa City, North Liberty, Coralville, Hills and University Heights, would not be keen on losing a growing part of the district, Superintendent Stephen Murley and school board President Marla Swesey said.

“I think (the) Iowa City (school district) has been fortunate to be growing because of the numbers of people in that area, and we like growth,” Swesey said.

North Liberty’s population increased 149 percent from 2000 to 2010, and is now more than 13,000 people.

Since 2005, the Iowa City district has opened two elementary schools and a junior high and Clear Creek Amana has opened an elementary school. The Iowa City district’s Penn Elementary has been in place for 50 years.

There’s strong support in the community for a high school, and the Iowa City school district is exploring a possible 900-student high school in or near the town.

In 2010, the school board voted to build a new high school when the district had the money and enrollment to do so. Current projections show the enrollment target is approaching.

This spring, however, school board members said they wanted administrators to look at alternatives to building a new high school.

Also, dating back at least to 2010, some Iowa City parents have opposed a new high school.

There also are growing calls for a new elementary school in east Iowa City, to go with the need for another North Liberty elementary school. The district cannot afford to build two new elementary schools unless it taps into money it’s saving for a high school.

Murley expects the school board to make decisions on these issues after a district committee studying a North Liberty high school submits a report in June.

Like many North Liberty parents, Anne Johnson believes the Iowa City school district is first-rate academically, but West High is too crowded and too far away. That’s why she and her family — husband Jay and children Rylee, 10 and Drew, 7 — are building a house in Solon to start the children in school there next fall.

“I haven’t seen any proof that we’re moving toward a third high school in the near future,” said Johnson, who ran for Iowa City school board in 2009.

Of the 418 students who open enrolled out of the Iowa City school district this school year, the highest number, 157, went to Clear Creek Amana, and the third most, 77, to Solon. Those districts border North Liberty.

Murley, calling that a significant number of kids from one area, said when it is facilities rather than programs that are causing people to leave, it’s incumbent on him and the school board to be clear on their short-, medium- and long-term plans.

Jay and Anne Johnson monitor their children Drew, 7 and Rylee, 10, play on top of a pile of gravel at their new home being constructed in Solon Monday evening. The Johnsons are relocating to Solon becasue they don't think the Iowa City School District is committed to building a new high school in North Liberty.(Justin Torner/Freelance)

Junior High students leave school at the end of the day on Monday in Coralville. A committee researching boundaries discussed options to relieve crowding in the Iowa City school district. (Sourcemedia Group)

IOWA CITY – The Iowa City school board has set aside plans to redraw some school boundaries, a process that had been debated the past couple of months.

The board Tuesday night voted 7-0 to follow Superintendent Stephen Murley’s recommendation that there be no changes in elementary school and junior high attendance zones in the 2013-14 school year.

One exception may be sending children from the Lake Ridge neighborhood in southern Iowa City to Hills Elementary School instead of Twain Elementary, where they go now.

Redistricting, as the process is known, was proposed by Murley’s administration in early March to ease overcrowding at Wood Elementary in Iowa City and North Central Junior High in North Liberty. To do that, several other schools would have had their boundaries changed.

But the superintendent said Tuesday that reaction from the public caused him to recommend the board pull back.

Murley said several themes arose at forums and through other feedback:

• Parents are concerned about how the school district determines enrollment projections. Murley said the district is looking at how it can do this differently.
• There is too much uncertainty over Iowa’s request for a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Law and how, if it is granted, that would affect transfers. Several Iowa City school district schools that have run afoul of the law must allow students to transfer, and 20 percent of the district’s students don’t attend their home schools.
• There is a need to address overcrowding at Penn Elementary immediately.
• The district has identified a need for a North Liberty-area elementary school and another on the east side of Iowa City. Changing junior high school and elementary school boundaries are predicated on those decisions.
• There needs to be a clearly delineated feeder system.
• A long-range plan needs to be developed to address the above concerns.

Murley said the planning process will require the school board to either reaffirm the 2010 vote to eventually build a third comprehensive high school or take the steps to allow West High and City High to handle increasing enrollment.

A district committee studying a new high school is expected to submit its report soon, with the school board likely discussing it in June.

Murley said the district has identified five available temporary facilities to help ease overcrowding now at Wood, Penn and Lemme elementary schools.

In the Lake Ridge mobile home park neighborhood, Murley said many parents have expressed an interest in being in the Hills Elementary attendance zone. Administrators want more time to talk with parents before making a recommendation, he said.

The district plans to sell the property, with the school closing at the end of this school year.

The school board decided to seek bids for the property rather than use a real estate agent. The lone bid was for $201,000, well below the property’s appraised value of $770,000.

The school board, meeting on Tuesday as its Facilities Committee, agreed with Superintendent Stephen Murley’s recommendation to get an updated appraisal. The discussion occurred in a work session so the board did not officially reject the bid, but it made clear that was its intention.

Residents of the neighborhood around Roosevelt, 611 Greenwood Dr., have said they do not want apartments or a commercial development to go up in the school’s place. The school board in the bid documents said the property could be used or offices and educational, religious and health purposes.

Those restrictions came after the initial appraisal, and Murley and board members said a new assessment of the property’s value could indicate how those are affecting the price.

Murley said an appraisal should not take too long to complete and after it is done the board will review the restrictions and also consider setting a minimum price on the property.

The contraption was a model of a type of river crossing cable system, and the cup gradually lowered as marbles were added until it caused the poles to collapse.

The project, testing different soil bases to support the weight of the system, was undertaken this year by the science club at Lemme Elementary School in Iowa City.

“I enjoy seeing new things,” said Conner, 12, a sixth-grader at the school.

The project, along with those done by more than 180 students from a dozen area schools, was on display Monday at the Corridor STEM Initiative’s end-of-year showcase on the University of Iowa campus.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. The Corridor STEM Initiative is a group of educators and business partners supporting more learning opportunities in those areas for young people.

There has been a push nationally and in Iowa to increase interest and proficiency in STEM subjects.

Republican Gov. Terry Branstad has appointed a STEM advisory council, and that group is hosting a daylong STEM summit in Des Moines on May 15.

The Corridor STEM Initiative, working with the Grant Wood Area Education Agency and school districts, has awarded state-funded grants ranging from $1,500 to $8,000 for extra STEM programs at 13 area schools.

The classes, for grades three through eight, occur outside of the normal school day and are overseen by teachers or after-school program coordinators, said Yukiko Hill, Grant Wood AEA teacher in residence.

The initiative started several years ago following reports that Americans were falling woefully behind in STEM subjects, said Dick Whitehead, superintendent of the College Community school district.

Other projects on display Monday explored the pros and cons of solar versus nuclear power, forensic science and water filtration.

The girls science club at HLV Community School in Victor used Legos to study things like how the force needed to pull a weight up a ramp changed with the slope of the ramp.

Science is sometimes seen as a male-dominated field, but the girls of HLV said they could do just as well as boys.

“I thought it was fun learning to work together,” 10-year-old Josie Hall said.

Teamwork is one of the pluses of engineering, Jennifer Waskow, manager of printed circuit board design at Rockwell Collins, told the crowd. As a child she thought engineers were “kind of nerdy” and worked alone on computers, but that’s not the case, she said, as she encouraged the students to consider STEM fields.

“I challenge you to continue to wonder about the world around you,” she said.

Tiffin is now using the Cedar Rapids-based shelter, and Solon also will be served by the nonprofit organization starting July 1, according to a news release. Shueyville is reviewing a contract proposal, said Bob Citrullo, executive director of the Cedar Valley Humane Society.

North Liberty announced earlier this week that it had switched to the humane society.

Those cities had used the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center but passed on Iowa City’s request to contribute to the construction of a new shelter and to increase the amount they paid for operational costs. Iowa City plans to build a new shelter to replace the facility damaged in the 2008 flood.

Citrullo said his shelter’s adoption rate has been increasing steadily, which gives them more room, and they can easily accommodate the animals from the Johnson County towns.

The Cedar Valley Humane Society is located at 7411 Mount Vernon Rd. SE in Cedar Rapids. For more information, visit www.cvhumane.org.

Scott Kiersch of Iowa City walks with his daughters Sidney, 7, (left) and Madison, 6, (center) at the end of the school day at Roosevelt Elementary School Monday, March 30, 2009 in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY – The Iowa City school district received just one bid for the on-the-market Roosevelt Elementary School, and it was significantly less than what the district wants for the property.

The $201,595 bid, from developer Place Partners LLC in Iowa City, is well below the $770,000 appraisal the district received for the property, and district officials felt the appraisal was too low.

“I think you can probably make an appropriate inference from that,” Superintendent Stephen Murley said Thursday of his reaction to the $201,000 bid.

Murley said he will make a recommendation, which he had not yet formulated, to the school board for its consideration at a May 15 meeting. The board could accept the bid, decide to try to sell the property using a real estate agent or keep the property, although it to this point has shown no interest in the latter option.

The district is closing the school, 611 Greenwood Dr., at the end of this school year and replacing it with Borlaug Elementary a few miles to the west.

The board earlier this year decided to take a nontraditional route in selling the property by going with the bid process. That allowed it to place restrictions on what could be done with the property after it is sold.

Residents of the neighborhood surrounding Roosevelt were mostly opposed to closing the school and then, after that decision was made, fought to keep it from being developed into apartments or commercial or retail uses.

In the bid documents, the board said it could be used for offices and educational, religious and health purposes.

Murley said Place Partners wants to locate a community art space at the school site, which would align with the desires of neighbors.

Local developer Al Wells of Place Partners did not immediately return a phone message left for him late Thursday afternoon.

Artist Eliezer Sotillo of Iowa City paints the cover on a piano outside of the Plaza Towers building on the Pedestrian Mall May 18, 2011, in downtown Iowa City. The design was based on a painting by Frank Lloyd Wright with Sotillo's own twist. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

A large mural meant to represent an embracing of diversity may be coming to a downtown Iowa City parking ramp.

The general concept, by local artist Eliezer Sotillo, calls for hands reaching toward one another and to the viewer. It is to be painted, with a mixture of black-and-white spray paint and a durable paint meant for concrete, on the north side of the Dubuque Street parking ramp.

Sotillo said the piece would convey an awareness of different cultures and diversity.

“In order for a community to work, we have to help each other out, create balance,” he said. “That mentality is what peace and harmony are about.”

Because the ramp is city property, the City Council must OK the project. It is to vote on the proposal at its May 15 meeting.

No public money would go toward the work, with developer Marc Moen sponsoring the project. Moen’s Plaza Towers, which includes condominiums, a hotel and businesses, is directly north of the ramp.

Moen said he thought of the idea for a mural while looking out the window of the gym in Plaza Towers and seeing the blank exterior of the ramp. He hopes to breathe new life into public art in Iowa City.

The city’s public art program has seen its funding decreased from $100,000 annually in fiscal year 2002 to $2,750 this year.

“My thought is, why don’t we do it, and hopefully that will get people excited about doing privately funded public art,” Moen said.

He didn’t want to say exactly how much the project would cost, in part because it depends on the amount of materials used and time needed to rent a lift for Sotillo, but he said it would be more than $10,000.

Moen and Sotillo also want some aspects of the design, including a sketch of what it looks like, kept secret for now because they want people to see the project develop, which is part of the appeal of a mural versus something done in a studio.

Another undisclosed detail is the size. Sotillo said he has it scaled to a specific grid so it’s centered to the wall, but the size depends in part on how much he can get done in the month he’s set aside for the work.

Moen said it could stretch the height of the exterior wall, which has five floors above ground. The wall is not visible from the Pedestrian Mall, but it can be seen from Linn Street and Plaza Towers.

Sotillo, a 29-year-old University of Iowa graduate who is currently working on his teaching certificate in art education, has painted several murals, including one for the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival in 2010.

Rachel Duffy, 9, holds her family's new puppy after their name was drawn in the cocker spaniel puppy adoption at the Cedar Valley Humane Society in Cedar Rapids April 28. (Nikole Hanna/The Gazette)

The city of North Liberty has switched from the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center to the Cedar Rapids-based Cedar Valley Humane Society for its animal shelter needs.

The city made the change, effective April 25, after Iowa City asked neighboring communities for more money to help build and operate a new facility to replace the one damaged in the 2008 flood.

North Liberty will save an estimated $40,000 a year with the Cedar Valley Humane Society compared with what it would have paid Iowa City, City Administrator Ryan Heiar said. The city will pay $130 per animal sent to the shelter, with owners paying the fee if they claim the animal.

Heiar also has said that the city is confident Cedar Valley Humane Society treats its animals well, and that the drive to the shelter is not much longer than to Iowa City’s temporary shelter several miles south of Iowa City. The new Iowa City shelter also is to be built south of town.

The protocol for reporting a stray animal in North Liberty remains the same, with residents asked to call City Hall at (319) 626‐5700.

The Cedar Valley Humane Society’s website is http://www.cvhumane.org/

The services shut off for them include include drop-off of stray or unwanted pets and assistance for sick or injured wild animals, according to a news release.

Iowa City is in the planning and design phase for a new animal shelter on Napoleon Lane. The city asked surrounding communities to contribute to the construction and operations of the facility, and several declined.

The cities that no longer have access to the shelter, effective May 4, are Hills, Lone Tree, North Liberty, Oxford, Shueyville, Swisher and Tiffin, according to the release.

Residents in Coralville, Solon, University Heights and unincorporated Johnson County can still use the shelter.

For more information, contact Misha Goodman, animal services supervisor, at (319) 356-5296 or misha-goodman@iowa-city.org.

And she didn’t like it.

Neither do other parents of the approximately 30 students in Iowa City’s Miller-Orchard neighborhood who will attend Horn after their neighborhood school, Roosevelt Elementary, closes at the end of this month.

Their homes, an average of 1.2 miles from Horn, fall within the district’s two-mile limit for busing. Parents, however, say there are safety factors that should allow for exceptions.

The walk from Phillips’ home is right at that 1.2-mile average. The kids – the youngest, who will be in first grade, has medical issues that likely will allow him to be bused – will walk along busy Benton Street, up and down a big hill and past the driveways of several large apartment complexes.

Victoria Phillips

“I don’t want them to get hit,” Phillips said.

The walk also will take the kids past Roosevelt, a quarter-mile from their home.

The Iowa City school board’s 2009 decision to close the aging Roosevelt and replace it with a new school, Borlaug Elementary a few miles west, was strongly opposed by Roosevelt parents and neighbors.

Many of those Roosevelt students will go to Horn, and Miller-Orchard is a working-class neighborhood on the far east side of the new school boundary, along Benton Street near Riverside Drive.

Exceptions to the two-mile rule can be granted for hazardous conditions, like crossing a railroad or a very busy roadway.

The Iowa City school district’s bus contractor, Durham School Services, recently determined the route was not hazardous. Becky Furlong, an assistant superintendent with the school district, said there are no plans to change that decision.

She also said she is confident kids will be safe walking along Benton Street, although the district formed a community committee to address concerns. Actions and ideas from the group include:

Becky Furlong

• Placing three crossing guards along Benton Street and possibly seeking volunteers to serve as extra crossing guards the first couple of weeks of school.

• Looking into financial assistance for families to send their kids to Horn on city buses, which cost money.

• Implementing a “walking school bus,” in which children walk to and from school in adult-supervised groups. The city of Iowa City is helping with a grant application for equipment like reflective vests.

Iowa City transportation planner John Yapp said the three crossing guards plus another a block north of Benton Street on Sunset Street will give Horn four of the 13 crossing guards for Iowa City and University Heights schools.

Benton Street sees an average of 10,600 vehicles a day near Roosevelt and 5,700 by Horn, he said. The Roosevelt number is high for by a school, he said, but not for an arterial street.

By comparison, First Avenue near Hoover Elementary gets 10,500 vehicles daily and Oakdale Boulevard by Wickham Elementary in Coralville has 4,400.

The district spent $4.9 million on busing last school year and has budgeted $5.2 million this year.

David Dude, the school district’s interim executive director of operational resources, said 46 percent of the district’s students ride buses to and from school, and about two dozen areas have exceptions to the two-mile rule. The decision can be appealed to the school board, and then on to the local Area Education Agency and even the state. In 2007, a group of Iowa City West High parents unsuccessfully appealed a busing denial to the Grant Wood Area Education Agency board.

Dude said there has been no formal request for a review of the Horn decision. Mary Knudson, a Miller-Orchard Neighborhood Association representative, and Mei-ling Joiner, a parent of Roosevelt student who will go to Horn next year, said many of the affected families assumed they’d get busing and didn’t know otherwise until the two women knocked on doors last month to spread the word.

Koni Steel

Joiner said only one of the 10 families she spoke with owned a car, meaning most of them do not have the option of driving their kids. Phillips is in that group.

Joiner, who lives close to Horn and isn’t concerned about her son’s walk, said walking to school can be healthy activity for kids but the issue is more about what parents consider an unsafe route.

Koni Steele agrees. Her son will switch from Roosevelt to Horn as a fifth-grader next fall

and will be walking to school for the first time without his junior high-bound older brother. She worries about him walking more than a mile in bad weather and that the distance increases the chances that someone could try to harm a child.

“It’s more of a safety thing,” she said of her objections.

He also believes funding for higher education will be close to the increases he proposed, rather than the cuts some of his fellow Republicans had pushed.

Branstad is pessimistic, however, that Iowa’s K-12 education system will undergo a major shakeup, which is another of his priorities this legislative session.

“We may make some progress (on education) this year,” the governor said. “If we don’t, we’ll be back pushing for that next year.”

Branstad spoke at an Iowa City Noon Rotary Club meeting at the University Club.

The Legislature is currently working overtime trying to come to agreement on big issues like the budget, education reform and changing the commercial property tax system.

Members of both parties want to decrease the amount of taxes paid by commercial properties, which currently are taxed at 100 percent of their assessed values, compared with about 50 percent for residential properties.

Local governments, which rely heavily on property taxes as a source of revenue, are worried they’ll get short-changed and warn homeowners could see increases to offset the loss from businesses.

Branstad said local governments would be reimbursed $50 million a year for five years, or $250 million. He also said apartments and modular homes would pay the same lower tax rate as residential property, which is another concern of local governments.

The total tax decrease for businesses would be more than $350 million annually, the Associated Press reported.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, have a tentative agreement that should move in the House on Monday, Branstad said.

“This has been a 30-year process, but we’re optimistic that’s going to happen,” he said.

On higher education funding, Branstad said he thinks the Legislature will agree to terms close to his recommendation of a $20 million increase for regent institutions and $4 million in additional money for community colleges next year.

Initially, Senate Democrats sought a $34 million increase for the three regent universities, while House Republicans proposed a $31 million cut

Responding to a question from the audience, the governor said he believes Mitt Romney, the presumed GOP presidential nominee, will defeat President Barack Obama in Iowa, which is a battleground state critical in the fall’s presidential election. He said he doesn’t believe Obama has lived up to a promise to bring people together.

“Instead he’s been a very divisive figure, and he spends his time attacking people,” Branstad said.

The National Arbor Day Foundation and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources – Forestry Bureau are proud to announce that the City of Iowa City has received the 2011 Tree City USA award 22nd Annual Community Forestry Awards Luncheon, held at the Stoney Creek Inn, Johnston on April 17, 2012.

State Forester Paul Tauke commented, “The Tree City USA award is a symbol for communities who have made a commitment to the management of public trees.” The City of Iowa City has provided an outstanding example for other Iowa communities, by enhancing our forest resources and demonstrating the great value of trees in providing multiple benefits for future generations.

Iowa City was one of 86 Iowa communities to qualify for Tree City USA status. To receive the award a city must meet four minimum requirements: 1) The city must possess either a city forester or an active city tree board, 2) The city must have a tree ordinance, 3) The city must annually spend at least $2 per capita for its community forestry program.

Now, no more than three unrelated people can live together. That rule is already applied in the rest of the city. Existing residential units will be grandfathered in.

The ordinance is part of the city’s attempt to get a handle on large student-occupied apartments that city officials and many full-time residents say are hurting older neighborhoods.

The council also had the second of three votes needed on two related ordinances.

One would prevent the construction of multifamily dwellings with more than three bedrooms per unit and limit the number of three-bedroom units allowed. Another would require more parking spaces for larger apartments.

Terry Dickens and Jim Throgmorton voted against the parking ordinance, and Dickens was the lone dissenter on the bedroom measure.

Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett examines a printout of election results Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at the Johnson County Administration Building in Iowa City. Slockett defeated Mona Shaw by a vote total of 2,328 to 1,043 to win his primary. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board voted Friday to investigate a complaint filed against Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett.

With the 5-0 vote, Megan Tooker, the board’s executive director and legal counsel, said she hopes to have the investigation complete in a couple of weeks. The board asked for an expedited inquiry because of the upcoming June primary election, in which Slockett and a challenger are running.

The board plans to hold a telephonic meeting on the matter in the next month, she said.

Tooker said she will speak with Slockett and individuals listed on the complaint as having personal knowledge of the allegations.

Former deputy auditor Nathan Reckman filed a formal complaint on Wednesday with the board, which oversees Iowa’s campaign and ethics laws. He accused Slockett, a Democrat, of using public resources in support of his re-election campaign.

The allegations include Slockett using his county email account for campaign-related work, circulating his re-election petition at work and pressuring employees to sign it, using his work phone to talk with campaign supporters, and changing a policy in a way that made it easier for a supporter to get the voter-registration record of Travis Weipert, his opponent in the Democratic primary.

Reckman provided a copy of the email from the first accusation. Slockett, in an interview Friday, said his email was a reply to communication from an Auditor’s Office staff member.

Slockett denied using his work phone for campaign activities. He said if Reckman was listening from outside his office Reckman could not know the context of the conversation.

On the voter records charge, Slockett said Weipert himself had acknowledged at a meeting to having registered as a Republican. He said he got a phone call from a “constituent” wanting to verify that information, and he did so. After another inquiry, he decided to review the policy and, after speaking with the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office about how the information was a public record, felt it was appropriate to make the change.

Slockett has acknowledged, and apologized for, passing his re-election petition around the office in a well-publicized incident. He did so again Friday.

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board issued an advisory opinion Friday saying state law allows the circulating of a petition in a government office as long as other candidates are given the same opportunity. Tooker said some members took issue with that but felt it was a matter for the Legislature to address.

Slockett said the allegations from Reckman are “highly politicized.” Reckman is supporting Weipert in the auditor’s race, as are some local Democratic elected officials.

“That’s a context that they (the allegations) should be viewed in by the public,” Slockett said.

The board’s vote, during a meeting in Des Moines, only means that it found the complaint to be “legally sufficient.” That means that the allegations, if true, would violate the sections of state code concerning campaign law and ethics/lobbying law over which the board has jurisdiction.

Members did not weigh the merits of the allegations, Tooker said. Except for the motion and vote, the board’s discussion happened in closed session.

If it’s found Slockett violated state law, the board’s actions could include ordering the illegal activity to stop, issuing a reprimand or fining Slockett up to $2,000.

(Cliff Jette photo illustration/The Gazette)

A child sexual abuse scandal has brought a measure of gravity to the traditionally carefree world of youth sports.

Last fall’s arrest of former Penn State University assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on child sexual abuse charges has caused youth sports leagues, many of which are kicking into high gear with spring’s arrival, to revisit their policies on keeping kids safe.

“We talked about it a lot,” said Gary Braksiek, vice president of football operations for the Metro Youth Football Association in Cedar Rapids.

The league already interviewed and did background checks on potential coaches and had coaches meetings to go over “do’s and don’ts.”

New this year to the nearly 90-team spring flag football league, coaches have been told that two of them need to wait with the last child after practice or a game. If a kid needs a ride home, two coaches are to take him.

That’s to protect the child but also to avoid even the appearance of a coach acting inappropriately, said Brian Burrell, vice president of public relations and fundraising for the league.

Sandusky is accused of abusing boys he met through a children’s charity he founded and also while he was a volunteer high school football coach after retiring from Penn State. He also ran football camps for kids.

It’s that association with sports that has caused youth leagues to re-evaluate child abuse prevention policies. It’s a topic that previously didn’t get much attention, said Jim Thompson, founder and CEO of the California-based Positive Coaching Alliance.

“I don’t think it was on most people’s radar screens at all before that, so no question it’s getting more scrutiny,” he said.

Still, several Eastern Iowa league administrators, coaches and parents either would not discuss the subject or did not return messages for this story.

Background checks and some basic rules, such as an adult not being alone with a child, are employed by some area leagues

National experts like Thompson and Irene van der Zande, co-founder and executive director of Kidpower, a California-based organization that promotes child safety, say youth leagues need to do more.

The two organizations held webinars in January aimed at child abuse prevention in youth sports. They also developed a policy they hope will serve as a model for leagues to implement.

It says that in addition to interviews and background checks of potential coaches and volunteers, abuse prevention should be reviewed with people working with kids and parents, define situations and behaviors that should be prohibited and has guidelines for reporting child sexual abuse.

About 40 million kids participate in sports each year. There’s no good estimate on the rate of abuse among those children, but Thompson said parents absolutely should take the issue seriously, noting that even a small percentage of 40 million is a large number.

Van der Zande talks about the “illusion of safety” and said adults should not blindly trust whoever is supervising children. She said parents and kids need to do three things: know detailed information about who’s overseeing kids, teach children not to keep secrets and teach kids “people safety” skills.

While this isn’t happening on a large scale now, van der Zande thinks the Sandusky case has increased awareness.

Shane Kron, who helps run Iowa City Boys Baseball, which has about 400 6-to-12-year-old ballplayers, said sound policies can protect not only kids from harm but also adults from false accusations.

He gave an example from his job as a Coralville police officer on how things have changed. When visiting schools kids often want hugs from him, but he said that’s no longer appropriate.

“You have to be cognizant of that kind of atmosphere,” he said.

Even the quintessential celebratory move in sports, a slap on the rear end, is now taboo in many youth sports leagues.

Greg Woller, CEO and executive director of the Y in Washington, Iowa, said his organization, previously known as the YMCA, has long put an emphasis on child safety. It has training videos for coaches and rules against being behind closed doors with children and on appropriate touching.

At the Y, and the Metro Youth Football Association, pats on the butt by coaches are off limits.

“It probably was acceptable 20 years ago, but now it’s something you definitely wouldn’t do,” Woller said.

Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett checks to see how many precincts have reported Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at the Johnson County Administration Building in Iowa City. Slockett defeated Mona Shaw by a vote total of 2,328 to 1,043 to win his primary. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

A former Johnson County deputy auditor who resigned Monday is the person who filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the state against county Auditor Tom Slockett.

Megan Tooker, executive director and legal counsel at the Iowa Ethics and Campaign and Disclosure Board, released the complaint Thursday morning.

Nathan Reckman filed the complaint against his former boss. Reckman was deputy auditor for minutes from May 2011 until his resignation this week to take a job as an attorney. See a copy of the complaint below.

Reckman lists four incidents that he believes show Slockett, a Democrat, used public resources in support of his re-election campaign. Slockett is running for another term and faces a challenge in the June Democratic primary.

It is illegal to use public resources for political purposes. That includes public time, property or facilities.

“I feel like the rules are there for a reason and it’s unfair for him (Slockett) to get an advantage from his position,” Reckman said in an interview.

Reckman alleges:

• On April 6, after Slockett and his opponent, Travis Weipert, appeared at an event to talk about their qualifications, Slockett sent an email from his county email account to county staff saying Weipert “blasted me for not making it easy enough for students and minorities to vote.” He suggested expanding satellite voting opportunities. Reckman included a copy of the email in his complaint.
• On March 5, Slockett circulated his re-election petition at work and pressured employees to sign it.
• In April, Slockett made “numerous calls” from work to arrange his campaign committee and to contact supporters. Reckman said he answered calls for Slockett from Lois Cox and Clara Oleson, who have published letters to the editor in support of Slockett.
• Slockett this month changed a longtime policy on how voter records are released in a way that made it easier for Cox to obtain Weipert’s record, which showed Weipert had at one time registered as a Republican. Cox then included that information in a letter to the editor.

Slockett did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Reckman said he received good performance reviews and is not a disgrunteled employee. He also said morale in the Auditor’s Office is “not very good at all”

“I don’t think there are many people in the office that would support his re-election,” he said.

Tooker would not discuss the complaint. The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board meets Friday in Des Moines and is expected to decide whether to dismiss the complaint or investigate the allegations.

Reckman said he hopes the board investigates and at least reprimands Slockett.

Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett examines a printout of election results Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at the Johnson County Administration Building in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

A formal complaint against Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett was filed Wednesday with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

Megan Tooker, the board’s executive director and legal counsel, declined to publicly release the complaint, discuss it in detail or say who filed it.

The agenda for the board’s April 27^th meeting in Des Moines says the complaint concerns Slockett’s “alleged use of government resources for a political purpose.” Tooker said part of it deals with Slockett circulating his re-election petition in his office in March.

That move upset many of his employees and some fellow Democrats who are now opposing his re-election. Slockett has been Johnson County’s auditor and elections commissioner since 1977 and is being challenged in the June Democratic primary.

Slockett said he was unaware of the complaint until a reporter called him. He said he’d look into it but otherwise declined to comment.

On the day he circulated the petition, which was needed to get him on the primary ballot, Slockett told The Gazette he had done nothing wrong. Later that week he emailed an apology to the employees of his office.

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board administers the state’s campaign and ethics laws.

State law says “a complaint shall be a public record,” but it allows some or all of its contents to be treated as confidential under Iowa’s open records law.

Tooker said she received the complaint Wednesday afternoon and had briefly reviewed it. The board’s process is for her to give it to the board chairman for his review before releasing it, she said.

She expects the document to be publicly available on Thursday, possibly with parts of it redacted.

The board on Friday will determine whether the complaint is “legally sufficient,” meaning that it alleges a violation of state code over which the board has jurisdiction.

If the board decides the complaint is legally sufficient, it would initiate an investigation, Tooker said. If not, the complaint will be dismissed.

The board will discuss the complaint in closed session and the only action in open session likely will be a motion either to investigate or dismiss, Tooker said.

Among the board’s powers is the ability to order a stop of the illegal activity, issuing a reprimand and issuing a fine of up to $2,000.

The meeting starts at noon at the Jesse Parker Building, 510 E. 12^th St., Des Moines.

President Barack Obama waves to students after speaking at the University of Iowa Field House, Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Some of today’s college students were not yet born when Bill Clinton rode the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid,” to the White House in 1992.

But 20 years later, young people at President Barack Obama’s Wednesday speech at the University of Iowa said the economy and, more specifically, jobs are the biggest issues for them as the 2012 presidential campaign ramps up.

That’s the belief of Sergio Murillo, a 20-year-old at the UI studying computer science. The Chicago native said he’s tried to make good choices in borrowing and he’s hopeful his major will help him land a good job upon graduating next year. But he already has more than $50,000 in student loans.

“It’s worried me ever since my freshman year of college,” he said.

Obama spoke to a crowd of 5,500 people, many of them students, at the UI Field House about student loans. The president said some Republicans are saying his pushing the issue is taking the focus away from the economy, an argument he rejected.

“This is the economy,” he said. “This is about your job security. This is about your future.”

Alex Giardino, 21, is going to China to teach English for a year after he graduates in May. He’s an international business major, but he said it’s a difficult job market for new graduates because workers with more experience also are looking for employment.

“It’s kind of hard to compete with that,” said Giardino, of Elgin, Ill., who is leaning toward voting for Obama in the election.

In a Harvard University Institute of Politics survey released this week, 56 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds cited jobs and the economy as their top concern. That’s down 16 percentage points from the fall, however, which the institute said indicated “some of the intense pressure that young Americans were feeling related to the economy” was beginning to dissipate.

The Pew Research Center reported in February that the 54 percent employment rate for people between the ages of 18 and 24 was the lowest since the government began collecting that information in 1948.

Kelsey Boehm, chairwoman of the UI College Republicans, placed the blame on Obama for the poor job market for recent graduates. The 20-year-old UI junior from Peoria, Ill., said in a phone interview that the economy and jobs will be the biggest issues in the election, which she believes favors the likely GOP presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.

“I know a lot of people here at the university are more liberal on social issues, but they’re willing to vote for a social conservative just because of the economy and jobs,” she said.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, said in a statement that Obama’s UI visit was an “election-year gimmick that will do nothing to bring much-needed jobs to our nation’s young adults and recent graduates.”

President Barack Obama participates in a roundtable discussion with students at the University of Iowa, Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Iowa City, Iowa. at right is Myranda Burnett, and left is Martin Lopez. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

UPDATE: A largely black-and-gold clad crowd of several thousand will greet President Barack Obama at the University of Iowa’s Field House this afternoon.

Among them is 21-year-old Obama supporter Danny McKenzie, a junior at the UI from Roselle, Ill.

“It’s a good reason to miss two classes today,” he said, before adding more seriously: “I just want to see him in real life. It will be a good college memory to have.”

The UI is prepared for a maximum crowd of 5,500, UI spokesman Tom Moore said, and it appears they’ll match that figure. Attendees began lining up early this morning, and people have even been ushered to the running track ringing the packed ground floor of the Field House.

The news media is being kept behind the public area and reporters, in some instances, have been stopped from talking with people.

The Hawkeye marching band is playing brief numbers as the crowd stands, or sits when possible, awaiting the president.

The University Financial Aid Office said it’s important for interest rates to stay as they are, so students have an affordable monthly rate.

“There are more challenges, I think, given the state of the economy, even though we’re improving slowly, but it still creates some challenges, I think, for students to repay their loans when they’re assuming other costs after graduation,” said UI Financial Aid Director Mark Warner.

Keeping interest rates down is an issue that impacts thousands of students on the U of I campus. Warner said last year, 8,000 UI undergraduates borrowed a total of about $32 million in subsidized federal loans. A lot of students are hoping to ask the president tough questions during his visit to make sure their financial futures are secure.

“Student loans affect me as a student, so I guess if I could, I would ask what he was going to do about that in the future,” said UI freshman David Giang.

“I would ask him, hopefully to see what he would do, just like any other student but at the same time, what can we do to be able to change that as students, because it’s not just the president’s job but the student’s job,” Kipkenboi said.

Twelve-year-old Pareen Mhatre of Iowa City is missing school to see the president speak, with her parents believing it will be an educational moment for their daughter. She said she was excited “because he’s the president and he’s a Democrat.”

Obama is expected to begin his remarks at about 1:20 p.m. Prior to his speech, he is participating in a roundtable discussion with five UI students who receive federal loans.

The president is calling on Congress to act to stop interest rates for borrowers of federally subsidized Stafford loans from doubling on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

Obama’s likely Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, also supports keeping the interest rate from increasing.

Mayor Matt Hayek, who was at the event, said it was appropriate for Obama to speak about student loans at the UI. A study found graduates of Iowa’s public and private universities ranked third in the nation for average student loan debt in 2010 at $29,598.

Hayek also said Obama’s visit is a “great honor” for the city.

“I think Iowa City and Iowa have been important stops for the president over the past several years, and the fact that he’s coming today confirms that our state is still important not only on the issues he is addressing but politically as well,” he said.

Obama was at the UI in March 2010 to tout the health-care reform legislation he had just signed into law. That law is now being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court and has been a major issue this presidential election.

He also made three stops at the UI in 2007 when he was running for president.

Today’s visit is considered official White House business, but it undeniably has election-year overtones.

Iowa is considered a battleground state up for grabs in November’s presidential election, the same as Obama’s two stops on Tuesday, North Carolina and Colorado.

Young voters, like those found on college campuses, were a key constituency for Obama four years ago. He carried 18- to 29-year-old voters in the 2008 election by a 34-point margin over Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate.

In a Harvard University Institute of Politics survey released this week, Obama led Romney by 17 points.

Reporter Jill Kasparie also contributed to this story.

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Iowa City Regina teacher Glenn Plummer (right) hugs Anne Rittenmeyer, 17, of Iowa City, during the school's graduation ceremony. Plummer has been named the new principal at Regina. (Gazette file photo)

Iowa City Regina has lifted the interim tag off junior/senior high school principal Glenn Plummer.

The Regina Catholic Education Center’s school board Tuesday night unanimously approved hiring Plummer as principal, according to a news release. The board’s decision followed the recommendation of a search committee.

Plummer had been interim principal since David Krummel resigned from the position in late February for undisclosed reasons.

A police vehicle at the Hills Bank branch, 1401 S. Gilbert St., after an armed robbery Monday morning. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — A suspect in the armed robbery of an Iowa City bank Monday led officers on an hourlong chase by motorcycle and foot before being apprehended.

Eric Martin, 34, of 1656 W. 42nd St. in Davenport, faces charges of first-degree robbery, possession of a firearm as a felon, interference with official acts with a weapon, carrying weapons and eluding.

Law enforcement was called at 9:32 a.m. for a report of an armed robbery at Hills Bank and Trust Co., 1401 S. Gilbert St.

Police said a man wearing dark clothing entered the bank armed with a handgun and demanded cash from the tellers. After an undisclosed amount of money was put in a backpack, he left on an off-road motorcycle.

Nearby Johnson County sheriff’s deputies pursued the motorcycle into Benton Hill Park. Officers from several other agencies set up a perimeter, and a team entered the area and found Martin in a wooded area behind the 1100 block of Weeber Circle, which is northwest of the Lodge apartment complex off Highway 1.

Martin again fled on his motorcycle, then fled on foot when the motorcycle collided with a marked squad car, police said. He was apprehended a short time later in the 1900 block of Woodberry Court, near Willow Creek Park, after a brief struggle, police said.

Martin was treated and released from University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for minor injuries. A news release said he was being held in the Johnson County Jail on a $38,000 bond, but the jail said he had not been booked as of 5:10 p.m.

Two Iowa City police officers suffered minor injuries while arresting Martin. No bank employees or other civilians were injured, police said.

The Iowa City Police Department and the FBI are continuing to investigate the robbery, “including determination of Martin’s involvement in three previous Iowa City bank robberies,” according to the news release. A police official did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The U.S. Bank at 2312 Mormon Trek Blvd. was robbed in February and November, and the MidWestOne Bank at 2233 Rochester Ave. was robbed in December. All three of those incidents occurred after 5 p.m. on Fridays.

Monday’s robbery led to lockdowns at eight Iowa City school district schools for about one hour, and parents were notified with a recorded phone call. The University of Iowa also sent out an alert on its system.

Here’s a statement sent out by the Iowa City School District earlier Monday:

At approximately 9:40 a.m. today, April 23, 2012, our district received information from law enforcement which has caused us to implement precautionary safety procedures. Iowa City Police indicated they are in pursuit of an armed bank robbery suspect in the west side vicinity.

We initially went into hard lock down at these schools:
• West High
• Northwest Junior High
• Weber Elementary
• Lincoln Elementary
• Horn Elementary
• Kirkwood Elementary
• Coralville Central Elementary
• Roosevelt Elementary

At this time all schools moved to soft lock down with the exception of Roosevelt and Horn. Student safety is our primary concern. We will share further information as it is received.

A rendering looking northeast shows a draft design for a proposed criminal justice center in Johnson County. (Neumann Monson Architects)

Johnson County is ready to begin work on writing the ballot language voters will see at the polls when deciding whether to approve funding for a criminal justice center.

The Board of Supervisors, at a work session Thursday, said a county committee will develop a draft of the language explaining the project. The supervisors would have to vote on the measure.

The current design calls for a five-level, 153,800-square-foot building constructed behind the county courthouse at 417 S. Clinton Street in Iowa City.

It would include 243 jail beds, the Sheriff’s Office headquarters, six new courtrooms and other space for court-related functions. The courthouse would continue to be used.

The justice center is estimated to cost $48.1 million and is intended to resolve space and security issues at the current jail and courthouse.

The supervisors have informally agreed to put a $46.8 million bond referendum on the November election ballot to pay for the facility. The rest of the cost would come out of the county’s budget.

The supervisors want to have the ballot language done in May. County Treasurer Tom Kriz told the supervisors that, after speaking with the county’s bond counsel, it should be as precise and concise as possible.

The amount of the bonds to be issued and the purpose for seeking the money must be included. The county also can add other language to further describe the project.

The county would be bound by anything in the ballot language, Kriz said.

The supervisors said they wanted the language to be brief, so people read it, while at the same time providing enough information for voters to know what the project is.

“My main message would be to keep it simple and straightforward,” Supervisor Sally Stutsman said.

Chris O’Brien, the city’s director of transportation services, said in a memo Thursday that staffers are preparing a formal recommendation to the City Council on taxi stands to provide designated spots for taxis to wait for, load and unload customers.

Iowa City has 91 licensed taxis, O’Brien said, and late-night congestion has resulted in cabs parking in the middle of Dubuque Street and in travel lanes while waiting for customers.

For a short time in 2007, the city set up taxi stands in four loading zones between 5 p.m. and 2 a.m.

But downtown businesses said the stands were not clearly marked, were little used and discouraged people who had used the zones for quick stops from shopping and eating downtown.

O’Brien wrote that the spots also were spread out and ineffective. He said the new recommendation will include multiple locations, to be determined, that would be reserved for taxis between 10 p.m. and 2:30 a.m.

The city is currently seeking feedback from taxi companies and downtown businesses, O’Brien said.

People attend a rally demanding justice for Trayvon Martin in Freedom Plaza, Saturday, March 24, 2012, in Washington. Martin, an unarmed young black teen was fatally shot by a volunteer neighborhood watchman. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Iowa City will not pass a resolution related specifically to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

City Council member Jim Throgmorton earlier this month said he wanted to the council to weigh in on the matter and provided a draft resolution that framed the shooting and resulting uproar in national and local terms.

The proposal said “Martin’s killing has caused grief and outrage among many Iowa Citians” and also criticized so-called “stand your ground” laws.

At a work session Tuesday night, the majority of the council said it felt its focus should be on local issues and, if it approved the Martin resolution, it would be hard to draw the line on when to weigh in on national and even international events, Mayor Matt Hayek said. For example, he said, if the council were to pass a resolution related to Martin, an argument could be made it should do the same for the recent shooting deaths of three black people in Tulsa, Okla.

Throgmorton and council member Rick Dobyns will work with city staff on a resolution on how racial profiling affects Iowa City. Stand-your-ground laws, which some Iowa state lawmakers support, also may be included.

IOWA CITY HIGH SCHOOL, 8/31/01.

IOWA CITY – The Iowa City school board may establish new guidelines for what would compel the district to start planning for a new high school.

The reason is the district has changed the way it counts students since the board voted two years ago to set “trigger points,” as it calls them, for preparing for a third comprehensive high school.

As a result, board members said the enrollment projections they reviewed at their meeting Tuesday night were not a good basis for deciding what do with the high school issue.

“It’s not apples to apples,” board member Patti Fields said of the current enrollment data and the numbers the board decided on in 2010.

The projections are considered an accurate predictor of future enrollment, however.

The board said they’d talk about the matter more at an upcoming meeting of its facilities committee.

At a meeting of that committee preceding the board meeting, Superintendent Stephen Murley said administrators would develop options to help the school board decide how to address overcrowding at the elementary and high school levels.

There is general agreement that a new elementary school will be needed on the fast-growing north side of the district, likely in the North Liberty area. There also are elementary school capacity concerns on the east side of Iowa City.

The school district is setting aside $3.2 million a year until it reaches $32 million for a high school. It would have about $14 million in unreserved funds from the voter-approved school infrastructure local-option sales tax that it could put toward elementary schools.

The $14 million would cover the construction of one elementary school or additions at two elementary schools, Murley said, but not two new schools or a new school and an addition at another school.

“The gist of the conversation is we have a lot of needs and not a lot of money” to meet them, board member Jeff McGinness said.

The school board’s policy is to start planning for a new high school once three-year projections estimate that high school enrollment will surpass 3,750 students, and actual sixth-grade enrollment is between 900 and 925 students.

The new enrollment projections show that the sixth-grade mark was reached this year and high school enrollment will pass that trigger in the 2015-16 school year.

But the district this year started counting special education students who spend the majority of their time in regular classrooms, which throws off the trigger points set two years ago.

Take as an example sixth-grade enrollment. The number of those students in the report discussed Tuesday was 905. But the number of resident regular education sixth-graders is 786, which was the standard for counting students two years ago.

Further clouding the issue is school board members last month asked that administrators explore alternatives to building a third comprehensive high school.  A district committee already is studying what the school would look like, with that report due in June.

A handful of parents from North Liberty and Coralville spoke in favor of building a high school on the north side.

“The growth is just phenomenal that’s going on there, and there’s a real sense of community developing,” said Amy Adam, a North Liberty parent and former City High School teacher.

Craig Hansel will be the new executive director of business resources and organizational effectiveness and Chace Ramey will be the executive director of human resources. Both are scheduled to start their jobs July 1.

Hansel takes over a position similar to what Paul Bobek, the district’s chief financial officer, held before abruptly resigning in January. No reason was given for the resignation, but it came after a couple of high-profile financial mistakes and an audit critical of some of the area’s Bobek oversaw.

Hansel has been the chief financial officer of the Ankeny school district north of Des Moines since 2007.

Ramey will take over for Jim Pedersen, who is retiring at the end of the school year. Ramey was chief of staff for the Kansas City school district in Missouri before resigning in December. He has served as executive director of the Teach for America program in the Philadelphia area this year.

Ramey has a doctorate in education policy and leadership studies and a law degree, both from the University of Iowa.

The salaries for Hansel and Ramey have not been set, Pedersen said.

Bobek made $140,409 annually. Pedersen’s salary is $138,793.

Rhiannon Hobbs-Thompson (center), 4, plays with her sister Terin Kane's, 15, euphonium as their mothers, Kris Hobbs-Thompson (left) and Heather Hobbs-Thompson look on at their home in Cedar Rapids. The Hobbs-Thompsons are among many same sex couples who have difficulties filing taxes, as same-sex marriage is recognized at the state level but not at the federal level. (Nikole Hanna/The Gazette)

Kris Hobbs-Thompson describes her marriage to wife Heather as “fake” because the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage, but the tax implications of their status are very real.

More than 131,000 same-sex married couples nationwide, including a few thousand in Iowa, have been reminded of that with Tuesday’s deadline to file federal income tax returns.

They must file individual returns with the federal government and mark themselves as single even as those who live in the six states, including Iowa, and the District of Columbia where same-sex marriage is legal can file joint state returns.

Those couples say it makes the often unpleasant task of doing their taxes more time-consuming and expensive, can cost them money and is insulting.

The Hobbs-Thompsons, who live in Cedar Rapids and are both 36, were married last month, so they won’t deal with the tax issue until next year. But Heather Hobbs-Thompson played around with tax preparation software and found the federal refund for the family, which includes three children, would be up to $2,000 higher if they could file jointly.

“We pay taxes to the federal government, we do everything else that the government says we need to do for a regular married couple, but we don’t get recognized as a married couple according to the federal government,” she said.

Michael Cole-Schwartz

It’s a growing issue nationwide as more gay people get married, said Michael Cole-Schwartz, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization.

Iowa, U.S. numbers

The 2010 census counted more than 131,000 same-sex married couple households in the United States. The gay-rights organization One Iowa puts this state’s figure at about 4,500 marriages since same-sex marriage became legal in April 2009.

“Tax time brings into clear focus the additional burdens that one set of married couples, gay couples, have to face that other couples don’t,” Cole-Schwartz said.

Thomas Peters, cultural director for the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage, said what is unfair is Iowa residents not getting a chance to vote on same-sex marriage. The tax issue is part of that larger debate, he said.

“If we want to simplify the tax code, let’s allow the democratic process to work out over the underlying debate about what marriage is,” he said.

Thomas Peters

The Iowa House last year passed legislation calling for a statewide vote on constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, but Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he will not bring the measure to a vote and believes passing such an amendment would put discrimination in the Iowa Constitution.

The Internal Revenue Service says it is bound by the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman in federal law.

Complex process

Jason Dinesen, an accountant near Des Moines who has worked with same-sex couples, said federal law does make taxes more complex for gay people who marry.

Those couples fill out four returns: a mock joint federal return to get the numbers they need for their state return, and then two individual federal returns to be submitted.

Decisions must be made on who claims deductions for things like children, mortgage insurance and charitable contributions.

Jason Dinesen

A big issue, Dinesen and Cole-Schwartz said, is health insurance. Say a man includes his husband on the insurance he gets from his employer. The couple pays income taxes on the value of that benefit, which Dinesen said can add thousands of dollars to their taxable income. Opposite-sex married couples do not.

Dinesen said some gay married couples may save money by filing separately, as some opposite-sex couples do, depending on their circumstances. Same-sex couples, however, do not have a choice on whether to file jointly or individually.

David Shafer of Iowa City said he and his spouse, Barry Randall, detest the extra time and money it takes to do four returns instead of two. But like many same-sex couples, the issue also bothers them on a personal level because it’s a reminder that the federal government doesn’t recognize their marriage.

“Before we were married (in 2009), it was just insulting that we had to file our taxes as though we were roommates,” said Shafer, 36. “Now they add injury to the insult by requiring all this additional work and expense.”

Defying the law

Some couples have defied the law and filed joint federal returns. The “Refuse to Lie” campaign offers advice such as filing two individual returns and adding a joint return or including an attachment saying they’re married.

Janelle Rettig, 46, and Robin Butler, 48, of Iowa City considered filing a joint federal return, but they decided against it because of Rettig’s position as an elected member of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors.

“They do force us to lie, and I have to check the box single,” Rettig said.

The National Organization for Marriage’s Peters said gay-rights activists are trying to create a “legal mess” to “push an agenda to offer a false solution.”

The IRS said all taxpayers are expected to file complete and accurate returns, and one element for determining a penalty is whether an error was intentional.

A rendering of a draft design for a proposed criminal justice center in Johnson County. (Neumann Monson Architects)

IOWA CITY – After years of debate, discarded proposals and stops and starts, Johnson County finally has a plan for a criminal justice center.

Now comes the hard part: getting the OK from voters to fund the estimated $48.1 million project.

The county’s criminal justice coordinating committee received Wednesday the most detailed design yet of the facility, which is to include a new jail and court space built behind the existing county courthouse.

The pre-schematic design, as it’s called, has a five-level, 153,800-gross-square-foot building. It includes 243 jail beds, the sheriff’s office headquarters, six new courtrooms (plus three courtrooms in the current courthouse), the clerk of court’s office and court support space.

John Cain of Venture Architects out of Wisconsin, which worked on the project with Iowa City-based Neumann Monson Architects, said the project was ready to go before the public.

“You’ve got the basic pieces that you need for the referendum,” he said.

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors has indicated it will put a $46.8 million bond referendum on the ballot in November. It would pay for the rest of the cost out of the county’s budget.

The project has been discussed for a decade and has included voters rejecting a bond issue for a new jail in 2000, discarded consultants and designs, disagreements over possible sites for the facility and, at times, intense infighting among the supervisors.

“I think the Board of Supervisors is to a point to let the people decide,” supervisor Terrence Neuzil said.

County and criminal justice officials argue that the justice center is needed to resolve space and safety concerns at the current 92-bed jail and 111-year-old courthouse

The county has discussed selling the existing jail. The courthouse would be used as part of the justice center, and a secure bridge would connect the two buildings.

The new facility would be built into a hill behind the courthouse, so the top of the five-level structure would reach to about the second floor of the courthouse.

The design calls for the bottom half of the exterior, where the jail would be, to have a solid material similar to the courthouse. The upper section, where court space would be, is glass.

The design, which could be altered as it’s fine-tuned, was praised by members of the committee, which includes representatives from the county, law enforcement and court system.

“I think it really honors the courthouse and frames it,” said district court judge Douglas Russell.

The petition includes several proposals. Probably the most prominent is a call to start construction on a new high school in North Liberty that, if needed, could start as a ninth-grade center.

The Iowa City school district includes Iowa City, North Liberty, Coralville, University Heights and Hills.

The petition comes after Iowa City school board members last month told district administrators to look at alternatives to building a third comprehensive high school.

During a contentious redistricting debate two years ago, the school board voted to build a high school when the district had the enrollment and money to support one.

A 27-page document accompanying the petition makes clear some parents are worried the current board, which includes several new members from the 2010 board, will backtrack on that commitment.

The document also references the divide between the east and west sides of the district that was apparent during the 2010 redistricting process.

The petition includes proposals that would appeal to east-side parents, including the construction of a new elementary school. That was the subject of a petition circulated last month that had 739 signatures Wednesday morning.

The new petition had 835 signatures as of 11:25 a.m. Wednesday.

A committee has been studying a variety of questions related to a new high school. The current thinking is the school would be in the North Liberty area and have a capacity of 900 students. That would be well below the capacities of City High, at 1,600, and West High, 1,700.

Superintendent Stephen Murley said the board voted 7-0 for a budget that sets the tax rate at $14.07 per $1,000 of taxable value for the year that starts July 1, down from this year’s $14.59.

Homeowners will pay more in property taxes, however, because the state-set rollback, which is the percentage of a residential property’s value that is taxed, is increasing from 48.53 percent to 50.75 percent.

The owner of a $100,000 home in the school district will pay $714.08 in school taxes next year, up from $708.08 this year.

Commercial property does not get a rollback, although some state lawmakers want to change that, so those owners will pay less in school taxes if the current system holds.

The district’s maximum budget authority, which is what it’s allowed to spend, will be $129.9 million next school year.

The 55 teachers to be hired are not all new positions. Of that number, 38 will replace retirees and 17 will replace long-term substitutes hired in January to reduce large class sizes, Murley said.

The Villas Apartments, 500 South Gilbert Street, Iowa City, July 27, 2011. (Matt Nelson/SourceMedia Group News)

The days of large student apartments may be over in Iowa City – at least when it comes to new construction.

The City Council Tuesday night voted 5-1 on the first consideration of an ordinance limiting to three the number of unrelated people who can live together in neighborhoods near the University of Iowa campus. Two more votes are required.

That rule is already applied in the rest of the city. Existing residential units would be grandfathered in and can continue to be rented to  the number of people currently allowed on the rental permit.

The vote comes after two months of debate on what is a longstanding issue in this college town: the number of four- and five-bedroom apartments aimed at students in the neighborhoods near downtown that also are home to long-term residents.

Council members who voted in support of the ordnance said they were trying to strike a balance between protecting the stability of those neighborhoods versus the market for student housing.

Susan Mims said the proliferation of large apartments in recent years have caused a “tipping point” in which some full-time residents no longer want to live in the neighborhoods.

“This is certainly not in any way, shape or manner an anti-student vote. … It is more about balance,” she said.

Terry Dickens cast the lone vote against the measure. He said he was more in disagreement with the city skipping its usual process of sending items to the Planning and Zoning Commission first.

“I just didn’t like the way it was done,” he said.

The City Council had the same 5-1 votes to set public hearings on two related matters.

One would prevent the construction of multifamily dwellings with more than three bedrooms per unit and limit the number of three-bedroom units allowed. Another would require more parking spaces for larger apartments.

Developers have argued that capping at three the number of unrelated people who can live together will effectively stop the construction of apartments with more than three bedrooms.