Elliot Perez jumps the steps near the Tree of Five Seasons on his skateboard on Saturday, May 15, 2010, in Cedar Rapids. The skaters say that while they do skate at the skate park, urban terrain offers more of a challenge, like sticking the landing at the bottom of the steps. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Paul Marin floats, just inches above unforgiving pavement, with nothing more than thin plywood and some rickety wheels between his fluid form and certain pain.

As he approaches a curb, a step, a rail, any angle or impediment, his hips and knees guide his skateboard like any artist guides a brush. There’s no time for hesitation.

“Like good photography or a good song, it’s your expression,” Marin, 23, said. “Someone may be able to pick up the same trick it took you weeks to learn, but you don’t care, because you aren’t doing it for anyone else.”

As teens, Marin and some of his skating friends jokingly have dubbed themselves the “Mobbed Mafia.” (In skating, a mobbed trick is one that was poorly executed.)

“We met skating about six years ago,” Joe Bonen, 23, said. “We’d see each other around, and after a while we started filming.”

Every day (weather permitting), these skate-mafiosos would hit the streets, bringing a video camera in tow, looking for new tricks and new feats to master. Later, they’d post their videos on YouTube.

Paul Marin skates on a bench in front of the Tree of Five Seasons on Saturday, May 15, 2010, in Cedar Rapids. The group of skaters see Julia Bennett of Cedar Rapids (seated in the background) at the park occasionally when they're skating. "It's a fantastic thing!" Bennett says of the skaters, remarking on their understanding of physics and its application to to body to be able to skateboard. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Friendships deepened, and the mafia grew.

Marin didn’t start skateboarding until he was 13. He grew up on the northern shore of Puerto Rico, in a town called Dorado, surrounded by beaches and mountains and 80-degree winter days.

Then he, his little brother and little sister came to Cedar Rapids with their mom in 2000. It was difficult leaving Puerto Rico behind.

“I went from one extreme to the next,” Marin said. “I went from having a huge family to no family at all almost, the beach for snow and winter. … I’d always seen snow, but I didn’t really understand it until I was here.”

Although Puerto Rico had a large skateboarding and surfing scene, Marin hadn’t really skated until he came to Iowa. His skateboard was a way to reconnect with home, while helping him connect to his new home in Cedar Rapids.

As a teenager hopping curbs and strafing benches, it didn’t take long before Marin found some friends with a mutual love of taking spills and ducking cops.

They found other common ground, too. Bonen was born in Okinawa, Japan, and also moved to Cedar Rapids when he was 13.

Skater Nick Patrick, 23, says a shared love of the craft brought them together, but after awhile, “the guy skating next to you” is reason enough. Over time, they became like family.

“We argue all the time. We get crabby,” Patrick says, ‘but we always find each other and we always end up skating.”

Six years and hours upon hours of tricks and videotape later, the Mobbed Mafia is still skating.

“We can’t get out like we used to. We’re not in high school. There’s the real world,” Bonen said. “It’s been difficult, but skating keeps us together.”

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Fire crews investigate the scene of an accident on Highway 30 less than a mile west of the Linn-Benton county line. The driver of the truck was sent to a hospital in Cedar Rapids for minor injuries after he rear-ended a slow moving tractor back hoe. (Spencer Willems/The Gazette)

Benton County authorities say that a lack of attention was behind a two vehicle crash on Highway 30 just west of the Linn-Benton county line.

A 22-year-old Mount Vernon man was headed east on Highway 30 when he rear-ended a slow moving back-hoe tractor with his truck at around 7:22 p.m. Friday.

Officials would not release the name of the Mount Vernon man, but said he was sent by ambulance to a Cedar Rapids hospital with minor injuries.

“Someone just wasn’t paying attention,” said Benton County Sheriff’s deputy John Lindaman. “Slow tractors have just as much a right to the road.”

The driver of the tractor, Dean Haerther, 43, of Atkins, was not injured.

The accident is still under investigation.

Dustin Lee loads the last of nearly 250,000 meals for transport to Haiti. Lee heads the Cedar Rapids chapter of Kids Against Hunger, and this is the second shipment of food his non-profit has raised for the earthquake relief effort. (Spencer Willems/The Gazette)

Dustin Lee found some time between running his two businesses and raising his three daughters to send a few meals to Haiti. Well, 249,480 meals to be exact.

The 35-year-old businessman started the Cedar Rapids chapter of Kids Against Hunger three-and-a-half years ago. Since then, Lee has lost track of the amount of food his non-profit has sent to impoverished communities in Nicaragua, Honduras, the Philippines, and of course, Haiti.

“I filed to form a 501 C-3, and before I know it, I’ve got an eight by eighteen trailer donated and fifteen volunteers,” Lee said. “It’s been an interesting ride.”

Lee’s and other Kids Against Hunger chapters throughout the state have been sending food to Haiti for years. And Lee says that while the memory of the tragic earthquake is starting to fade in most people’s minds, the need for nutrition and sustenance is as great as ever.

“We’re in this for the long haul,” Lee said. “Once (the earthquake) happened, there were a lot of people in Haiti, but hwere are they now? We’re not going away.”

This is the second truckload of meals Lee’s group has sent out since the island’s earthquake. The meals, a mix of soy, vitamins, rice and dried vegetables, are designed to literally reverse the affects of starvation and will go to Chicago by truck, and then to Miami by rail, where it will be taken into port in Haiti.

Lee says everything involved in his operation, from the food to the boxes they’re put in to the tape they use to seal it, is donated. When asked why people are so willing to give, to help others so far away, Lee points to his own reason.

“I started doing this because it’s exactly what I want to instill in my daughters: to give, not take,” Lee said. “I want to give back but not just through myself, but through my kids, and teaching them the value of helping others is important.”

When asked why helping others was important, Lee was at a loss for words.

“That’s a hard question to answer,” Lee said. “It’s just a value I treasure. Always have.”

Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, along with Linn County supervisors, break ground at the Linn County Community Services/Options of Linn County facility at 1240 26th Ave. Court SW Wednesday, May 12. It is the first county construction project to be built post-flood.

Lt. Gov. Patty Judge got her hands dirty at a groundbreaking ceremony early Wednesday afternoon at the site of the new Linn County Community Services/Options of Linn County building.

The hard hat was complimentary, but the shovel cost $5 million. To be fair, it was a golden shovel.

The new facility, which will house eight county agencies, many of whom were displace by the flood, and offer residents services ranging from veterans affairs to resources for those with mental and developmental disabilities.

It will be paid for in part by the $5 million in I-JOBS money awarded by Gov. Culver last June.

More than $7 million will come through FEMA to help cover the cost of the first county construction project built after the flood of 2008.

“This project is proof that we can rebuild stronger and smarter,” Judge said. “We are one-hundred percent committed to rebuilding efforts every single day and this project is a huge step forward.”

Originally, the cost of the 100,000 sq. ft. structure located at 1240 26th Ave. Court SW was expected to exceed $15 million. And as late as March, county supervisors were looking at a $3 million funding shortfall.

But Linn County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Linda Langston says that a combination of a surge of FEMA funding and a lower than expected bid-price will result in minimal costs to county tax payers.

“It took me a while to see there are silver linings in floods,” said Linda Langston, chairwoman of the Linn County Board of Supervisors. “This new facility is an example that government can do things well, effectively and efficiently.”

The contract for the building went to Principal, OPN Architects, Inc. And it will be built with local labor after supervisors unanimously passed a project labor agreement in February that sets wage standards for this public project.

“Tax payers will win with this project and local workers will win,” said supervisor Brent Oleson. “Of course, the people using these services, the most vulnerable in our community, are going to have a great facility.”

Langston said that work will begin sometime in June on a new juvenile court house, a $5 million facility which will also be built following a project labor agreement.

Over the next few years, the county will go through $40 million in flood-recovery related construction projects.

Fire fighters wrap up after putting out a closet fire at 2928 Meadowbrook Drive SE early Tuesday night. Fire officials say working smoke alarms helped saved the 84-year-old woman and two children from the fire.

Alvernia Franklin was watching two children on the ground floor of her 2928 Meadowbrook Drive SE home when she smelled smoke and heard smoke detectors sounding from the second floor.

Franklin, 84, promptly got the five-year-old girl and ten-month old girl under her care out of the home, just as fire crews began to arrive.

The fire broke out at around 5:37 p.m. Tuesday, May 11, in a walk in closet in the upstairs of the one-and-a-half floor house.

Fire fighters were able to knock the fire out quickly, limiting fire damage, but were unable to keep smoke from damaging most of the second floor.

Cedar Rapids Fire Department spokesman Greg Buelow said that this is the first fire of the year where working smoke alarms saved lives from a fire.

Buelow said that statistically, children under the age of five, and adults over the age of 65 are twice as likely to die in a fire.
He said that the working smoke alarms reduce people’s risk of death in a fire by 50-percent.

Representatives from the Red Cross were on scene to help the home’s nine residents with possible accommodations, but Buelow said the family is likely to move in with friends until the smoke damaged rooms on the second floor are fixed.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Emergency crews investigate a car crash on F Avenue NW that sent a woman and a three-year-old child to the hospital Tuesday afternoon.

Police officials say that a three year old child and a young woman were injured in an afternoon car crash at 19th Street and F Avenue NW.

The crash occurred at around 2:45 p.m. The child was riding in a mini-van with its mother, and was sent to St. Luke’s Hospital. The child’s mother was unharmed in the accident.

Fire crews had to extricate the female driver of the red vehicle in the crash.

Police would speak to the severity of the injuries and say the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Cedar Rapids Police Sgt. Jeremy Paulsen said that no one was hurt in the fight or by the gunshots at an apartment complex at 3930 21st Ave. Place SW, but that the two incidents were likely related.

Paulsen said there have been no arrests and no shell casings have been found and that police are still looking for the suspect gunman.

The incident is still under investigation.

An officer in the Cedar Rapids Police Department just got promoted, but not in Cedar Rapids.

Lt. Steven Feldmann became the Army’s newest one-star general in a Friday afternoon ceremony in Rock Island, Ill.

Brig. Gen. Feldmann, a Hopkinton native, of the Army Reserve, will serve as the deputy commanding general of operations for the region’s Army Sustainment Command.

According to a statement from military sources, Feldmann will be “responsible for ASC operations throughout Central Command’s area of operations and providing trained and ready Army Reserve Soldiers in support of mission requirements for the Army Materiel Command; the Defense Contract Management Agency; the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisitions, Logistics, and Technology; the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program; the Defense Logistics Agency; and the Army Contracting Command.”

Jagarius Bell

Just a day after suffering a gun shot wound to the hand in an April 29 drive-by, a Cedar Rapids teen was arrested for pistol-whipping a young woman.

According to Cedar Rapids police, Jagarius Bell, 18, of 1428 A St. SW, was involved in a dispute at Fifth Avenue and 14th Street on Tuesday, April 27, when he hit an 18-year-old woman with a silver colored pistol.

A warrant was put out for his arrest on Thursday, just hours before Bell was shot in the hand near the 1500 block of Washington Avenue SE.

Bell was taken to Mercy Hospital and then the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. UIHC notified Cedar Rapids police when Bell was released, and he was arrested at 1438 A Ave. NE Friday, April 30.

Officers say Bell was arrested without incident and he had no weapons on him at the time. Bell pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily injurly last summer, and now faces a charge for assault with a deadly weapon.

Bell is still being held in Linn County Jail on a $6,500 bond.

After completing a 40-month incarceration for felony drug charges, successful probationary period and substance abuse , a former Marion doctor will not be permitted to practice chiropractic medicine, at least, not for a while.
According to official meeting documents, Jeffrey Kopp’s application to be re-certified as a chiropractor was denied by Iowa Board of Chiropractic on April 28. The board declared that Kopp would have to reapply again if he wanted to be reinstated, which would be considered at the next board meeting in October.

Kopp lost his license after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to money launder on March 12, 2008.

Kopp, 55, moved to Iowa in 2005 and began a chiropractor practice in 2006. The documents say that Kopp and his family “experienced financial difficulties” after their arrival and that the doctor became involved in drug trafficking to make ends meet.

In 2006, Kpp “was in the midst of losing his home in Iowa due to his financial circumstances. (Kopp) agreed to receive two trucks with 600 pounds of marijuana packed in them… (Kopp) received a Fed Ex package at his Marion, Iowa chiropractic office containing $40,000 in cash as payment for the marijuana delivery.”

Kopp was arrested near the border of North Dakota and Canada and ultimately, he and four others were found guilty of moving more than 8,000 pounds of marijuana worth more than $3.5 million in a period of just two years.

Amid his criminal charges, Kopp lost his chiropractic certification in November, 2009.

The board declined to reinstate his license saying that “the basis for the indefinite suspension of (Kopp)’s license no longer exists or that it is in the public interest for his license to be reinstated at this time.”

Furthermore, the board said that if financial difficulties were the cause of the criminal and unethical behavior, they were not convinced that Kopp would violate the law again.

Bryar William James Byrne, 18

After getting arrested Tuesday for his suspected involvement in a tobacco store robbery, Bryar Byrne now faces three charges for first degree robbery on two seperate incidents.

Police say that Byrne, 18, of 165 Westview Dr. NW, was one of two men who entered the Tobacco Point at 1545 First Ave. NE on Nov. 5, 2009 carrying a gun and a club. According to authorities, the two suspects struck the store clerk in the face with a gun and then made off with some liquor. Byrne was charged with first degree robbery on May 4.

On Wednesday, May 5, Byrne was charged with two counts of first degree robbery for a bank job back in March. Police say Byrne was the lone robber who entered the US Bank at 3401 Mount Vernon Road SE at around 10:37 a.m. on March 15 and displayed a handgun.

Byrne is being held in Linn County Jail on $25,000 bond for the November charge and is awaiting a court appearance for the two charges stemming from the March bank robbery.

Cpl. Brett Edward Stout

Cpl. Brett Edward Stout, doesn’t take his position as an activist lightly.

Stout, 31, a Cedar Rapids native and gay rights advocate says the feedback he’s gotten from others after sharing his story has hardened his resolve to keep fighting so other gay men and women can fight for their country.

“It’s saddening, getting all these e-mails and messages from people saying ‘this happened to me too,’” Stout said. “But it’s an honor to be able to lead the work for others that can’t do it for themselves.”

Stout joined the Marines in 1997 and served for five years as a Russian cryptologist and linguist. But by the end of his term, he chose not to re-enlist: he’s gay and federal law says he is unfit to serve his country.

“I didn’t re-enlist because I was professionally at dispute with the

‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy,” Stout said. “It interfered with my integrity.”

Stout will join other gay former service members outside the White House today to demand that President Barack Obama repeal the 17-year old policy, which has required officials to discharge gay service members.

On Friday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates released a letter asking that no change in policy be made until it received proper study.

“Veterans and those still serving find the idea of a yearlong study highly offensive,” Stout said. “They need a yearlong study to prove how my service will not harm my country?”

While many see the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy as sitting on the

periphery of the gay rights movement, Stout said he couldn’t disagree more.

He said he thinks a federal mandate that says gay men and women are not American enough to serve their country is a greater affront than not being able to marry.

“This law inherently states that gays are unfit to serve … they don’t have the qualities of good Americans,” Stout said. “We need to show people that we are honorable people and can serve honorably.”

Power was rerouted and crews look to determine the cause of the outage.

After stealing a Jeep Cherokee from a ramp in downtown Iowa City, a suspect eluded four law enforcement agencies in a high speed pursuit throughout Johnson County late Friday night.

The incident began at 10:40 p.m. when University Heights Police officers signaled the vehicle to stop on Melrose Avenue, near Olive Court, for speeding.

The suspect did not oblige.

Instead, he led officers on a pursuit that went through Iowa City on Burlington Street and Muscatine Avenue, all the way into unincorporated Johnson County on American Legion Road, reaching speeds of up to 80 m.p.h.

Officers with the Iowa City police were able to deflate both passenger side tires with stop sticks, which partially disabled the vehicle.

The deflated tires prompted the driver of the Jeep to stop abruptly, shift in to reverse, and ram a pursuing University Heights police car in an attempt to disable it.
The driver then fled the scene of the collision on foot. Officers were unable to find him, even with the help of a K-9 unit.

University Heights Police were unavailable for comment, but Sgt. Mike Lord of the Iowa City Police Department confirmed that the suspect was still at large.

The suspect is described as a white male between the ages of 16 and 22, standing around six feet tall and weighing anywhere from 150 to 180 pounds,

Iowa State Patrol troopers say that Hannah Hoech, of St. Louis, was headed northbound at around 1:51 p.m. when her vehicle entered the median. Hoech tried to re-enter the roadway, lost control of her Honda, and rolled until her vehicle came to rest on the inside shoulder.

Hoechwas wearing her seat belt  at the time of the accident. She was taken to Henry County Hospital and the crash is still under investigation.

The council last night voted 6 to 1 in favor during the first reading of a proposed ordinance that would eliminate panhandling on the Pedestrian Mall, save for a small area, as well as require solicitors to stay 20 feet away from ATMs and 10 feet from mobile vendors.

City law already restricts panhandling within 10 feet of downtown building entrances, but the new proposal would also ban any solicitations within 10 feet of a building and within 15 feet of crosswalks.

Mayor Matt Hayek called the ordinance a “sensible approach” to complaints by downtown businesses whose owners say panhandlers are adversely affecting their business and dissuading potential customers from coming downtown.

“This ordinance does an excellent job at being sensitive to the importance of the balance between the rights of pedestrians downtown with individuals’ rights to freedom of assembly,” Hayek said.

The city’s Downtown Association supports the new ordinance, though it had been lobbying for a greater crackdown on solicitors since the fall of last November.

Council member Mike Wright called the ordinance “mean-spirited and small” and cast the lone dissenting vote.

The ordinance “is anti-poor,” Wright said. “This represents a spirit of meanness … one that denies that the poor are with us.”

The ordinance was discussed by the council during a work session Monday night and will have to go through two more readings before it can go into effect, which would be in June.

In other business, the city council voted unanimously to hire Slavin Management Consultants to lead the search for a new city manager.

Iowa City fired former city manager Michael Lombardo in April of 2009 after he’d been on the job for less than a year.

The Riverside Roundhouse was dismantled by construction crews today.

A longtime fixture in Czech Village, the roundhouse was used for farmers markets from the time it was built for that purpose in 1962 until 2007.

The building was flooded along with the museum and the rest of Czech Village in 2008. The Czech Village Association dismantled the building, and plans to erect it elsewhere in the village.

Construction crews dismantle the remains of the old Roundhouse in Czech Village. The historic building was damaged during the flood of 2008 but community activists hope to rebuild it in the future. (Spencer Willems/The Gazette)

Construction crews dismantle the remains of the old Roundhouse in Czech Village. The historic building was damaged during the flood of 2008 but community activists hope to rebuild it in the future. (Spencer Willems/The Gazette)

Construction crews dismantle the remains of the old Roundhouse in Czech Village. The historic building was damaged during the flood of 2008 but community activists hope to rebuild it in the future. (Spencer Willems/The Gazette)

Thomas Sloben.

After a two hour search, Cedar Rapids police officers finally caught up with a stabbing suspect from earlier Thursday night. He was sitting at a bar.

Thomas Sloben, 47, formerly of 1791 16th Ave. SW, was arrested at around 8:30 p.m. when officers spotted a gray Oldsmobile parked outside the Next Door, a bar in the 1700 block of 16th Avenue SW.

He was taken to Linn County Jail and charged with Willful Injury.

According to Sgt. Wybe of the Cedar Rapids police, Sloben is suspected of being the man who stabbed another Cedar Rapids man in an apartment parking lot in the 5200 block of Johnson Avenue at around 5:55 p.m.

The victim was stabbed underneath the right arm pit and taken to Mercy Hospital for serious but non life-threatening injuries.

According to earlier reports, the suspect fled the scene in a gray Oldsmobile.

Wybe said the incident is still under investigation.

After community feedback sessions and three open houses with the public, the city’s Planning Commission has gotten hundreds of comments from residents about the future of Cedar Rapids.

Making sense of so many competing visions of the city can, however, make things complicated.

“When you have more than seven people involved,” said Brad Larson, a development planner with the city, “no one’s going to agree on everything.”

But Larson said that after a six months of feedback, a general consensus is starting to take shape.

“They want more connectivity, they want the city to be more pedestrian-friendly and high-quality design,” he said.

In February, Larson and other city officials presented three models Cedar Rapids could follow.

The “automotive city” would keep cars and transportation as the central driver of how the city would operate in the future, encouraging sprawling, low-density development. That’s what Cedar Rapids is now.

A “traditional city” approach would encourage more pedestrian mobility and mixed land usage, while a “green city” approach stresses a more dense development that leaves more room for parks and green space.

So far, Larson said, the community is trending toward a hybrid of the traditional and green models.

“We’ve synthesized (community feedback) into common strategies to give us a hybrid approach,” Larson said.

He said the new visioning won’t inhibit future development; rather, city officials will incorporate the vision into existing ordinances and standards.

He also said it will take some time before residents start to see these visions pulled from the ether and put into practice. Before that can happen, the commission will put its findings to the City Council for their consideration come this summer.

The meeting will happen on Tuesday, April 27, from noon to 1 p.m. at the lower level conference room at Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust, at 505 First Ave. NE.

The meeting will address the new Parking Strategic Action Plan, which, among other things, would transfer parking management from the city to the Cedar Rapids Downtown District.

Funded through a combination of federal, state and local tax revenues, the city will work to add stoplights and lanes throughout Highway 965 and to rework west Forevergreen Road.

While the latter will be closed at times during construction, officials say the highway will be well marked with alternative routes and detours.

Starting Oct. 1, employees of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield will not be allowed to smoke during the work day.

Officials for the company announced the new directive Wednesday and say it is just one more step in an ongoing wellness campaign to promote better health among employees.

“We’re a health insurer, we know first hand the difference it makes to the bottom line when employees practice healthy behavior,” said spokesperson Rob Schweers. “We’re always looking for more ways to promote a healthier workplace.”

While the 1800 Iowans working for the health insurer have had to smoke 100 feet away from the company properties, they will not be allowed to smoke during breaks or when they go out for lunch. Coming back to work smelling like smoke could lead to trouble for employees, but Schweers said he doesn’t know what kind of trouble that will be.

“We’re not trying to be Big Brother to our employees… We’re not focused on punishment,” Schweer said. “Eventually there would be some disciplinary action if people continue to smoke but that’s not our focus with this policy.”

Schweer said the company set the policy so far in advance to give employees the chance to prepare. Schweer also said that the company will help employees and their families find medical attention and counseling if they want to quit smoking.

“If I’m a smoker and my wife is a smoker, it’s harder to quit when you’re coming home to that environment,” Schweer said. “We want to extend those resources to the entire family.”

Schweer said that this move may be a surprise to employees who smoke but that it makes sense given their job.

“For health care organizations, we’ve always been out a little bit in front in terms of curtailing smoking,” Schweer said. ”We need to set an example and that’s our mission.”

James Bentley

The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that James Bentley will serve out his 25-year sentence in prison for second-degree sexual abuse.

Bentley, 38, of Vinton, was found guilty in Benton County Court on Aug. 1, 2008, and sentenced to 25 years in prison as well as parole for life for his involvement in the abuse of ten-year-old Jetseta Gage.

Bentley’s attorneys were partially successful in their appeal. The state judges agreed Wednesday that the lifetime parole statute could not apply retroactively to Bentley’s case and was dismissed.

Bentley is also facing a 100-year prison sentence for federal child pornography charges involving Jetseta Gage and her then 13-month-old sister. Bentley’s appeal of those charges were denied by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in April of 2009.

Bentley’s brother Roger is serving a life-sentence for the murder of Jetseta Gage while his nephew Daryl, 26, is serving a ten-year sentence for third-degree sexual abuse.

Kari Lynn Cantrell, 30, received the judgment in court on Thursday, April 15, and Judge Patrick R. Grady ruled that Cantrell would be under probation for 3 years and that she may serve up to a whole year in a correctional facility.

Cantrell was an administrative assistant for the City of Vinton’s Parks and Recreation Department until Aug. 30, 2007, when city officials found that city checks were being redeemed at local gas stations.

Cantrell admitted that she stole $10,001 and plead guilty to first degree theft charges.

She is expected to pay for court costs as well as pay $1,201.63 in restitution to the City of Vinton.

Cedar Rapids wood artist Jeff Heitt talks to guests at the first annual New Bohemia CRecycle Eco Art Fest in New Boho Saturday afternoon. Three of Heitt's six displays' were worked out of wood recovered from the flood of 2008.

Jeff Heitt enjoys hiking the trails at the Indian Creek Nature Center.

Others walk for health and leisure, but Heitt hikes with a watchful eye. He’s looking for good wood.

‘Working with wood requires lots of patience,’ Heitt said. ‘You have to go with the flow of the wood, with the grain . . .

if you had something in mind when you started you have to be willing to adapt.’ Using a hatchet and a chisel, Heitt hews art out of fallen trees. He puts hundreds of hours of hard, sweaty and detailed work into dead or dying pieces of wood and brings them back to life as abstract art.

‘Three of these projects washed up in the creek after the flood,’ Heitt said. ‘They used to be in someone’s yard, someone’s home.’ The act of recovery through art carried the day in New Bohemia on Saturday as artists, environmentalists and neighbors merged to celebrate the city’s annual CREco-Art Fest.

‘Following a disaster like (the flood), we wanted to do something to celebrate the renewal, the revitalization and the recovery we’re going through here,’ said Jim Jacobmeyer, the director of the New Bohemia Group. ‘This event fits where we’re at both physically and mentally (as a community).’ Jacobmeyer said more than 60 artists and vendors displayed more than 300 different pieces during an event that required entries to be made with at least 75-percent recyclable or recovered materials.

A carpenter by trade, Todd Sabin used wood recovered from the flood damaged restaurant Becketts along with old gears and plumbing fixtures to build a 15-footlong airplane propeller.

Sabin split open his hand with a circular chain saw while working on the piece, but that wasn’t enough to stop him. ‘Within three days of surgery I was back at it,’ Sabin said. ‘I had to finish it with seven fingers … but it’s worth it.’ Beyond art, organizers said the daylong celebration is meant to honor the upcoming 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Workshops and seminars on greener living, along with a variety of eco-art and fashion installations were spread throughout the New Boho community and gave the public a moment to interact with and reflect on the idea of greener living.

‘If anything, days like today reconfirm your commitment to the environment,’ Jacobmeyer said. ‘It’s something you have to think about every time you throw something away or fill up your gas tank.’

(Spencer Willems/The Gazette)

At around 7:30 p.m. Friday, a white minivan driving south attempted to pass a slow moving truck carrying lumber in the no-passing zone on Highway 1 about 3 miles north of Kalona. The driver lost control and rolled into the eastern ditch.

Sgt. Sharon Kurt of the Iowa State Patrol said the van was carrying eight people, six of which were rushed to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City with non-life threatening injuries.

Both the driver and front passenger had to be extracted by firefighters from Kalona and Wellman. The driver, a 33 year-old female, was air lifted to UIHC but Sgt. Kurt said her injuries were not life threatening. The accident is still under investigation.

Animal Control authorities and onlookers stood by helplessly as an American Bulldog teetered dangerously over the edge of a third floor deck at 110 16th St. NE.

According to Cedar Rapids Animal Control workers, the female bulldog had squeezed through some loose boards of the patio and was stranded on the fringe of the deck for around 40 minutes Friday afternoon.

Animal Control officials were finally able to reach the animal’s owner and he was able to get the dog away from the edge.

The owner does not face any negligence charges for the incident and was unreachable for comment. The unnamed dog was said to be in good condition by animal control crews at the house.

The driver of the truck was not injured in the incident, but another contractor told emergency responders that he had been indirectly electrocuted by the downed power line. Cedar Rapids Fire Department Capt. Mike Fredericks said he did not know the extent of the man’s injuries, but that the man had been taken by ambulance for treatment at a local hospital.

Fredericks said that a dump truck working on the new overpass at Edgewood Road just south of the General Mills plant was raising its back load when it clipped the line at around 6:30 p.m.

When police and firefighters arrived they found the driver still inside the truck was uninjured, and told him to wait there until crews from Alliant Energy could confirm that the area was safe. The other man who had been taken to the hospital did not come into direct contact with the line, but that the wet clay he was standing on conducted the shock.

“A strong current of electricity can do some serious damage,” Fredericks said.

Officials said that the power outage, which affected 898 people, knocking out traffic lights all the way to 29th St. SW.

As of 8:30 p.m., crews had rerouted power to all but 20 customers, and say that it will be midnight before crews can restore power to those last 20.

Producer Rod Duggan, right, gives directions to the dozen artists at Rife Recording Studio in Marion to record vocals on the reprise for the compilation CD titled "We're Comin' Back" on Saturday, April 10, 2010. Local artists contributed 16 songs for the benefit with proceeds going to Flood Them with Love, which helps families impacted by the floods of 2008. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Making music is often a lonely act. The melody, the meaning, and the feeling are personal and come from within the maker.

But sometimes, musicians come together to share the same melody, the same meaning and the same feeling and create something greater than the sum of their parts.

Almost two years after water spilled over the banks of the Cedar, displacing families, destroying entire neighborhoods, and redefining the very face and feel of the city, some Cedar Rapids musicians have banded together to do their part in rebuilding.

Featuring over a dozen area musicians performing on sixteen songs, “We’re Coming Back” explores the damage done by the flood, but also, evokes the hope of a community trying to bounce back.

“We are musicians,” said Lori Blattner, 44, who sings and plays guitar. “Making this record is the one thing we can do.”

The idea for this album, one that has brought some of the most talented area players and engineers together, started on a blank piece of paper in Blattner’s second-floor apartment in southwest Cedar Rapids.

“We were the first ones back,” Blattner said. “There were no lights, no electricity, it smelled, it was dirty … and there was no one around.”

One night in September of 2008, Blattner started writing. In less than an hour, she had two songs, a small spark. Then an employee at Stars Guitars in northeast Cedar Rapids, Blattner knew a few musicians, and the spark caught on like wildfire.

Craig Erickson fanned those flames. A manager at the Music Loft store and studio, he watched the flood take his home, his work, and thousands of dollars worth of equipment and instruments. The Cedar Rapids native and guitarist played at the clubs and bars that met the same fate as his shop and for him, “We’re Coming Back” was a way to remember what was lost.

“People forget about disasters like this. They need reminders,” Erickson said. “Artists and musicians, we can translate the depth of the disaster into something that reaches beyond their head and touches their heart.”

Two years after the flood and more than 200 hours spent recording, mastering and mixing the new album volunteered by Kevin Rife at his home recording studio in Marion, “We’re Coming Back” will go on sale in June over iTunes, Best Buy and at Barnes and Nobles.

The proceeds are going to Flood Them With Love to help the organization get money directly to those flood victims who need it most.

“Music is emotion in sound,” said Karla Goettel, founder and director of Flood Them With Love. “We need to touch people emotionally and make them realize how much suffering is going on in their community.”

Added Goettel: “It will take the whole community to make us whole again.”

The musicians and producers behind “We’re Coming Back” plan on putting on a benefit concert on June 12 in Cedar Rapids to commemorate the two year anniversary of the flood.

Photo by Fayette County Sheriff’s Department

After taking his lawn mower out for the first time this year, a rural Fayette county man went inside for a cold pop and came back outside to see his garage was on fire.

Volunteer firefighters from Clermont and Elgin arrived to the rural residence on Eagle Road just north of Clermont at around 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 14 to find a garage fully engulfed in flames.

It took firefighters two hours to put out the fire and make sure it didn’t spread to the attached residence.

Clermont Fire Chief Randy Wiedenhoff said that no one was hurt, but that the fire claimed more than $20,000 worth of tools and totaled roughly $35,000 in damages.

Wiedenhoff said that the lawn mower was parked in the garage and that a fuel leak or even a mouse nest inside the machine caused the fire.

No one was injured.

Traffic slows along Collins Road NE at the First Ave interstection due to construction work on Wednesday, April 14, 2010. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

For commuters making their way through the intersection at First Avenue and Collins Road, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Engineers and contractors involved in the construction at the city’s busiest intersection say it will likely take two years before the last orange cone gets pulled to the curb.

Jeffrey Morrow of Anderson-Bogert Engineers & Surveyors Inc. said that even though the roads will remain open, traffic may be reduced to single lanes at points along the popular thoroughfare.

“This process is a lot like going to the dentist,” Morrow said. “It’s not fun. For anyone. But it has to be done.”

It’s a costly trip to the dentist, with a total price tag of around $7.5 million, but most of that money is coming through federal and state funding.

Among the plans are left-hand turn lanes and right-hand committed lanes all throughout the intersection, which Morrow said will cut down on traffic blockages and increase safety.

Beyond that, sections of First Avenue from 40th Street to Tama Street will be raised three feet, and developers will include comprehensive sidewalks and green space on the newly worked properties.

“The city insisted on adding green space, on streetscaping, when we planned this project,” Morrow said.

Morrow said the areas will open back up to traffic during the holiday shopping season.

Eugene Kula says he did not expect his afternoon to get so “hectic.”

The Jones County farmer spent Tuesday afternoon watching as area fire fighters battled a fire at his property at 18437, 120th St., just east of Anamosa.

Kula had been burning bags of garbage early in the afternoon and went back into the house for lunch when he thought it was done burning.
At around 2 p.m., westward winds picked up and blew the controlled burn into a nearby pile of debris and an old barn.

Firefighters from Anamosa, Olin and Martelle had to rotate seven tankers in and out of Anamosa to get water.

Anamosa Fire Chief John Swisher said that no one was injured and that they were able to save the old barn.

Swisher also said that what happened with Kula’s controlled burn is pretty common and that people should be mindful of the elements because “winds can change quick.”

The one-time state senator from Clarence was the first of the Senate hopefuls to speak. Fiegen, who is one of three Democrats vying to take on Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in November’s election, said the five-term Republican incumbent no longer has the trust of Iowans.

Fiegen then took a swipe at what polls have indicated is the primary’s front-runner, Roxanne Conlin.

‘Can you trust a candidate who says I will take no money from lobbyists … then from Federal lobbyists … then just my friends?’ Fiegen asked an audience of more than 200 area Democrats, including Gov. Chet Culver. ‘Can you trust someone who is saying one thing, doing another?’ Fiegen then got more direct and said that Conlin had promised to have a debate with him and former state representative Bob Krause, but has gone back on her word.

‘I don’t know any farmer who would buy a bull from (Conlin),’ Fiegen said.

Conlin spoke next and was quick to counter: ‘Fortunately, I’m not selling bull,’ said Conlin, a Des Moines attorney. ‘What was said was plainly not true and I’m shocked.’ Conlin went on to welcome the debate and said that after a career spent arguing in court, she would have no problem presenting her record and her views on the issues to the public.

Conlin then spoke out against Grassley’s voting record and her general dissatisfaction with Washington.

‘I’m fed up with endless wars, fed up with tax breaks for the wealthy,’ Conlin said. ‘I’m fed up with the war on organized labor in this country.’ Three days after a Republican gubernatorial debate in Sioux City, Culver stumped on the state’s relatively sound finances, its growth in alternative energy and his and other Democrats’ efforts to bolster Iowa’s economy through the IJOBS program.

‘Most states are stuck, struggling,’ Culver said during the evening’s opening remarks. ‘We are not … Iowa is on the way to a new period of greatness.’ Culver warned fellow Democrats that a Republican in the governor’s mansion would undo the past 12 years of progress made by Democratic executives.

‘Do we want to build on this progress? Or go backward?’ Culver asked. ‘With the Republicans, it’s the same old tired rhetoric. Iowans are beyond that.’ Earlier in the day, Culver signed legislation at Ellis Harbor.

Incumbent 2nd District Rep.

Dave Loebsack, Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston, Secretary of Agriculture candidate Francis Thike and Senate candidate Bob Krause also spoke at the event, which honored party members Doris Peick and Dick and Janice Taylor.

The students said they assembled in order to voice their frustration with the newest wave of cost cutting actions by school administrators, which could leave nine more Washington teachers unemployed at the end of the school year.

“We knew that some of our teachers were getting cut,” said Ethan Black, a junior at Washington High School, and one of the sit-in’s organizers. “We understand it’s a budget thing … but we at least want to make them know we aren’t happy about it.”

During the past two weeks, Washington School District’s interim Superintendent Dave Sextro has handed out 12 severance notices to teachers in the district’s four schools, mostly in arts, music and physical education positions.

Sextro says that he had seen this move coming for some time and it was necessary to keep the district’s funds solvent.

“This funding issue is the worst I’ve ever seen, the worst in my career,” Sextro said. “I was called here to straighten out the budget … that’s why I may have to lay people off.”

When Sextro, 69, arrived as interim Superintendent in 2008, he inherite a district that had overspent its budget authority by roughly $140,000. Two years later, Sextro says the combination of state funding cuts, declining enrollment and inflexible posturing by the district’s teachers union leaves him few options to bridge a near-$1 million shortfall.

“You cannot lose eleven and half percent of your budget without either having to cut staff and raise taxes and we’ve done both.”

Suzy Card, a union representative with the Washington Teachers Association, said that isn’t good enough.

In a district of 142 teachers, Card said cutting 12 educators is a short term solution to a larger problem.

“(Sextro) is very eager to get rid of some very good teachers and will be passing on bigger class sizes for everyone,” she said.

School officials and the teachers’ union are currently locked in contract negotiations that are likely to move on to arbitration, and Card said Sextro gave out the severance notices as a bargaining tactic.

“They want to body bargain … if you settle for this, we won’t cut people,” Card said. “But there’s nothing to stop them from turning around and cutting them anyway.”

Sextro said that he hopes to be able to reinstate some, if not all of the teachers that have been notified that the board might not renew their contracts. But for that to happen, he said the pay raises the teacher’s group wants will have to come down.

“Bottom line, we have to settle negotiations.”

Tim Davis

A Cedar Rapids Police officer is up for a national honor but needs help from the public if he’s going to get it.

Officer Tim Davis suffered a serious brain injury after he was beaten with a pistol while responding to a burglary and assault on March 29, 2009.
His actions have earned him a nomination for the All Star Award, which is sponsored by America’s Most Wanted.

If he won, the Cedar Rapids public servant would win a trip for two to North Carolina and a check for $10,000.

You can support Davis’ nomination by voting at: www.amw.com/allstar

Marie Yancey, Roxanna Hayes

Police arrested two women Wednesday, April 7 after conducting an undercover investigation at Happy Hour Massage Wednesday, located at 725 First Ave. SW.

Roxanne Hayes, 44 and Marie Yancey, 34, were arrested at the business, which is also their residence.

Hayes was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.

Yancey was charged with possession of marijuana and for prostitution.

One third of the ceiling of a classroom at Anamosa's West Middle School fell on Monday January 4, 2010.

Even after a classroom ceiling collapsed at West Middle School on Jan. 4, 2010, voters in the Anamosa School District voted down a bond issue that would have funded the construction of a new facility.

The bond referendum required a 60 percent majority to pass and fell short, with 1,046 (49 percent) voting in favor of the measure and 1,084 (51 percent) voting against it.

This is the second time the bond issue failed in Anamosa, when voters in favor were only able to garner 54 percent of the vote in April of 2009.

If it had passed, the bond issue would have allowed the district to raise $15.1 million for a new middle school that could have housed 450 students in grades five through eight.

Jones County Auditor Arnie Andreeson said the measure would have raised property taxes $190 for every $100,000 of residential property.

Marty Davis

A kayaker found a body in the Coralville Lake early Friday afternoon authorities say could be the remains of a missing snowmobiler.

Martin “Marty” Davis, 52, of rural Cedar Rapids, was last seen by his girlfriend on Jan. 3, 2010 when he had told her that he was going out for a ride on his snowmobile. Area law enforcement, partnered with dozens of volunteers, spent days searching the fields and ditches in the Coralville Lake area, but found nothing.

Authorities and family had worried that Davis’ snowmobile had fallen through the ice.

Johnson County Sheriff’s deputies say the body was found approximately half a mile east of the Mid River Marina on the reservoir’s south shore at around 1:30 p.m., not far from where a fisherman had found a snowmobiler’s helmet on March 15 that family members later confirmed belonged to Davis.

Since then, Johnson County Sheriff’s deputies have been using sonar and drag equipment, as well as cold water dive teams to search for the missing Davis, but had said that if Davis’ snowmobile had gone through the ice in January, the Linn County man’s body wouldn’t surface until the waters got warmer.

Authorities stress it is impossible to identify the deceased until after an autopsy, which is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, April 4, in Des Moines.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said in a statement that the Davis family does not want to comment to the public at this time.

Hagen

A former truck driver faces at least ten years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty earlier today to transporting a minor across state lines in order to have unlawful sexual activity with her.

Brandin Hagen, 28, of Fredericksburg, was arrested by the Chickasaw County Sheriff in January and was charged with four counts of sex with a minor. He was later charged with federal charges after investigators discovered he had taken a minor to Bonner Springs, Kansas, for the sake of sexual acts.

Judge Jon Scoles accepted Hagen’s plea at the Federal Courthouse in Cedar Rapids and Hagen will await sentencing in the custody of U.S. Marshals.

Such a charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years but could result in life imprisonment with no parole.

Previously only open three days a week, the museum’s galleries will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

The museum’s Linge Research Library will operate under the same hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and will be available by appointment only on both Wednesday and Friday.

To find out more about the museum located at 615 First Avenue SE, go to www.historycenter.org or call them at (319) 362-1501.