The School Board will vote whether put the building on the market at its Dec. 6 meeting.

The future of the building, which will no longer be used as an elementary school after this school year, has been controversial. Several options were explored, including repurposing, subdividing and leaving the building vacant, but no conclusive decisions have been made.

Listing the property will give the committee an idea of how much the building is worth and attract potential buyers.

“The next step is to put it on the market,” Murley said. “We have a public service announcement going out in the Corridor Business Journal asking if anyone is interested in repurposing the building and telling them to contact the school district directly.”

It would cost the school district a minimum of $46,000 annually to keep the building unoccupied, according to a report presented at the meeting. Current operating costs are about $138,000.

“If we were to use it, those costs would go up,” Murley said.

In other news, members of a steering committee that will explore the need and feasibility of building a fourth high school in Iowa City, have been named.

The committee will be made up of the three high school principals, the three junior high principals, two high school teachers, one from City High and one from West High, and two guidance councilors, one from City High and one from West High. The committee will be led by Ann Feldmann.

It is unclear how much a new facility may cost, how many students it should be able to hold and if the school district can afford a fourth high school.

“At this point we can’t take any options off the table” School Board member Patti Fields said.

The steering committee will report to Steve Murley before reporting to the facilities committee.

“We will be able to come back to you and say this is what (a fourth high school) may cost,” Murley said.

Written by: Alesha L Crews

Iowa City Press-Citizen

November 22, 2011

The West High sophomore was inside the building for less than 30 seconds, but still long enough for several shots to ring out.

In this scenario, the bullets were fake and the shooter, hostages and other civilians were played by members of the Coralville Police Department’s Emergency Response Team. But, the adrenaline pumping through Currier’s veins was real.

“It felt like it was longer than 20 seconds,” Currier said. “You had to make a decision in under a second.”

That realism is exactly what the ERT squad’s leader, Lt. Shane Kron, was going for with the exercise. In order to get an idea of what it’s like to be a police officer, you have to feel the pressure of those split-second decisions, he said.

Currier was one of about 25 area high school students who participated in a mini police academy at and around Coralville City Hall. The academy was the result of an ongoing partnership between the Coralville Police Department and Kirkwood Community College’s Workplace Learning Connection program. The program connects high school students with job shadows and internships in careers of interest to the students.

Coralville Community Relations Officer Hanna Dvorak said the Coralville Police Department has been putting on the academy since 2006. Dvorak said the one-day course was essentially a condensed version of the longer Citizen’s Police Academy put on by area law enforcement agencies each year. The academy gives participants a look at “life behind the b

adge,” Dvorak said.

“They can decide if they want to do that as a career,” she said.

Topics covered include K9s, Tasers, the detective bureau, drunken driving enforcement, the bomb squad and the ERT. Each topic is presented by a Coralville police officer.

City High junior Caitlin Caris said she volunteered for the day-long academy out of curiosity about a career in law enforcement or a related field. Caris said she found the course to be informative.

“I didn’t know about Tasers and all that jazz,” she said.

The topics did manage to touch on traditional scholastic topics such as physics and anatomy. Doug Roling, the departm

ent’s bomb technician and Taser instructor, dispelled Taser myths and gave students insight onto how Tasers affec

t the human body. The talk was accompanied by videos showing Taser use, including a rather large, agitated man who is brought under control with the use of a Taser.

“He becomes very compliant after he’s Tased,” Roling notes. “Notice how he apologizes to the officers.”

Dvorak and Coralville Police Chief Barry Bedford said the course is useful both to the department and the public as it helps to establish positive relationships. Bedford also noted that many of the mini academy’s participants are at and age when they can make poor decisions that can haunt them later in life.

“If we can do a little something to help them make good choices and maybe attract good people into this career, I think it’s a benefit to all of us,” he said.

Written by: Lee Hermiston

Iowa City Press-Citizen

The United States put a hold on a November deposit of $60 million into the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization accounts after Palestine was admitted as the 195th member state of the organization on Monday, according to a press briefing by the U.S. State Department.

“What we’ve been advised is that the U.S. can still hold the membership in UNESCO for at least two years [without funding the organization],” said Jeanette Pilak, the executive director of Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature. “In that time, if there is a scenario where the United States loses that membership, we are not aware of any reason that a creative city would lose its title [as a UNESCO City of Literature].”

Christopher Merrill, the director of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, said Iowa City will not be financially affected by the funding cut.

“In my conversations with the State Department and the national commission of UNESCO … [the fund cut] doesn’t have any bearing [on Iowa City],” said Merrill, who was a part of the original proposal for the designation. “Iowa City doesn’t receive any money from UNESCO.”

He said the Iowa City office is funded by both public and private sources.

Hugh Ferrer, the associate director of IWP, said that overall, virtually no changes will be made in the Iowa City office.

“If, in two years’ time, the U.S. federal government withdraws its membership and divorces itself from [UNESCO], then Iowa City may find itself in an odd position,” Ferrer said. “For Iowa City, nothing has changed. For UNESCO, a big thing has changed.”

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland stated in a press briefing on Monday that due to “long-standing legislative restrictions,” the United States must refrain from financially contributing to UNESCO as a result of Palestine’s admittance.

“U.S. engagement with UNESCO serves a wide range of our national interests on education, science, culture, and communications issues,” she said. “The United States will maintain its membership in and commitment to UNESCO, and we will consult with Congress to ensure that U.S. interests and influence are preserved.”

Iowa City was selected in November 2008 to be the third of the now five UNESCO Cities of Literature.

According to the UNESCO website, Iowa City was selected due to the city’s “thriving literary culture” and renowned reputation as home to famous writers such as Flannery O’Connor, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and Wallace Stegner.

The UNESCO Cities of Literature are part of a network of Creative Cities located across the globe. Iowa City and Santa Fe, N.M., are the only two cities in the network located in the United States.

Written by: Mary Kate Knorr

The Daily Iowan

November 2 2011

Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette

Counting 12 that have been standing for 100 years or more and many others well exceeding a typical lifespan, dozens of Johnson County’s bridges are showing their age and in need of millions of dollars of maintenance and replacement work.

Nearly one in eight bridges in Johnson County is considered structurally deficient under federal standards, and though that is slightly worse than the national average, local bridges are in better shape than those of the state as a whole.

According to appraisals culled from Federal Highway Administration records, 46 of the 360 bridges in Johnson County, or 12.8 percent, have substantial defects in their support structure or deck that in some cases limits the size or number of the vehicles that can pass at a time.

For Iowa, which ranks as the third worst state in the nation in terms of bridge conditions, 5,371 of its 24,722 bridges, or 21.7 percent, have been deemed structurally deficient — a federal term for bridges needing significant maintenance attention, rehabilitation or replacement. The national average is 11.5 percent.

A bridge rated as structurally deficient does not mean it is unsafe for travel for the public, officials say. According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, the classification is used to identify structures needing significant work to remain in service, and that often requires posted weight limits to lessen the strain.

Johnson County Supervisor Terrence Neuzil said locally and statewide, many bridges were built during the push to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure after World War II, and with each year that passes, maintenance burdens increase.

“We’re getting to 50 and 60 years, and bridges last 50 and 60 years. That’s a real problem,” Neuzil said.

The total estimated costs associated with improving the deficient bridges in Johnson County would be at least $12.4 million, according to records. Five of the deficient bridges did not have an improvement estimate listed with their records, meaning the total would be greater.

Johnson County Engineer Greg Parker said the county typically aims to undertake two bridge projects a year and is currently ramping up for a $4 million, two-year rebuild of Mehaffey Bridge, one of 34 county-owned bridges that are structurally deficient.

“Johnson County is in a little better shape than some other counties in Iowa from a bridge replacement standpoint,” Parker said. “… Certainly there is not enough money to go around to do the replacements that I see from an engineering standpoint.”

Mehaffey Bridge, a 550-foot span that crosses the Iowa River between North Liberty and Solon, was built in 1963 and handles 3,490 vehicles a day, according to a 2006 traffic count. Its overall sufficiency rating — which is based on a scale of 0 to 100 percent, with 100 percent being a new bridge designed to current engineering standards — is 33 percent. That puts it among the 10 worst bridges in the county.

The local bridge with the worst sufficiency rating, however, is found in Iowa City, where Rochester Road crosses Ralston Creek. The 43-foot bridge, which was built in 1934 and accommodates 6,200 vehicles a day, as of 2006, has a sufficiency rating of 5.1 percent — far and away the lowest in the county.

Iowa City Public Works Director Rick Fosse said the city is in the design process for replacing the Rochester Avenue bridge, which has a posted load limit of 20 tons, or one quarter of the 80-ton limit of a normal bridge. If plans move ahead on schedule, construction could begin by next summer, Fosse said.

Iowa City has 41 bridges, eight of which are scored as deficient. The city budgets about $60,000 a year for routine bridge maintenance, Fosse said.

“I think we have been making some progress on it, and we’ve replaced a number of bridges in the past 20 years,” Fosse said. “And you can expect about 70 years out of a bridge.”

Other structurally deficient bridges in Iowa City include the Burlington Street bridge over the Iowa River, and bridges over Ralston Creek at Johnson Street, Evans Street, Second Avenue, Third Avenue, Prentiss Street and Iowa Avenue.

The last deteriorating bridge the city had to replace was in 2006 on Meadow Street — a project in which workers discovered that parts of the 75-year-old or so structure had been fashioned from the legs of a former water tower, Fosse said. Two years ago, the city also opened a $6 million bridge on McCollister Boulevard, the city’s first new span across the Iowa River since the 1960s.

Out in the country, Neuzil points to the increasing scale of farm machinery and the importance of staying on top of infrastructure needs to accommodate the larger loads.

“That’s putting a lot more street on our aging bridges,” Neuzil said.

But at the same time, building bridges is becoming more expensive to meet modern standards, Parker said, ranging from $256,00 for a small span that will soon be under construction along Cosgrove Road, to the multimillion dollar Mehaffey Bridge.

“The mode now is we provide not just for vehicles, but for additional travelers — the walkers, the bicyclers,” Parker said. “So to accommodate those activities, which are great, it doesn’t make our building costs less.”

Written by: Josh O’Leary

Iowa City Press-Citizen

October 16, 2011

“People want fundamental and structural reform in the way our country operates. Until that happens, I don’t think anybody’s satisfied,” said David Goodner, a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Occupy Des Moines organizer who was the first of 30 adults arrested for refusing to leave the state Capitol grounds after 11 p.m. Sunday, when a curfew took effect. Two juveniles also were taken into custody by Iowa State Patrol troopers and Des Moines police.

“What we’re seeing is the very beginnings of a mass social movement that could eventually turn out millions of people onto the streets. I think this movement is in its infancy. I think it’s very fragile and tenuous, but I think the potential is there that this is going into a truly mass movement where millions of people turn out on the streets, and that’s very, very exciting. People are coming out of the woodwork,” he said.

“I think it sends a message that Iowans are unhappy with the corporate rule on Wall Street and the corporate rule on Capitol Hill and the corporate rule on Terrace Hill,” he added.

Goodner said Sunday’s Occupy Des Moines protest on the west side of the Statehouse was organized via Facebook and mushroomed into nearly 500 people who attempted to set up an around-the-clock occupation on the Capitol grounds. Law enforcement officers told those still gathered late Sunday that they would have to leave or face arrest, and all but those taken into custody complied with the order.

On Monday, Gov. Terry Branstad defended Iowa State Patrol officers who arrested the demonstrators, saying the troopers “acted in an appropriate and restrained manner” in removing people who had a right to protest but not to “camp out overnight” on state property.

“My feeling is I think it’s alright to have a demonstration here at the Capitol, but it’s not meant to be a place to camp out overnight,” Branstad said in responding to reporters’ questions at his weekly news conference Monday.

“First and foremost, people in this country have a right to demonstrate and express their viewpoints,” he said. “However, we do have permits and requirements. This was 11 o’clock at night and they did not have a permit to stay.”

Goodner said a number of the protesters who were booked on simple misdemeanor trespassing charges and held at the Polk County Jail had scraped arms and knees, a black eye or two and one demonstrators was recovering from the effects of pepper spray.

“I certainly heard a lot of complaints about, I wouldn’t say police brutality, but I would say excessive force,” he said. “There were a lot of people that had complaints about how rough they were treated.”

The governor said state troopers, along with Des Moines police, acted properly in protecting the public safety and enforcing permit requirements.

The protesters were part of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement that has targeted corporate greed.

Given the high rates of unemployment, Branstad cautioned “about casting blame and attacking people who want to invest and create jobs.”

“I’m very concerned about not sending the wrong signals to the decision makers in business,” the governor said. “I’m trying to assure them that in Iowa we’re open for business, we’re committed to bringing more business and jobs here and this is going to be a great place to locate. We want to do all we can in a constructive way to create jobs.”

Goodner said Occupy Des Moines members planned to regroup this week and discuss possible future actions.

“We’re going to be back. That’s my message to the governor is we’ll be back. This is not over by any means,” he said.

“You’re not going to be able to repress this movement into oblivion. Repressing this kind of social movement is only going to make it grow, it’s only going to increase the public sympathy for it and it’s only going to increase the media attention on it,” Goodner added. “I think people are fed up with the corrosive influence of big money and politics, I think they’re fed up with an economy that is not set up to work for everybody, and I think they’re sick of public policy that always benefits corporations at the expense of everyday people. At its heart, that’s what I think this movement is about.”

Written by: Rod Boshart

The Gazette

October 10, 2011

A general assembly of protestors is held at the start of the Occupy Iowa City protest in College Green Park on Friday, Oct. 7, 2011, in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News)

Brian Ray/ The Gazette

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — People running for public office typically don’t like to be called a one-issue candidate, but in the upcoming election, University Heights is effectively a one-issue town.

A relatively large condominium project proposed for the small town has been dominating City Council meetings for three years. As a result, many people see the Nov. 8 election — when all five council seats and the mayor are up for election — as a referendum on the project.

“It’s going to be the predominant issue by far,” said council member Brennan McGrath, a project opponent who is seeking re-election. “It will probably be a 75 (percent) to 90 percent deciding factor in the way people vote.”

At the center of the debate is the $44.9 million project known as One University Place that local developer Jeff Maxwell wants to build at 1300 Melrose Ave., which is a half-mile west of Kinnick Stadium and currently home to St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.

It is to have 69 condominiums, plus commercial space, in two buildings on the 5.3-acre site.

For supporters, the project is needed to boost the budget of a city whose growth is restricted by an inability to expand outward. University Heights, which has about 1,000 residents, is surrounded by Iowa City and

is made up almost exclusively of single-family homes.

Critics say the project is too large and doesn’t fit the character of the town.

The project currently has 3-2 support on the City Council. There are eight City Council candidates, and they are evenly split for and against the project.

The opponents are incumbents McGrath and Rosanne Hopson and challengers Rachel Stewart and Jan Leff.

The supporters are incumbents Pat Yeggy and Mike Haverkamp and challengers Amanda Whitmer and Jim Lane. Incumbent Stan Laverman is not seeking re-election.

Mayor Louise From is running unopposed. She’s in favor of the project but does not have a vote on the council.

Project supporters said they believe other issues also are important to voters. Whitmer, however, acknowledged she had not heard from anyone on anything else.

“It’s the one thing that’s mostly on people’s minds,” she said.

Longtime University Heights resident Alice Haugen said One University Place, which she opposes at its current size, will be the main issue for voters.

“It’s not just the project itself, but how it’s gone forward,” said Haugen, 59.

In December 2010, the council voted to rezone the church property to accommodate the project. That happened just before a special election to fill a council seat, which saw council-appointee and project supporter Lane defeated by project opponent Hopson.

Around the same time, a community survey found that about 56 percent of respondents were against the project and 39 percent for.

The results of the election and survey bolstered critics’ claims that the majority of the public opposed the project.

With recent City Council meetings going past midnight, there is talk that the council is preparing to ram through votes on the project before a potential shake-up of the council majority with next month’s election.

Among the items currently being debated are the developer’s agreement and the document that would define the scope of the project. Developer Maxwell also has asked for $6.5 million in tax breaks from the city, but on Tuesday night his team asked the council to put that on hold for now.

City Attorney Steve Ballard recommended all three be considered at the same time.

Written by: Greg Hennigan

The Gazette

September 29, 2011

While the Iowa City area real estate market has weathered the downward trend rather well compared to other locations, we are now seeing renewed activity in all segments of the market.  Especially significant is the activity in the higher price range, which was almost at a stand still for many months, while the lower priced homes have still been moving fairly consistently for the last couple of years.

Our local luxury market, or the 10% upper tier of our market, represents all homes at and above $330,000.  Once we get over $400,000, the average days on the market get longer and all properties above $500,000 have suffered from a definite slow down in sales and overall activity.

However, this trend is slowly changing and local realtors have enjoyed a renewed activity in the higher price range.  More local people are looking to move up from their existing homes, and more people are relocating to the area and are welcoming the good opportunities available to them in our local luxury market.

Renting vs Buying In Higher Price Range

Most out of town clients have always been eager to purchase in the Iowa City area, even when relocating for a specific period of time such as two to five years only.  However, during the last two years an increasing amount of them opted to rent executive rentals rather than to risk buying an expensive home only to see its value decline.

This has been challenging for the area realtors because of the limited choices available in the rental market, which is really geared for the most part to college students and younger professionals.  In an effort to find suitable executive rentals, realtors have knocked on builders’ doors to get their clients in new construction homes still for sale, or eager sellers who are willing to rent for a year or two rather than to reduce their prices for a possible sale.  Either way, this has been a win-win for everyone, with relocating clients and local sellers both finding common ground while the market regains vigor.

Luxury Homes Market Back On Track

This graph represents the average price for sale and sold homes from 4/10 to 6/11, in the $400,000 to $999,999 price range.   Note that the activity is on the up swing and that average sold prices are finally inching upwards.

With extremely low interest rates and eager sellers waiting to downsize or move on, this is a great time to purchase a home in the Iowa City area!  Contact Toni Rubin, Skogman Realty’s Iowa City Director Corporate Relocations and licensed realtor in the State of Iowa,  at 319-541-0190  for more information on our local market.

	Curnt vs. Prev Month			Curnt vs. Same Month 1 Yr Ago			Curnt vs. Same Qtr 1 Yr Ago
	Jun. 11	May. 11	% Change	Jun. 11	Jun. 10	% Change	Apr. 11 to Jun. 11	Apr. 10 to Jun. 10	% Change
Avg. Active Price	528	530	-0.4%	528	544	-2.9%	529	544	-2.8%
Avg. Sold Price	580	481	20.6%	580	516	12.4%	531	511	3.9%

The University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine ranks No. 10 nationally for its social mission, according to a study.

Researchers from the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University and The Robert Graham Center measured how medical schools educate physicians to care for the national population.

They did this by looking at three key areas: the number of primary care physicians the school educates, distribution of physicians to underserved areas, and advancing minority physicians to the work force.

“We are proud that we are doing good things for the state and nation, and also doing things to produce new knowledge,” said Paul Rothman, dean of the UI medical college.

The survey findings differ fairly substantially from other ranking systems, such as U.S. News and World Report.

Lesser known schools such as Morehouse College, Meharry Medical College and Howard University scored at the top, while renowned schools such as Duke University, Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University come in at the bottom.

“This is another way to look at the value of a medical school,” Rothman said.

The methodology for the George Washington survey differs from U.S. News because it focused on persistent challenges to the U.S. health care system and medical education rather than research dollars and prestige, which are factors in the U.S. News ranking.

In the George Washington survey, urban schools fell short in providing primary care physicians to underserved areas, which was another factor why the schools ranked the way they did, according to the report that was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“The higher social mission score of community-based medical schools suggest that a school’s explicit commitment to educate physicians who will pursue careers compatible with community needs has long-term effects on the career choices of its graduates,” according to the report.

UI finds a double kudos in the George Washington study because in addition to getting accolades for serving society through educating doctors its research program is larger than the nine schools ranked above it, Rothman said.

In Iowa, there is a projected shortfall of 229 family physicians in the next 10 years and 39,000 nationally, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. The Carver College ranks No. 10 in the nation sending 15 percent of its students into family medicine, according to the family physicians academy.

UI’s commitment to primary care and providing doctors to rural areas, which is an area that is underserved, is one of the reasons UI faired so well, Rothman said.

“We pride ourselves on making contributions to rural Iowa,” Rothman said. “And this shows we are doing quite well.”

B.A. Morelli • Iowa City Press-Citizen • September 4, 2010