🌥️ Iowa City loses out on solar project
After getting the runaround in 2020, MidAmerican took their business to the county.
February 3, 2021 | Letter No. 29
Remember that time Iowa City said no to a utility-scale solar project? Well, the other shoe finally hit the floor. The project is moving forward, just not with Iowa City.
Our fair berg had the first crack at a 3-megawatt solar utility project in Johnson County back in April 2020 but responded to MidAmerican's proposal with a resounding "no." The project was to be built in Waterworks Prairie Park and involved the city leasing 19 acres to the electrical company.
Dog-walkers, bird watchers, and other residents turned out at council meetings for weeks, decrying a contract that would have uprooted acres of mature prairie. The location, which was picked for its visibility from motorists passing by on Interstate 80, was decried for creating an "eyesore" for park users. The effort to prevent this project from reaching the city's backyard was persuasive, resulting in a unanimous vote against the leasing agreement on April 7, 2020.
City Manager Geoff Fruin said he hoped to find another location within the city for MidAmerican. But both Fruin and MidAmerican's Greenwood told the Press-Citizen the utility company isn't currently seeking a site for solar in Iowa City.
Some months after Iowa City’s vote, they reached out to the county to see what kinds of locations were available in unincorporated Johnson County.
A 6 a.m. the full story will be live. I hope you’ll check it out.
Your friendly neighborhood reporter,
Zachary Oren Smith
Council Comeaways
While there was a spicy conversation about historic siding, the only real story from last night was Iowa City signed up to fund another position at a nonprofit to offload some more police responsibilities.
Already this year, the council committed $35,000 a year to partially fund a homeless coordinator position at Shelter House. Last fall, Council approved non-sworn victim services positions working inside the police department tasked with connecting victims to support and resources provided by outside agencies.
The new position would fund a mental health professional on CommUnity Mobile Crisis team in collaboration with Foundation 2 to respond with police in instances when the normal team perceives a safety threat.
Fruin told the Press-Citizen that a price for the position had not been identified as CommUnity and Foundation 2 were still developing a job description. He anticipated the role's total cost was $100,000 to include salary, benefits, uniform, equipment technology, and other associated costs.
Due to a Mental Health/Disability Services of the East Central Region (ECR), city tax dollars are not on the hook for the first year. During the first year, the grant will fund 100% of the year one salary, 75% of year two, 50% of year three, and 25% in subsequent years. The city's police budget will cover the remainder of the position's costs.
I’ll have a story coming on this in the P-C.
Take Five
😷 Deadly COVID-19 variant found in JoCo - State Hygienic Lab in Coralville confirmed two instances of the new B.1.1.7 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 had reached Johnson County and one in Bremer County. This variant emerged in the United Kingdom and has been more deadly than other variants, according to the CDC. So mask up and then mask a second time. And lastly, stay home.
💸 When should the auditor audit? - The Board of Regents claimed that more than 20% of the investors in the $1.165 billion deal between the University of Iowa and two French companies came from within Iowa. State Auditor Rob Sand decided to check this claim and the Regents are trying to block his subpoena. Sand called it "one of the largest financial transactions in Iowa history." But the Regents argue the information Sand requested will have to wait until after the deal has closed; in other words, the auditor can’t audit until the state has already committed itself to this billion-dollar deal.
💁♀️ Iowa City to lose its Congressional Office - 56,000 voters in Johnson County cast a ballot for Democrat Rita Hart in the race for Iowa’s 2nd District. Only 24,000 did so for U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. I reported the coming reality where Iowa City—a hub for one of the densest areas in the district—loses the congressional office downtown.
⚫️ Choices and anger - Some of the most compelling writing I read last year came from people connecting the sense of dread I had with a feeling of mourning over the expectations deferred by a pandemic year. On his blog, Nick Bergus of Iowa City writes about that feeling in the context of the coming 500,000 death toll. The feeling a year into the pandemic is not of mourning. It’s of fury: both at what we’ve done and been unwilling to save lives.
🏨 Rise of the Rest - Derek Thompson argues this week in The Atlantic that the greater adoption of telework setups will lead a redistribution of contracts and therefore population outside of super-metros like San Francisco and New York and into mid-sized metros: Phoenix, Nashville, and Austin.
Where might that leave the CRANDIC metro? You could imagine surges in Des Moines and Davenport leading to growth in tourism and even population in the Iowa City area. But you could also imagine a greater magnetism in these mid-sized metros, pulling people in search of amenities and housing.
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Zachary Oren Smith writes about government, growth and development for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach him at zsmith@press-citizen.com, at 319 -339-7354 or on Twitter via @Zacharyos.