Gazette Daily News Briefing, February 8
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, February 8.
Wednesday will mark the end of this week's warming trend, with a chance for rain Wednesday night. According to the National Weather Service the high will crest 45 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Clouds will increase throughout the day, and rain will become more likely after 10 p.m. The rain could turn into snow on Thursday morning, as the high temperatures look to be dropping back below freezing soon.
A man was killed Tuesday in an accident after a driver lost control of his vehicle and collided with another vehicle on Springville Road north of Springville.
According to a media release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, emergency responders were called at 2:35 p.m. on Tuesday to a fatality accident near the intersection of Springville Road and Schmidt Lane.
According to the release, Zachary Twachtmann, 31, of Anamosa, was driving south on Springville Road when he failed to maintain control of his vehicle, swerving and striking another vehicle driven by a man who has not yet been identified by authorities. The man in the other vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene.
The name of the man driving the other vehicle is being withheld pending notification of relatives, according to the release.
Twachtmann was transported to the Linn County Correctional Center with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release. His passenger, Mackenna Scofield, 25, of Anamosa was transported by Anamosa Ambulance to Mercy Hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.
The incident remains under investigation by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.
A Cedar Rapids man who hit his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend with a baseball bat multiple times and stabbed him was sentenced Tuesday to up to 25 years in prison.
Bernick Karsten Brown, 38, originally charged with attempted murder, pleaded guilty in November to willful injury resulting in serious injury while using a dangerous weapon. He used a baseball bat to hit Branly Nkosi in the head multiple times Feb. 12, 2022.
The attack caused skull fractures, a brain bleed and other life-threatening injuries, according to a criminal complaint. The man also had a stab wound in his back.
When Brown was arrested last year, he also had an outstanding warrant related to an incident in December 2020, when a woman said he choked her and threw her up against a wall.
Wilson Middle School in Cedar Rapids has been added to the list of the most endangered properties in Iowa by a statewide historic preservation group.
A facilities planning committee for the Cedar Rapids Community School District is studying whether to demolish Wilson and build a new middle school in its place — which is what initially was proposed — or to renovate the building. The initial cost estimate to build a 600-student school on the Wilson site is $60.8 million, according to board documents.
The school is one of six properties designated by Preservation Iowa as the 2023 Most Endangered. The group brings to the public’s attention the risks to a designated historic property and advocates for preservation. Other Eastern Iowa properties on the list are William Fletcher King Memorial Chapel in Mount Vernon, Iowa Canning Company Seed House in Vinton and George House in North Liberty.
Wilson was “built to last for generations,” according to Preservation Iowa. It was constructed in 1924 and is the last of four iconic junior high schools built in Cedar Rapids in the 1920s.
