Gazette Daily News Briefing, January 6
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, January 6.
We'll get a bit of a break from snow on Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high near 31 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area with partly sunny skies. On Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 18 degrees.
The weather should be similar for the next few days, with the temperature rising again.
Owners of a Marengo workshop that exploded last month, injuring half its workforce and leaving an environmental mess, now may face thousands of dollars in fines on top of cleanup costs.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources referred C6-Zero to the Attorney General’s Office for legal action this week after the company said it could not meet deadlines for cleaning up the site.
The DNR ordered C6-Zero to complete an environmental site assessment plan by Dec. 31, but that date passed without a filing. EcoSource, LLC, a Des Moines-area environmental consulting firm, submitted a plan on C6-Zero’s behalf Jan. 3, DNR Spokeswoman Tammie Krausman said.
The Gazette asked the DNR for a copy of the plan, but the agency did not immediately respond.
The DNR has the authority to pursue administrative penalties of up to $10,000, but the Attorney General can seek higher penalties. Iowa law allows for fines of $5,000 a day for water quality violations, $5,000 a day for solid waste violations and $10,000 a day for air quality violations.
Human remains that were found in the Cedar River last week have been identified as Erik Spaw, a Cedar Rapids employee who went missing last summer, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
Spaw, 54, was reported missing on May 7. He’d been working the night before at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant at 7807 Ellis Rd. NW, and was reported missing by his co-workers, who noticed he never returned to the J Avenue Water Treatment Plant, where his personal car was parked.
Spaw’s city-owned pickup truck was found submerged in the Cedar River just upriver from the Edgewood Road bridge with no one inside. His mother, Karen Spaw, told The Gazette at the time that he had diabetes and he’d been having trouble regulating his insulin intake, so she believed he may have passed out from low-blood sugar and driven into the river.
Cedar Rapids search crews spent several days on the river looking for Spaw, and periodically returned throughout the summer to continue searching.
Residents in the Solon Community School District have indicated strong support for a $25.5 million bond referendum this spring, which would fund improvements to an elementary school, expansion of its intermediate school and build a multipurpose indoor activity center.
A survey conducted by the district found that 81 percent of parents and 73 percent of general citizens would support a general obligation bond at the polls.
A bond requires 60 percent majority vote to pass.
The bond referendum could be taken to voters as early as March 7, and would not increase property taxes, Superintendent Davis Eidahl said in an interview with The Gazette. The district’s current tax rate of $16.28 per $1,000 of taxable valuation would be unchanged if voters approve the bond.
Facilities master plan committee member Denny Gruber, a retired teacher from Solon schools, coach and longtime community member, said the district is expecting an additional 25 to 50 students a year.
“We need more classroom space,” Gruber said. The district currently has about five sections of classrooms per grade and could quickly grow it to seven, he said.
