Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 25
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, July 25.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny and hot Tuesday in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 95 degrees. On Tuesday night the low will be around 71 degrees and there will be a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms overnight.
An investor and holder of $41.8 million that Mercy Iowa City borrowed in 2018 has asked a judge to “appoint a receiver on an emergency basis” to take operational control over the hospital facilities.
Filed Monday in Johnson County District Court, the request was made by Computershare Trust Company, which took over for Wells Fargo Bank as master trustee of the 2018 bond series, and Preston Hollow Community Capital of Texas, which invested all $41.8 million five years ago. The plaintiffs together accuse Mercy of breaching financial covenants under its bond financing agreement.
In the filing the plaintiffs assert that 150-year-old Mercy Hospital is in “financial free fall” and headed toward closure.
Preston Hollow, according to court documents, has implored Mercy for months to formulate a turnaround plan “before it falls off the financial cliff.”
Mercy President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Clancy and Chief Restructuring Officer Mark Toney told employees in a companywide email that they disagree with the notice and that their attorneys have responded with a letter that disputes their assertions.
In that email Friday, Mercy executives affirmed, “We have made all of the payments on the bonds as required (like making the payment on your home loan when due).”
Just days earlier, Mercy leaders held town hall meetings updating its staff on “extraordinary progress” in addressing the community hospital’s financial standing — including improving cash collections and its troubled electronic health records system.
An Iowa City woman was arrested this weekend on charges that she broke into a North Liberty woman’s residence and held her captive at gunpoint for about three hours.
Nicole Marie Ambrose, 47, is charged with several drug, weapons, and burglary charges for the incident, which happened at the 200 block of Holiday Lodge Road in North Liberty at 1:20 a.m. on Friday.
According to a criminal complaint, Ambrose broke into the home by making a hole in a screen door and then unlocking the door from the inside.
The victim woke up to Ambrose pressing a gun into her side. Ambrose asked the woman who else was in the house and took the woman’s phone so she couldn’t call the police. The victim told police Ambrose had a roll of plastic, handcuffs and a backpack that she wouldn’t let the woman look into displayed on the couch.
Ambrose held the woman hostage until about 4:45 a.m., when the woman was able to talk Ambrose into leaving, the complaint states. Police found her just before 6 a.m. in possession of a loaded gun, marijuana and a drug pipe, according to the complaint.
