Gazette Daily News Briefing, May 2
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, May 2.
Tuesday will be a bit warmer than Monday, but still breezy. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny with a high near 61 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. A northwest wind will blow at 15 to 25 mph, with wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Tuesday night there will be clear skies, with a low of around 35 degrees.
Next time you order items online, there’s a high chance the box your goods arrive in was made in Cedar Rapids at International Paper’s Cedar River Mill plant. And now International Paper is looking to invest into that plant’s longevity.
The plant at 4600 C St. SW — the largest 100-percent recycled paper mill in the Americas — broke ground Monday on its expansion project to generate an alternate steam supply and transition off coal-powered steam.
International Paper operates 18 containerboard plants and 28 mills overall in the United States. The company creates material for fiber-based packaging products for e-commerce, processed food and beverages, fruit and vegetables, protein, distribution and durable and nondurable goods.
Currently, the coal boilers at Alliant Energy’s Prairie Creek Generating Station provide all of the plant’s process steam. Starting Jan. 1, 2026, Alliant will no longer burn coal at Prairie Creek as part of an environmental lawsuit settlement.
After studying options for an alternate steam supply, International Paper officials decided the company will build and operate two natural gas-powered boilers to generate steam on-site, as well as build a water treatment plant. International Paper — among the top eight users of city water — will continue to purchase Cedar Rapids water, and purify that to generate the steam
Project manager Tony Cleaves told the Gazette that without the replacement steam supply provided by this $103 million expansion, Cleves said, International Paper would have to shut down its Cedar Rapids plant.
After rising for weeks, the Mississippi River reached its peak over the weekend in parts of Southwest Wisconsin and Northeast Iowa. It was cresting at midday Monday in Davenport and the neighboring cities of Bettendorf and across the river in Illinois at Rock Island and Moline.
The peak was slightly lower than forecast but still high enough to test the region's flood defenses and to keep officials on guard. The rising river, caused by a surge of water from melting snowfall to the north, may set some records along the river, but the National Weather Service still said the river levels generally will remain well below past records. Forecasts call for little rain in the coming days, so once the river crests it should soon begin a decline that will last for at least two weeks.
The amount of increases in property tax revenue that local governments are able to spend would be limited under legislation that is destined to become state law soon.
Republican leaders in the Iowa Senate and House on Monday announced their agreement on property tax legislation. The compromise legislation includes provisions from the separate bills that the two chambers had been advancing.
The compromise bill includes the Senate’s proposal to combine and simplify a variety of city tax levies and to address increases in property assessments and any corresponding increases in property tax revenue to local governments.
The new bill — which is an amended version of the House’s bill, House File 718 — also includes the House’s proposal to require any votes to approve local bonding be held on general election ballots in November of even numbered years. It would also require transparency measures for taxpayer
That means the Cedar Rapids Community School District’s planned $312 million bond referendum would have to wait until the November 2024 election.
