Gazette Daily News Briefing, November 20
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for November 20, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy on Monday with a high near 48 degrees. Rain will become increasingly likely during the day, with a 60 percent chance around 10 p.m. The low will settle in around 37 degrees.
A medical emergency may have caused a 21-year-old man to veer off Highway 30 on Friday evening, where he crashed and was killed, authorities said.
Cedar Rapids police and firefighters responded at 6:21 p.m. Friday to the area near Highway 30 and 21st Street SW to a report of a single-car crash.
They found a vehicle that had gone off the road and struck some railroad property below the bridge that spans railroad tracks and Prairie Creek.
First responders tried to revive the driver, identified by police as Nicholas Pearson, but he died at the scene.
A Cedar Rapids developer has been charged with stealing over $2,000 of goods from a home improvement store in Marion.
Eric Gutschmidt, 39, was charged in Linn County District Court last month with second-degree theft, a felony, according to a criminal complaint. He is accused of committing a “series” of thefts — six separate incidents — over the course of three days from March 5 through March 7 at Menards, 200 Menard Lane, in Marion.
Gutschmidt was arraigned this week and pleaded not guilty to the charge. His trial is set for April 2. He didn’t respond Friday afternoon to a message from The Gazette seeking comment.
According to the complaint, Gutschmidt took 57 packages of vinyl floor planks and three packages of floor tiles from the store without paying for the items, valued at $2,338. He initially was identified as the suspect because he provided his name and phone number for a different order of items he placed on the day the first theft occurred, the complaint stated.
Repairs are being made to deteriorating wood beams at Taft and Harding middle schools in Cedar Rapids after some of the columns were determined last month to be structurally unstable — forcing students out of those areas.
Two domes — one at Taft and one at Harding — are expected to be repaired by the end of December. The domes were closed as a safety precaution, and students were moved to other parts of the buildings.
Crews from McComas-Lacina Construction of Iowa City are working to install metal plates to the wood beam structures, and weld them to metal anchors attached to the concrete footings around the domes.
There are two domes at each of the middle schools with 16 beams supporting each dome.The domes for both schools were closed back in October after inspections found them to be structurally unsound.
The two middle schools were constructed in 1965 using the same design that features two domes.
Chris Gates, buildings and grounds manager for Cedar Rapids Schools, told the Gazette that these designs have stood the test of time in dry states like Arizona. However, in Iowa, a design where wood beams are exposed to precipitation and frequent freeze / thaw cycles, has turned out to not be the most practical choice.
