Gazette Daily News Briefing, November 25 and 26
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, November 25th, and Sunday, November 26th, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be cloudy, with a high near 36. Saturday nightwill be cloudy with a low of 27 and a 60% chance of snow with potential accumulation of around an inch.
Sunday will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 35 and a chance of more snow in the early morning with about a half inch of potential accumulation.
Cedar Rapids picks HACAP to run Wellington Heights affordable housing project
Once rehabilitation work is complete this spring on a once-blighted building in Wellington Heights, Hawkeye Area Community Action Program will own and operate the old Colonial Centre property that the city of Cedar Rapids is transforming into affordable housing.
The Cedar Rapids City Council this week approved HACAP’s proposal to own and manage the building now dubbed “The Heights” at 1500 Second Ave. SE. When construction is complete in March, this city project will offer 25 affordable rental units and be turned over to HACAP to run.
Guaranty Bank site among five Cedar Rapids projects awarded redevelopment tax credits
Among the five Cedar Rapids projects that were recently awarded redevelopment tax credits from the Iowa Economic Development Authority, local developer Steve Emerson’s proposed transformation of the old Guaranty Bank block received a major boost.
The former Guaranty Bank and World Theater building at 222 Third St. SE, as well as the building that once housed the Dragon Chinese restaurant at 329 Second Ave. SE, received brownfield/grayfield redevelopment tax credits from the IEDA board.
These tax credits help transform sites that are abandoned, blighted or underused. Brownfield sites are industrial or commercial properties where there’s environmental contamination. Grayfield sites are public buildings, industrial or commercial properties that have infrastructure in place, but the property is otherwise underused.
Complaints pile up as Iowa ranks 49th among states in nursing home inspectors
A federal report suggests Iowa has one of the nation’s worst ratios of nursing home inspectors to care facilities, and that the state’s use of private contractors to inspect homes is extraordinarily costly to taxpayers.
The report, published in May by the majority staff of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, highlights some of the issues Iowa regulators have acknowledged with regard to nursing home oversight.
One of the Iowa homes that recently caught the attention of regulators is the Pine Acres Rehabilitation and Care Center in West Des Moines. This past July, state officials visited the home to conduct an inspection, but not before the home had racked up 13 complaints — the oldest of which dated back 109 days, to March 3.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
