Gazette Daily News Briefing, September 14
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 14, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday with a high near 77 degrees. It will be mostly clear Thursday evening with a low of around 49 degrees.
Mercy Iowa City has arranged tours of its health care facilities next week for potential bidders interested in competing for its assets against the University of Iowa — which last month made an initial “stalking horse” bid of $20 million to buy the 150-year-old community hospital.
During a hearing Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court — following Mercy’s Aug. 7 filing for Chapter 11 protection — attorney Felicia Perlman, representing Mercy through her Chicago firm, McDermott Will & Emery, said several interested parties have signed nondisclosure agreements in anticipation in learning more about the assets they may potentially bid on.
“We do have several parties who have signed (nondisclosure agreements) and are active in the data room, and we are providing diligence to and these tours for.”
Mercy unveiled the UI as its initial $20 million bidder Aug. 7, the same day it filed for bankruptcy. Two days later, the hospital proposed a Sept. 19 deadline for competing offers and built in “bid protections” for the university — raising concerns among the hospital’s secured creditors, who Mercy owes $63 million.
In response to questions about whether such a truncated timeline would chill competing bids and whether other objectionable provisions — like the UI protections and a caveat implying the facility must remain a hospital — Mercy attorneys this week agreed to sale-procedure amendments, which Judge Thad Collins on Wednesday indicated he’ll approve.
Tiffin voters approved a 1-cent local-option sales tax Tuesday intended to help the city keep up with its rapid population growth.
The city of 5,200 in Johnson County passed the sales tax with 186 votes (63 percent) in favor and 109 (37 percent) opposed. More than 10 percent of registered voters in the city turned out to vote, the Johnson County Auditor’s Office reported.
The sales tax of 1 percent will start Jan. 1 and is expected to generate about $600,000 a year. Half the money will be used to keep Tiffin property taxes from going up much above the current levy rate of $11.80 per $1,000 of taxable value, while the rest will be used to help pay for infrastructure projects in the growing community. In 2021, Tiffin was expected to double in size by 2030.
Tiffin officials have been planning for a rec center since at least 2020, when they envisioned an indoor facility with a gymnasium with a walking track above it, fitness rooms and possibly a pool.
Other priority projects are a new fire station, a park with an inclusive playground, as well as sewer and streets projects, Mayor Steve Berner told the Gazette.
