Past council member Chuck Swore got Zach Johnson a Drive; now he launches a push to name a street for Kurt Warner

Former council member Chuck Swore was the one who agitated first and succeeded in getting a street name here changed to Zach Johnson Drive in honor of the Cedar Rapids native and Masters Golf champion.

Swore on Wednesday is the first to surface now to name a street after another Cedar Rapids native and sports champion, NFL quarterback Kurt Warner.

Swore suggests the perfect street is the one runs between 15th Street SW and Rockford Road SW – which is the entrance to Kingston Stadium.

Warner, a Regis High School graduate, is leading a team into the Super Bowl for the third time.

Johnson, who won anew on the PGA tour last weekend, is also a Regis grad. His street is a little stretch that runs into Elmcrest Golf Course, where Johnson played golf growing up.

City Hall remains in pursuit of coolness as Bicycle Friendly Community

City Hall is pushing ahead to qualify Cedar Rapids as the only Bicycle Friendly Community in Iowa.

The City Council gave its staff the go-ahead last May to investigate what it would take to achieve such a bicycle status, a direction that came with the caution that achieving the status isn’t easy.

The League of American Bicyclists (www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/communities) bestows the recognition, and coommunities like Madison, Wis., Eugene, Ore., Fort Collins, Colo., and Ann Arbor, Mich., enjoy the status.

City staff reports to the City Council that it now is forming an action plan on how to secure the status.

Among the requirements are for a city to provide bike racks on most city facilities and to equip buses with bike racks; to identify low-volume roads as touring routes; and to implement a “compete streets” policy that provides accommodations for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Council member Tom Podzimek, who has the led the campaign for the bike-friendly recognition, on Wednesday noted that the Mayor’s Annual Bike Ride and Bike-to-Work Week will be coming up in the months ahead.

Houser bests Oleson, 4-3, in a small vote for a small job at Solid Waste Agency

Most don’t run for elective office so that can shrink from tasks and responsibilities.

Such was the case at Tuesday’s first monthly meeting of the year for the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency Board as the board prepared to elect officers.

The nine-member board is comprised of Mayor Kay Halloran, Cedar Rapids council members Tom Podzimek and Justin Shields, three other council-appointed members, two Linn County supervisors and Charlie Kress, Marion’s representative.

Podzimek is the board’s chairman for a two-year stint, so there was no vote for the position of chair.

The board, though, did need a vice chairman as Linda Langston, Linn supervisor, gave up her slot on the board to newly elected supervisor Brent Oleson. Oleson has argued that his supervisor district should be represented on the solid waste agency board because it represents Marion, the site of the solid waste agency’s Site 2 landfill. Mount Trashmore, the agency’s site 1 landfill, is in Langston’s district, she has noted.

At the meeting Tuesday, Kress jumped into the fray and nominated Oleson, a Marion resident who was attending his first meeting of the board, as vice chairman. Later in the meeting, Oleson was honest enough to preface a question about the expenses related to landfill closure, a signal that he was just getting his feet wet on solid waste.

Someone else nominated long-time Linn supervisor Jim Houser for the post.

It was a little uncomfortable: The post doesn’t matter much, and here were two supervisors positioned to compete for the spot.

There was no, “Why don’t you take it,” or “No, why don’t you?” And once that was decided, who doesn’t, after all, want to come out on top in a matter when people are picking between you and someone else?

With just seven board members in attendance, the vote was first on Oleson. Kress and Podzimek raised their hands, and there was Oleson’s hand for himself.

Shields, Pat Ball, the city’s utilities director, Mark Jones, the city’s solid waste/recycling manager, and Houser voted for Houser.

McGrane says federal funds might be available for city to get into the steam utility business

The city of Cedar Rapids already has city-owned utilities -– a water plant, a waste-water treatment facility and a sanitary sewer and storm sewer system. It also considers its garbage pickup and recycling operation as a utility.

Council member Jerry McGrane on Tuesday suggested he might be pushing his council colleagues in the direction of creating another utility, one that would create steam for heat and other uses in and near the downtown.

McGrane made note of his lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., last week with council colleagues Justin Shields and Monica Vernon to talk to Iowa’s Congressional delegation and some federal agencies about federal funds to help Cedar Rapids with its flood recovery.

McGrane said the Cedar Rapids delegation was told that federal money might be available to support the reestablishment of a downtown steam system if the city itself actually was involved in the ownership of such a utility. The thought is the city could have a private entity run the operation and ultimately buy out the city’s investment after a number of years.

It remains to be seen: McGrane is more of a decisive voice on matters concerning neighborhoods and housing.

However, council member Monica Vernon said on Tuesday, too, that the city had to figure out a solution to the steam problem.

The problem exists because the June flood damaged Alliant Energy’s aged Sixth Street Generating Station, which had produced electricity and inexpensive steam and ran it through a network of Alliant steam pipes to Quaker and Cargill and other industries near downtown, to Coe College, the city’s two hospitals and the buildings downtown.

This winter, Alliant has created a temporary setup to provide the steam, but at a price four to five times the previous price with no promise of rebuilding to prior more reasonably priced steam again.

This week, Coe College and St. Luke’s Hospital announced plans to seek federal funds to build their own steam system, and they will be in front of the City Council tonight to talk about the plan.

The two entities, though, said this week they are still open to a broader solution to the steam issue, though Pat Ball, the city’s utility director, on Tuesday forewarned the council not to expect any big news at its meeting tonight.

An Alliant spokesman said the same.