Library looking at Armstrong Centre spot for temporary downtown home

The Cedar Rapids Library Board told the City Council on Thursday evening that it is eager to establish a “low-cost,” temporary presence in downtown Cedar Rapids as it and the city sort out whether to fix or replace the flood-damaged downtown library.

The library has expanded its presence at Westdale Mall for now, but board member Dennis McMenimen told the City Council of the library board’s interest in getting something set up downtown.

McMenimen noted that the library has a dedicated clientele of downtown residents, and he pointed to the Geneva Towers residential complex as one source of those customers.

One suggestion, he said, was to locate in a first-floor area of the Armstrong Centre.

After the meeting, he and Phyllis Fleming, another library board member, said the Armstrong Centre is one a couple places the board is looking at downtown. Fleming said the spot in the Armstrong Centre is one that formerly housed the Art Cellar Co., 221 Third St. SE.

The thought is the library could circulate about 40,000 items a month from a space of about 5,000 square feet, the City Council’s budget notes on the library stated.

Once again, who owns City Hall anyway?

It happened again at last night’s City Council budget session: The City Council and Pete Welch, chairman of the city’s Veterans Memorial Commission, were discussing who owns the Veterans Memorial Building on May’s Island that houses City Hall.

City Manager Jim Prosser has said, unequivocally, that the city government owns the building. However, Welch has said, and said again last night, that the question had an uncertain answer.

At one point, council member Monica Vernon suggested to Welch that the citizens of Cedar Rapids own the building.

In response, Welch allowed that the city surely owns the ground upon which the building sits, but he said the entire building was built as a memorial to veterans. It’s a memorial, he emphasized.

The issue of land and the air above comes into play at the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel downtown: the city owns the land, the hotel owns the building.

The seven-story Veterans Memorial Building/City Hall has been there since the 1920s.

The city’s City Council-appointed veterans commission operates the building and hires a director and a maintenance staff. The operation is financed with a portion of the city’s annual property-tax levy designated specifically for the veterans memorial.

In recent months, City Manager Prosser has emphasized that city government is only a tenant of the building, and Welch has made it clear that city government has been a “rent-free” tenant at that.

There is a sense that the City Council does not intend to return city government to the building — which was significantly damaged in the June flood and still sits empty – with the presence it had had prior to the flood.

The council, the Linn County Board of Supervisors and the Cedar Rapids school district all have spent some time, largely behind the scenes, talking about the prospect of locating together in one spot, likely in a new building. The entities call it “co-location.”

The Veterans Commission’s Welch has been displeased that he has been kept largely out of the discussion about the future of the building that his commission operates.

At this point, both city staff and the Veterans Commission have filed paperwork with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to position themselves to receive FEMA reimbursement for the flood damage to the building.

FEMA will sort out to whom the reimbursement should go, Welch said last night.

This prompted council member Justin Shields to question whether the city needed FEMA to tell it who owned the building.

In his budget presentation, Welch and the commission are preparing for a new day at the city building on May’s Island whatever the future should bring.

Welch imagined the building could be used as arts center and a spot where nonprofit agencies and others could locate offices. He said he’s gotten calls from lawyers inquiring about the prospect of putting law offices in the building. The Linn County Courthouse is just across the May’s Island lawn from the Veterans Memorial Building, he noted.

As Welch approached a the council’s table to begin his budget presentation on Thursday evening, he jokingly asked if the seat he was about to sit in was wired for punishment.

New downtown home for Green Square Meals, Witwer meals program being readied for late February

After some starts and stops, work is well underway on converting a downtown building into the home of Green Square Meals and a temporary home for the Witwer Senior Center’s meals program.

The Ecumenical Center, which provides space for a group of helping services agencies and others, also is moving into the building at 601/605 Second Ave. SE.

Scott Olson, who is on the Ecumenical Center’s board of directors, reported on Friday that the center is readying to take up residence in the 601 side of the building in mid-February.

Olson said the all-volunteer Green Square Meals, which cooks and serves an evening meal Monday through Friday for the needy, is planning on serving its first meal in the new kitchen and dining area on the 605 side of the building on Feb. 23.

Meanwhile, Myrt Bowers, director of the Witwer Senior Center, on Friday said her operation is planning on cooking and serving its first lunch in the building on Saturday, Feb. 21.

The Witwer operation will prepare and serve lunch seven days a week from the site and also prepare lunches to deliver to homes in Linn County and at a meals site in Lisbon.

In addition, Bowers said she is making plans to secure funding so that the Witwer Senior Center can serve a daily breakfast at the site. It might take five to six months to secure the funds, she said.

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Bowers said. “… I think we’re going to be able to fill a need, and I’m very excited about that.”

The Witwer Senior Center’s previous home in the Witwer Building downtown was damaged in the June flood and the center does not have plans to return there.

Bowers estimated the center’s meals operation could remain at the new spot at 605 Second Ave. SE for three to five years. The long-term plan is for the center to become an integral part of a new community and recreation center. That idea is one of the goals of  the community’s Fifteen in 5 initiative.

Like the senior center, Green Square Meals has been operating at a temporary site since the June flood. The program had operated out of the city’s Greene Square Park building for years, but the City Council in March of 2007 told the meals program to move so the city could demolish the building. The building, which took in a little water in the June flood, is empty and still standing.

Olson, a commercial Realtor, played a central role in arranging the sale of a building that formerly housed the Ecumenical Center’s offices to provide money to help purchase the 601/605 Second Ave. SE building, in which he had an ownership interest. Olson also has played a role with others in rounding up donations of materials and labor for the Second Avenue building’s renovation.

Green Square Meals will operate from the site for $1 a year.