Library, City Hall main topics at Cedar Rapids open house

Two hundred and eighty-three people turned out late Tuesday afternoon and early last evening to take on more than 60 representatives of City Hall and 126 poster boards of information in an effort to find out more about the future of the city's key flood-damaged buildings.

People also had a chance to see three different ideas for the city's park and recreation system in an event to be repeated from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. today in the ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel.

The freshest piece of news last night came from the city's library board, which revealed three primary sites for a new downtown public library to replace the flood-ruined one on First Street SE.

One site is the True North site across Fourth Avenue SE from Greene Square Park. A second is the site of Skogman Homes' main office at 411 First Ave. SE. And the third is on First Avenue SE between Seventh and Eighth streets SE. A few other potential sites are on blocks next to the third site and the True North site.

Of the True North site, Doug Elliot, the library board's vice president, said it might provide an opportunity “for the most interesting architectural design.” A rendering of the library on the site, he pointed out, envisions the library facing back across Greene Square Park toward the front of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. The site would allow the library to sit two feet above the level of the June 2008 flood, he said.

Elliott noted that the First Avenue site between Seventh and Eighth streets SE would let the library create a new gateway to the downtown.

The library board has said it does not want to rebuild the library on the site of the flood-ruined one on First Street SE, but city consultant OPN Architects Inc. has included cost figures to construct and operate a new library over 50 years at the old site and the three primary possibilities. The cost to rebuild on the present site is estimated at $37 million, as compared to $45 million for a different site. But the cost over time favors a new library on a new site when operating costs and insurance costs are factored in over 50 years.

Among the more startling comparisons at Tuesday's open house was the lack of city taxes that will be needed for a $45-million library compared to the city tax dollars that will be needed to build a new $50-million-plus City Hall if that is what the City Council ultimately decides to do.

As now planned, the library will be able to use an estimated $22 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency; it has secured $5 million in I-JOBS funds; it is seeking another $5 million; it anticipates securing $5 million from other state or federal funds; and expects to raise money privately to pay the rest.

Meanwhile, a new City Hall would depend almost entirely on city tax dollars, according to the figures at Tuesday's open house.

The bigger community debate, if comments from last night are any indication, will center on City Hall and whether it should return to the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island or make its home in a new City Services Center somewhere else the city's center.

Don Ross, a longtime developer and builder and a 2005 City Council candidate, said last night that building a new City Hall was the smart answer. The cost to renovate is twice the cost of building from scratch, he said.

Jon Dusek, president of Armstrong Development Co., said moving back into the Veterans Memorial Building with FEMA paying most of the bill “has got to be the least expensive way to go.”

Meanwhile Scott Olson, a commercial Realtor who ran for mayor in 2005, said any decision about City Hall or other flood-damaged city buildings isn't going to come down to numbers, but to common sense. Among his concerns is what the city will do with what it leaves behind if he builds a bunch of new buildings. He fears a “dead zone” in and around the downtown of empty government buildings.

Mayoral candidate Ron Corbett, vice president of trucking firm CRST Inc., dismissed much of what he saw last night.

“Trusting government predictions one year out is risky, trusting them 50 years out is pure fantasy,” said Corbett, who favors using existing buildings.

Mayoral candidate and City Council member Brian Fagan said picking simple solutions to complex decisions isn't the answer. He said Tuesday's event brought together professional architects and “citizen architects” who are willing to see how a city might drive down the cost of government by the way it invests in rebuilding.

Fagan suggested the first City Council decisions on the city's key flood-damaged building might come with the “civic anchor” of a public library and the “critical” need for a new central fire station.