Despite preservationist's plea, Cedar Rapids council votes to take down entire Sinclair smokestack

On a 5-4 vote last night, the City Council decided to demolish all of the Sinclair plant's smokestack despite the wish by local historic preservationists to save the 41-foot base of the structure.

The vote came despite a plea from council member Monica Vernon to save the base, called a “plinth.”

Vernon acknowledged that the council had voted recently to take down the structurally unsound smokestack so not to threaten crews as they demolish the flood-and-fire-damaged former packing plant's buildings. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is paying for the demolition work, but the council has been told that FEMA may stop paying if the demolition is set aside while decisions are made about the smokestack.

Vernon said saving the base of the smokestack would not delay the rest of the demolition, but council members Don Karr, for one, worried about the future costs to the city related to what might be saved.

Council member Chuck Swore said the council had put off the smokestack demolition for months in an attempt to see what could be done to save it. Along the way, the council learned that it was costly to stabilize and then to renovate. Swore said saving 41 feet of the structure wasn't of “consequence.” He noted that recently he had seen a similar smokestack remnant in Michigan amid a development and it was covered in graffiti.

Vernon said the plinth featured “fantastic workmanship” and so was worth saving. She told her council colleagues that they shouldn't vote against it until they did some studying on exactly what a plinth is.

In the end, council members Karr, Swore, Chuck Wieneke and Justin Shields and Mayor Ron Corbett voted to pull the plug on the smokestack. Vernon and council members Kris Gulick, Pat Shey and Tom Podzimek voted to try to save the plinth.