Gazette Daily News Podcast, Feb. 22

On today’s episode: University of Iowa’s Henry B. Tippie College of Business dies at 95, the Iowa House approves legislation banning the participation of transgender athletes, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources looks to sell its struggling Honey Creek Resort.

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The namesake of the University of Iowa’s Henry B. Tippie College of Business — and numerous other funds, scholarships, boards and faculty chairs — died Sunday at age 95 at his home in Austin, Texas.

Tippie grew up on a farm in Belle Plaine and served in the U.S. Army during World War II, then attended Iowa on the G.I. Bill, earning a degree in accounting and soon after becoming a certified public accountant. He made his way to Wall Street, where his business acumen propelled the wealth he’d use to launch endless philanthropic endeavors.

Tippie and his wife, Patricia, donated millions to the university over the years and provided more than 900 scholarship awards for UI students.

The Iowa House approved legislation banning the participation of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports at Iowa schools and colleges.

House File 2416, which was approved 55-39, would require any Iowa schools that get public funding to designate sports programs as one of the following: open to biological females, open to biological males or coeducational.

A similar bill is awaiting action in the Senate. Gov. Kim Reynolds has indicated she will sign the legislation if it gets to her desk.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources wants to sell Honey Creek Resort after a private company said it will no longer manage the struggling resort by April 2023.

The 16,000-acre resort sits on the shore of Lake Rathbun with a 105-room lodge, 28 cottages, restaurant, indoor water park and 18-hole golf course.

Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts of Buffalo, N.Y., which has been managing the resort since 2016, told the DNR in December it will take an option to get out of the arrangement seven years into a 15-year contract.

A 2021 audit of the resort shows revenue of $3.94 million in 2020, down from $5.88 million in 2019. After expenses, the resort made just $407,000 in 2020, the audit shows.

Finding enough guests to stay at Honey Creek always has been a challenge because the resort is not near any major Iowa cities and doesn’t have a lot of other attractions nearby.

Delaware North will continue to operate Honey Creek as usual this summer and still will promote the resort and accept future bookings, Krausman said.

The DNR is soliciting bids for companies to appraise the resort to help the state decide whether to proceed to sell.

According to the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities’ bureau:

There will be rain or freezing rain before 2 p.m., a slight chance of snow and freezing rain between 2 and 3 p.m., then a slight chance of snow after 3 p.m. Some thunder is also possible. The temperature will fall to around 24 by 5 p.m. New ice accumulation of less than one-tenth of an inch possible. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Tuesday night: There’s a 20 percent chance of snow before 7 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 6. Wind chill values as low as -10. Blustery, with a northwest wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.