Gazette Daily News Podcast, March 17

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, March 17.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

It will be a colder day, with a chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 52 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will be cloudy, with a 30 percent chance for rain primarily before 11 a.m. On Thursday night rain will become likely, with a low around 36 degrees. There will be some chances of rain and snow mix on Friday morning.

The ongoing terminal upgrade project at The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids will get nudged across the finish line thanks to a new round of federal pandemic relief funding being distributed to Iowa’s airports.

During a news conference Wednesday at Des Moines International Airport, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the $100 million in funding, which is from the federal American Rescue Plan passed in 2021 by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden.

Each of Iowa’s eight commercial airports will be eligible for the funding, which will be distributed largely in proportion to the amount of air travel at each airport.

The Eastern Iowa Airport will be eligible for $28.4 million, which will enable it to complete the fourth and final phase of its terminal upgrade project, an airport official said. Ongoing upgrades will include expanded space, additional jet bridges, more concessions and amenities and a continued transition to a geothermal ventilation system. Local funds will match the federal-state investment, and improvements are scheduled to begin in the spring of 2023.

More Geneva Tower residents were able to move back home this week, since being displaced by a fire in February.

Nine residents returned to Geneva Tower on Tuesday, and on Wednesday about 12 residents who live on the 12th floor returned, according to a news release from Affordable Housing Network.

The network hopes to have all residents back in the tower by the middle of next week, even though restoration of the ninth floor — where the fire started on Feb. 20 — likely won’t be finished for several more weeks.

Geneva Tower, located in downtown Cedar Rapids, rents to low-income seniors and adults with disabilities. It is home to 160 residents, all of whom were displaced by the fire. All residents were safely evacuated the night of the fire.

The number of new COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations continued to decline in Iowa in the past week as the state emerges from the latest surge in the pandemic.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,008 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days, according to new coronavirus data released Wednesday. That’s down from the1,746 cases reported for the previous week and the 6,809 cases reported the week before.

The latest COVID-19 surge in Iowa, driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant, peaked on Jan. 19 with 38,574 new cases reported in one week.

A big drop was reported in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, with 112 patients hospitalized in the past week, down from 154 reported the week before.

That compares to the seven-day peak of 991 hospitalizations reported Jan. 19.

Despite the improving numbers, people are still dying from the disease. The state public health department confirmed 87 new deaths as a result of COVID-19 in the past seven days, compared to 91 deaths the previous week.

Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop.