Gazette Daily News Podcast, May 31

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This is John McGlothlen with The Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Tuesday, May 31st.

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend.

Today we have a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, according to the National Weather Service. It will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 82. Winds from the southwest, 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Then tonight, partly cloudy, with a low around 56.

Local casino backers have unveiled plans for a $250 million, 160,000 square-foot entertainment and cultural arts complex near downtown Cedar Rapids at the site of now-demolished Cooper’s Mill. The Cedar Crossing Casino proposal calls for bars, restaurants, a 1,500-capacity entertainment center and other venues along the west side of the Cedar River, between Kingston Village and Time Check Park. Gaming interests believe the complex would set a new bar for Iowa casinos. The project also would incorporate flood control to protect the structure from rising waters. The Cedar Rapids Development Group, an entity of mostly local investors, and Linn County Gaming Association, the nonprofit that would allocate a slice of revenue to local nonprofits, will jointly apply for a gaming license with the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission after the proposed state moratorium on new licenses ends in June 2024. The moratorium takes effect June 1, pending a signature from Gov. Kim Reynolds, who said Friday she was reviewing recently passed legislation with her staff.

Over the next 24 years, if nothing changes, Kirkwood Community College is on track to spend nearly $40 million maintaining its 97,094-square-foot Iowa City campus — which has a current classroom-use rate under 40 percent and saw a 75 percent enrollment decline between 2016 and 2021. Given that makes little budgetary sense — especially in a post-pandemic age when many campuses are facing enrollment losses and fiscal challenges — Kirkwood earlier this year initiated a trio of consultants to study the Iowa City site. The goal was to better understand the needs of students, employers and the broader community in making “informed decisions about the future of Kirkwood facilities in Iowa City.” And the consultants have made their recommendation — Kirkwood should find another Iowa City site, downsize by more than two-thirds and recalibrate its course offerings. The appropriate size of a “New Iowa City Kirkwood Center,” according to the consultant’s analysis, would be about 30,000 square feet. That would shave 67,094 square feet off Kirkwood’s current Iowa City footprint, which is spread out across three buildings — a main credit center, annex and learning center.

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🎹 Podcast music: “New Day” by Emily McGlothlen