Council return to city hall puts repair plans in motion

Members of the Cedar Rapids Veterans Memorial Commission kept asking city leaders what they planned to do about returning to the flood-damaged city hall building on May's Island.  Tuesday night, the commission finally got an answer.  And the “we're coming back” response cleared up a lot of confusion about the repairs needed to restore the building.

At Tuesday's meeting, the council voted 7-1 to return regular council meetings to the Veterans Memorial Building.  And workers connected with the city manager, city clerk and mayor's office will be returning as well.

The decision means what was city hall before the flood of June 2008 will eventually become city hall again.  And now the Veterans Memorial Commission knows what to fix first.

Since the city plans to reoccupy the 3rd and 4th floors of the Veterans Memorial Building, the location of council chambers and offices, work on getting that area ready will move up the “to-do” list.  But Mike Jager, director of the Veterans Memorial Commission, said some repair work had to get done first regardless of what city leaders decided about a return.

“There's certain critical infrastructure such as heating, cooling, air conditioning and plumbing we had to get off life support,” Jager said

Jager said by “life support” he means the expensive systems used to prevent deterioration of the building following the extensive flood damage in June of 2008.  FEMA paid approximately $90,000 a month for temporary heating and cooling systems set up outside the building.  Those temporary systems are now disconnected and Jager said contractors are busy installing permanent air conditioning and boiler systems.  He expects the utility cost to drop to about $10,000 a month.

Installing new elevators is also a top priority-and the commission now knows they must replace rather than just repair those systems.

He said long term ideas don't have to get done right away.  There is some discussion of major changes in the auditorium or adding additional restrooms on office floors.  Jager said those kind of changes aren't a priority.

“We look at this building like a hospital.  Hospitals always have construction on them-but they don't shut the entire hospital down because you're working on one wing, one branch,” Jager said.

About 100 city employees worked at Veterans Memorial, or city hall, before the flood moved everyone to temporary locations.  The initial number coming back is 20 to 25.

A still-to-solve problem for returning city workers, and the public, is where to park while conducting city business.  Before the flood, many city workers used a parkade located between city hall and the Linn County Courthouse under a plaza.  Concerns about possibly structural problems brought on by flooding have kept that parking area closed.

But Jager said the old federal courthouse located across the Cedar River will soon belong to the city.  That building has approximately 53 outside parking spaces and Jager said it may be possible to use those spaces for workers and even the public as a temporary solution.

The city is hoping to bring workers and council meetings back to the original city hall by February.  The commission overseeing the repair process on the building calls that a “do-able” schedule.