Hancher, awaiting demolition, still heated

The University of Iowa continues to heat vacant, flood-damaged Hancher Auditorium, a building that officials plan to tear down in the coming months.

The UI has propane tanks on the north side of the building, keeping Hancher a minimum of 45 degrees via plastic tube ducts snaking through the building, vacant since the June 2008 flood.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the UI for the cost of heating and cooling Hancher, just as the federal agency is paying to heat and cool other flood-destroyed buildings now sitting vacant at the UI and in Cedar Rapids, including the city's library and the Paramount Theatre.

FEMA has committed $331,000 - an estimate - to maintain Hancher Auditorium for a one-year period through August 2009 and will pay the actual maintenance costs for the months beyond that, said Rod Lehnertz, UI director of campus planning, design and construction.

In Cedar Rapids, it cost FEMA $535,000 to heat and cool the Cedar Rapids Public Library in 2009, according to Greg Eyerly, the city's flood recovery director.

The future of the library building at 500 First St. SE hasn't been decided - the city could sell it or raze it - so it was necessary to maintain its interior. Eyerly said the city is checking into getting the building off generators and back onto the power grid, which would lower those costs. There's no need to do that work, though, if the building is going to be demolished.

Even though the flooded UI buildings in Iowa City are to be torn down, official FEMA approval to replace them - called obligation of funding for replacement - has not yet been received, Lehnertz said. Until that happens, FEMA will pay to maintain them. UI officials expect to receive that official FEMA approval for Hancher's replacement site - just north and west of the current building - this spring.

Letting the temperature drop below 45 could lead to repeated freezing and thawing inside Hancher that could mean rapid degradation of the walls, ceiling or surfaces, or mold development, Lehnertz said.

“We cannot nor would we be advised to burn the bridge behind us,” he said. “We want to keep the building in its state until we demolish it.”

FEMA Spokeswoman Bettina Hutchings said maintaining heating and cooling in damaged buildings helps stabilize them. FEMA reimburses for climate control because the agency sees it as preventive, she said. It also can help control contaminant levels for when facilities are torn down, she said.

“It's lessening that type of deterioration,” she said. “Until such time as we finalize the site, the new site ... they should continue to stabilize that structure.”

The Central Fire Station in Cedar Rapids - mostly concrete walls and floors - was cleaned but is not being heated or cooled, Eyerly said. The downtown Paramount Theatre, where restoration work is planned, is being heated and cooled.