UI continues to heat vacant Hancher

Plans call for flood-damaged Hancher Auditorium to be torn down in the coming months, but the building is still being heated, kept at a minimum of 45 degrees.

The University of Iowa is heating Hancher, vacant since the June 2008 flood, with propane via plastic tube ducts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the cost of heating Hancher, and other flood-destroyed buildings scheduled to be replaced at the UI and in Cedar Rapids, including the city's library and Main Fire Station. The cost to heat the properties wasn't available this week, but FEMA committed $331,000 to maintain Hancher Auditorium for a one-year period through August 2009, and will pay the actual maintenance costs for the months beyond that, Rod Lehnertz, UI director of campus planning, design and construction, said.

Even though the buildings will be torn down, official FEMA approval to replace them elsewhere -- a step called obligation of funding -- has not been received yet, Lehnertz said. Until that happens, FEMA will cover the cost to maintain them.

Letting the temperature drop below 45 in Hancher could mean freezing and thawing inside the building that could lead to 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 of maintaining Hancher until official FEMA approval to replace it is received, which is expected this spring. "We want to keep the building in its state until we demolish it."

FEMA Spokeswoman Bettina Hutchings, based in Cedar Rapids, said maintaining heating and cooling damaged buildings helps stabilize them. FEMA reimburses for the climate control because the agency sees it as preventative, she said.

"Until such time as we finalize the site, the new site ... they should continue to stabilize that structure," she said.

UI officials plan to rebuild a new Hancher Auditorium just north and west of the current facility, a choice approved earlier this month by the state Board of Regents.