Homers -- What’s going right

PROGRAMS WORKING: Two state programs - Take-away and the Drug Donation Repository - launched since 2007 to dispose of and recycle unused medicines are producing. More than 11,000 pounds of drugs have been kept out of landfills and water supplies, and more than 15,000 Iowans have benefitted from recycled medicines. Combined taxpayer cost is about $500,000 annually. Modest. Still, we think overseers Iowa Pharmacy Association and Iowa Prescription Drug Corp. should secure private funding to ease taxpayer burden.

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WIN-WIN: Southgate Development's offer to make nearly $6 million in improvements to the crime-troubled Broadway Condominiums in Iowa City with the requested help of a city-administered federal grant of $900,000 looks like a potential winner for the city and neighborhood. Southgate's similar work on a nearby low-income complex a few years ago led to reduced crime and more tenants.

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SURVIVORS: The U.S. average for business closings within three years of a disaster is 55 percent. Four months from our 2008 flood anniversary, Cedar Rapids' losses are less than 20 percent, say Chamber of Commerce officials.