Setting priorities

The Gazette Editorial Board

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It's exciting to see so many projects moving forward in Cedar Rapids as spring turns to summer. But amid all that building, and spending, it's also reassuring to know that the city can still put up a budgetary stop sign.

In recent weeks, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz has turned back a pair of projects with eight-figure price tags.

The city will not be spending $370,000 to study and $10 million to silence train horns blasting downtown. And a $10 million plan to create a new intermodal transportation facility on property owned by PepsiAmericas has been shelved.

Train horns are a longtime concern, amplified by a new city push to spruce up the trackside hotel attached to a new convention complex. And it's long been a desire of city leaders to move out of the current Ground Transportation Center and into an updated transportation hub elsewhere downtown.

But the city can't afford either right now. “We have a lot of projects right now, and we're trying to set priorities and limit expenditures,” Pomeranz said. As they should.

Pomeranz earlier put an end to dithering over where city government would be headquartered downtown, picking a remodeled federal courthouse over a return to the Veterans Memorial Building. Now he's put out two smoldering fires. After nine months on the job, Pomeranz is starting to make his mark.