Cedar Rapids council headed to new temporary home, Hiawatha City Hall, with a likely stop in March at Theatre Cedar Rapids

The City Council last night agreed to move its Wednesday evening council meetings to Tuesday evenings and to a new temporary home - Hiawatha City Hall.

The council has been meeting in an auditorium at AEGON USA, 4333 Edgewood Rd. NE, since shortly after the June 2008 flood, which damaged City Hall in the Veteran's Memorial Building on May's Island.

Mayor Ron Corbett last night thanked AEGON USA for “coming through in a time of need,” but he said he wanted to get the council to a venue more suited for council meetings.

The Hiawatha City Council last night voted to make its council chambers available to the Cedar Rapids council.

Hiawatha Mayor Tom Theis earlier this week noted that the Hiawatha council chambers features audio and video equipment and a dais that can handle all nine Cedar Rapids council members. 

The city of Hiawatha won't charge the city of Cedar Rapids for the use of Hiawatha's building, Theis said.

The Cedar Rapids council will meet on Tuesdays at the Hiawatha City Hall because the Hiawatha council uses it on Wednesday's, Corbett noted.

The council holds two evening work sessions and two evening formal sessions each month, and the council also agreed with Corbett's suggestion to start the work sessions at 4:30 p.m. and keep the starting times for formal sessions at 5:30 p.m. In addition, public comment will come at the end of work sessions, and at the start, as now, of formal sessions.

The first meeting in the Hiawatha City Hall will be a formal session March 9. The week before, the council will hold a session at the soon-to-reopen Theatre Cedar Rapids, Corbett said.

Corbett continues to advocate for getting City Hall back into the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island, and he said last night he wanted the council in the near future to vote up or down on an idea he opposes - building a new City Hall.