A look at City Hall in downtown Cedar Rapids

The city of Cedar Rapids is facing a tough question; should it rebuild the flood-damaged city hall or should it develop a new city hall from scratch?

It is a tougher question than most might think.

The city estimates it will cost taxpayers either around $50 million to build a brand-new City Hall or an almost $4.5 million cost (of an estimated total $39 million renovation project) for the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building and City Hall to be revived. In the long term scheme, the costs are almost equal.

Something else complicating things is that the city must renovate Veterans Memorial Building even if it builds a brand-new City Hall. FEMA will pay most of the cost of the estimated $39 million rennovation, but the taxpayers will have to cover some expense as well.

Another variable in the mix is flood insurance. “The total cost estimate over time for returning City Hall to the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building includes a $23.5 million cost for flood insurance,” compared to not needing flood insurance for a new City Hall in a different location.

One more option for City Hall is investing the money into relocating City Hall to Westdale Mall, where several other governmental organizations are now located. This option is the most costly to taxpayers than the other two options, but it is also one of the more popular options among CR residents.

Regardless of what decision is made for the City Hall project, it is clear that the Cedar Rapids and the surrounding areas are ready to move on with life after the flood, and want action fast.

For more information, see the following stories:

Rebuild Cedar Rapids city hall, or build new one?
Future Of C.R. City Hall And Library On Display
CR Looks to Revamp Recreation & Parks Post Flood

Vets Poster Boards

A and W Root Beer in CR struggles to recover

Doug Ward drives through a subdivision made up of rows of trailers. You can hear the sadness in his voice as he says, “This just doesn’t feel like home.” He longs for the life he lived before devastating floods destroyed his Cedar Rapids neighborhood.

“I want to come back. I miss (my friends) very much,” Ward said as he escorted CNN on a tour of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, nearly a year after the floods.

Ward, 64, is an institution in the historic Time Check neighborhood just across the Cedar River from downtown. He owns the A&W Drive-In on Ellis Boulevard, a fixture on this street since 1948.

Historian Mark Stoffer Hunter calls the drive-in Cedar Rapids’ “Eiffel Tower.”

“It’s been there for us over the decades,” Hunter said. “It’s one of those landmarks that tells you you’re in Cedar Rapids.”

When floodwaters ravaged Cedar Rapids last June, Ward’s drive-in drowned in almost 10 feet of water. Now, the drive-in sits in ruins. A&W root beer mugs covered in dried mud sit on the restaurant floor. The stench of floodwater lingers in the air.

Putting together the pieces of Ward’s life hit a snag in the fall of 2008 when an economic storm swept across the country. In a matter of months, the financial support Ward needed to rebuild dried up.

“Life’s got to go on. If you sit and worry about it too much, you’d probably be at my funeral today,” Ward said.

Ward estimates that it will cost close to $1 million to rebuild the A&W Drive-In at its current location. He’s been able to line up $350,000 in loans, but that’s far short of what he needs.

READ THE COMPLETE STORY ON CNN

Story Highlights
- The A&W in Cedar Rapids was Doug Ward’s life for 30 years until last year’s flood
- Almost a year later, the drive-in sits in ruins, the root beer mugs still muddied
- The drive-in has been a landmark in the Time Check neighborhood since 1948
- It will cost upward of $1 million to rebuild or change locations

Cedar Rapids Flood Story

The Flood of 2008 forever changed Cedar Rapids. When the Cedar River crested, it extended well beyond the 500-year floodplain and covered more than 10 square miles of the city. A year later, thousands of residents are still struggling to rebuild.

While Iowans are known for strength and resilience, the people of Cedar Rapids can only do so much on their own and are left behind by a federal disaster funding system that some say is broken. This is not the first national disaster, and it won’t be the last.

Right now in Cedar Rapids (Palo is a prime example), entire neighborhoods sit empty and rotting. Businesses struggling to rebuild also fight to survive. The state of the economy is not helping the situation either.

The committee, the Cedar Rapids Public Relations (CRPR) group, began meeting February 2009 on a volunteer basis to help address one of the primary post-flood communication challenges. Committee members have spent countless volunteer hours creating a communitywide flood message, listing viable story leads, designing an interactive website, producing a collaborative video and crafting a compelling media kit.

Today marks the official launch of Cedar Rapids Flood Story, a website designed as a way to get out the word about Cedar Rapids. The flood stories are stories that need to be told. When significant destruction hits a vibrant and productive community, every American should care.