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Editorial: WB entering a busy year
Op-Ed · January 16, 2015


Setting 2014 to rest, it’s time to consider goals and hopes for 2015. The City of West Branch, West Branch Community Schools and Hoover Complex have a lot of irons in the fire right now — big-budget irons. And they’re getting ready to take some out and strike.


A recreation center, a massive new World War I exhibit, an addition at West Branch High School, the 50th anniversary of the Hoover National Historic Site, possibly a new library — the community is ready to invest in hopes of making West Branch more viable and attractive.

But there’s too much to do all at once, so prioritizing and planning are essential. In many cases, though, most of the planning is already done, so patience is the next step: Waiting for an election so voters can decide on funding, even if that is not in 2015.

So let’s look at what we hope can and will happen in the coming year:

• It’s hard to come up with a library goal for the coming year since the recreation center is still in limbo.

A majority of voters approved of the city’s plan to spend up to $4 million on parks, including nearly $1 million preparing the land in Pedersen Valley for a future recreation center — however, the referendum needed a supermajority to pass, and was only 26 votes shy of doing so.

Right now, it does not look like a second referendum on the parks will happen again until November. That still leaves future votes on the recreation center and, separately, the library, as the current line of thought is not to add the library until after the recreation center is finished.

The city only has so much money it can borrow, and they don’t even have a recreation center designed that will fit inside it’s $5 million budget. It’s starting to look like a new library is going to get pushed further and further down the calendar, though not so far that it would be outside the library board’s expectations.

Thankfully, while the library is a very busy place, the building is still relatively young and in good shape, so it should easily suffice for now while the city, school and voters shake out the details on parks and rec and other capital improvements.

So the goal? Wait patiently and see what happens in November. At that time, we may know if the recreation center will go on with a library to eventually follow, or the library may have to come up with another plan.

• With Altorfer open, our attention turns back primarily to Acciona. Regardless of the disagreements and the lawsuit between the city and the manufacturer, we hope to see the assembly plant reopen. West Branch’s assembly plant is the closest to the company’s new wind farm contracts sold in Texas and other North American locations this past year, but a recent call to Acciona’s spokesman only got a response of “I’ll call you back.”

We would also call on the new Iowa delegation to the U.S. Congress to push for a multi-year wind energy tax credit. Approving the tax credit at the last moment one year after another is not giving investors and utility companies the stability one would expect from a federal government that says it values alternatives to carbon-based energy supplies.

And we hope to see the lawsuit between Acciona and the city settled amicably and fairly, even if it does go to trial in October as scheduled. Acciona Windpower is under new leadership; Joe Baker left and Enrique Teruel is now the CEO, so perhaps that will play a factor.

• We have mixed thoughts on the fact that the city is operating under a wastewater treatment permit that expired on Jan. 2, 2008, now more than seven years ago. First, it has given the city time to explore ways to respond to what are predicted to be ammonia levels far below what the expired permit allows. While doing that, the city has been scoping and repairing sewer pipes — to keep as much rain as possible out of the sanitary sewer — to reduce the volume of water a new wastewater treatment system must process, with the hope that could reduce the cost of the system itself. The city plans to continue that effort in 2015.

However, we can’t help but wonder if the Environmental Protection Agency could provide the city with some new information on the possible ammonia levels a new permit might require, before the permit itself is issued. That might help narrow down the choices for water treatment.

• We were encouraged by the two grants in 2014 that will build one sidewalk and one foot bridge and replace a second foot bridge. The West Branch Village work will likely happen in 2015; the replacement of the College Street bridge and pedestrian walkway may take as long as up to four years. We hope the progress the city has made and the grants will spur on the city to build more sidewalks in 2015 and keep up a relatively steady pace.

• The city completed a comprehensive plan in 2013 and is close to approving the capital improvement plan, with the former driving the latter. This is guidance and vision, this is a plan. It is important because it shows the city primarily as proactive. It means the city may solve some problems before they arise or become serious. In 2015, we will see the beginnings of how well the city carries out these two plans together, how much the city values these plans, and how well the plans benefit the city.

• The Hoover Complex in October 2013 was shut down for 16 days when the U.S. Congress could not agree on a federal budget. Two more shutdowns were avoided in 2014 because Congress seemed to get the hint that voters disliked the squabbling, and the fact that their elected officials could not meet their own self-imposed deadline. So our hope in 2015 is that the Republican-led House and Senate, and the Democrat-led White House can learn to work together. We’re certainly not the first ones to wish this of our elected leaders, yet we hope the November 2014 shake-up will teach our legislative branch that it must discipline itself to pass a budget on time. We also hope Congress realizes it suffers from constituent disrespect largely for its inability to lead — they require us to meet their deadlines for taxes, licenses and forms in triplicate, yet they cannot meet their own deadlines? Hypocrisy discourages citizens.

• On the economic development side, a Main Street West Branch report sent a strong message in 2014 that a lot of people are interested in moving to West Branch, but there are too few homes on the market to give them much choice. Can MSWB, Cedar County Economic Development or Iowa City Area Development work on attracting more companies to build homes in the city?

• The Board of Education last January approved a 15-year facilities plan, and started working on it right away. Before the year ended, it had already tackled one big project: a larger parking lot at the high school. Superintendent Kevin Hatfield is driving the plan, talking about it at every monthly meeting and addressing it in newspaper articles and notes to the community. With that momentum, we look forward to the school board using 2015 to set a firm date for when it will go to the voters for money to construct an addition at West Branch High School to absorb the middle school pupils and create a 6-12 campus.

This community ramped up its planning in 2014, and clearly wants to carry that into the new year. We hope that the positive motivating factors mix with good financial planning to bring good results for the school, city and Hoover Complex.

It’s going to be a busy year.