The Courier du lieu suivant : Waterloo, Iowa • A3

The Thursday, June 22, 2017 A3 00 1 CEDAR VALLEY CALL THE COURIER In the June 20 paper, what made the picture of the 13-pound baby such news that it warranted the front page above the fold? really that not unusual. more used to complaints that we run too much bad news a complaint about having to look at an adorable newborn is a change. We just found it to be an interesting local story with a great photo to go with it. When is Waterloo Community Schools going to cut down and remove the two old ash trees on the back side of the school down by Crescent and Lincoln? The four dead trees will be removed by the middle of July, said district spokeswoman Tara Thomas. When is the next Veridian shredding event? set for 9 a.m.

to noon Sept. 30 at the Ansborough Avenue branch. Is there some place to deposit the pull tabs off cans to donate to the Ronald McDonald House? You can drop them off at most McDonalds. What is the tallest tree in Black Hawk County? Records are sketchy. Due to lack of resources the Iowa Department of Natural Big Tree is on hold indefinitely.

The tallest Black Hawk County entry found in previous big tree lists was a swamp white oak measured at 104 feet in 1990. The tallest entry for Iowa was an eastern white pine measured at 139.3 feet in White Pine Hollow State Park. Waterloo City Forester Todd Derifield said the tallest tree recorded on city-owned property in Waterloo is a 105-foot eastern cottonwood located in Cedar Bend Park. What address do I send a letter to the editor to? Send it to Courier Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 540, Waterloo IA 50704, or email to woo.letters@ wcfcourier.com.

Can you print the background of Alex Wilson of the Weather Channel and the Weather Underground program? Did she recently get engaged? Wilson grew up in Pennsylvania and has degrees from Syracuse University and Penn State. She worked in South Carolina and West Virginia before joining the Weather Channel. She is engaged, according to her Facebook page. Where can I take papers in Waterloo to be shredded? Is there a company I can bring them to? Look in the yellow pages for or for some options. In 2014 there was a two-day dental clinic at the Five Sullivan Brothers in downtown Waterloo.

Do they still do this? If so, when will they return to Waterloo? The 2017 Iowa Mission of Mercy will be Sept. 29-30 at the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids. Is it true President mother was an illegal immigrant? She was an immigrant from Scotland; never been a suggestion she was illegal. Have you published the Valuable from the surrounding areas yet? If not, why? It has not been our practice to publish valuable from the surrounding areas. We are working on gathering information on the annual Clyde Artus Award winners from the schools in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro area.

Questions are taken on a special Courier phone line at 234-3566. Questions are answered by Courier staff and staff at the Waterloo Public Library. TIM JAMISON tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com WATERLOO The Iowa Department of Transportation received a single bid on plans to turn a flood-prone U.S. Highway 63 railroad underpass into an overpass. Peterson Contractors Inc.

of Reinbeck bid a little more than $26.4 million Tuesday on the project, which would rebuild the highway between Franklin and Newell streets and erect a landscape-changing bridge over the Canadian National Railway tracks. Pete Hjelmstad, IDOT District 2 field services coordinator, said the bid was within the project estimates. Pending a signed contract, PCI would begin by installing a temporary dewatering system in the fall and is expected to complete work by the end of 2019. Traffic will be detoured around the overpass section starting in 2018. The highway currently dips under the Canadian National Railway between Dane and Newell streets and has been plagued by groundwater flooding for decades.

The proposed project installs a new groundwater mitigation system, fills in the underpass and constructs new mechanically stabilized earthen walls as a bridge over the railroad. The railroad tracks and an existing pedestrian highway crossing would become through the overpass. Other elements of the contract include replacing the pavement from Franklin to Newell; installing water, storm and sanitary sewer lines; new signals and lighting; and putting in recreational trails. While the project is largely funded with federal and state highway dollars, the city of Waterloo will be picking up a share of the utility and trail portions. City Engineer Eric Thorson said the city also plans a future contract for another multi-use trail and enhancements.

The overpass is the final stage of an overall rebuilding of U.S. 63 from downtown Waterloo north to Donald Street, near UnityPoint Health-Allen Hospital, which involved buying out 26 homes and businesses in the corridor. The first phase, a $10 million reconstruction of the highway from Newell north to Donald, started in 2013 and wrapped up in 2016. Langman Construction Inc. of Rock Island, is currently working on a $19.4 million second phase to rebuild the highway the one-way couplet of Mullan Avenue and East First Street from Jefferson Street to Franklin.

Both the Langman and PCI portions of the project are expected to be under construction during the 2018 construction season. $26 million bid on US 63 job Work between Newell, Franklin will include overpass over railroad COURTESY PHOTO This rendering shows a proposed ighway 63 overpass of the existing Canadian ational ailway tracks in Waterloo. PAT KINNEY pat.kinney@wcfcourier.com WATERLOO Construction work and utility service sometimes mix. Some eastern Iowa phone and internet customers of different service providers found that out this week. On Monday evening, some 10,000 Mediacom customers in the Waterloo and Cedar Rapids areas were without phone or internet service for up to eight hours when a fiber line was cut west of Palo in Linn County.

Mediacom spokesperson Phyllis Peters said an Alliant Energy crew working in the area bored though the fiber line. The line was owned by Windstream Communications, and Media com leases a portion of that line to provide data services to customers. The outage occurred shortly before 5 p.m. Monday and service was fully restored shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Not all Waterloo-area customers were affected. To inquire about receiving a credit for the interruption of service, call (866) 452-4747. company does regret that this kind of interruption occurred, and we Peters said. know how essential it is in world to be connected to the internet all the time, and we continually as sess where we need to take measures to add more redundancy or where to change carrier partners, if necessary, to reduce service interruptions affecting customers when the infrequent situation arises where an odd accident causes a fiber In a separate instance in Cedar Falls, a number of CenturyLink customers along University Avenue near Rownd Street were without phone or internet services for several days as a result of outages related to the University Avenue reconstruction project going on in that area. Multiple instances of Centu facility being damaged during construction activity have occurred since June 9, city officials said.

The contractor and Centu ryLink personnel were making all efforts to make necessary repairs. While city officials were informed most service had been restored as of Friday, at least one customer, certified public accountant Dan Folladori, 3010 Rownd said he was still without most phone and internet service until Wednesday, when service was completely restored. CenturyLink has underground utilities all along University, and the city has been trying to coordinate construction with the company since work began on University last year to minimize service interruptions. Construction causes utility outages PAT KINNEY COURIER NEWS EDITOR a number of CenturyLink customers in the vicinity of niversity a venue and ownd treet in Cedar Falls were without service for several days this week during the ongoing construction of niversity a venue. TIM JAMISON tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com WATERLOO A retired firefighter and U.S.

Navy veteran is looking to keep the City Council seat he won nearly a year ago. Tom Powers, 64, 611 Campbell announced his bid in the Nov. 7 municipal election for re-election to the Ward 1 council seat. His campaign theme will focus on his lifelong service and a commitment to Waterloo. campaign is all about You For a Better because I am proud of my service in the Navy, the firehouse and as your Ward 1 Powers said.

need Waterloo community leaders who know how to work well with oth ers and put service above Powers believes he has established himself as a problem solver who has been able to bridge some divides among council members and served as a swing vote on several key council decisions. He said his focus has been on job growth, public safety, sound budgeting and community pride. He pointed to improved economic development efforts in the Ridgeway Avenue corridor, changes in tax-increment financing policies and progress getting the University Avenue reconstruction planning underway. must be a forward-thinking city that plans for, recruits and retains innovative businesses for a new generation of workers and he said. Powers said he also hopes to establish a young professionals working group to get the generation of Millennials in volved in planning the future.

Other goals include making sure the rebuilt University Avenue is business-friendly; improving budget decisions by focusing on service outcomes; and a return on investment that holds the line on taxes. Powers won the seat, which covers the southwest quadrant of the city, in a July 12 special election to replace David Jones, who resigned. His opponent in that race, Margaret Klein, already has announced she is running for the seat again this fall. After serving on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War, Powers worked for Waterloo Fire Rescue for 29 years until retiring in 2008.

He later joined the VGM Group where he directs political efforts at the state and national level to preserve small medical equipment businesses and their consumers. have been blessed with wonderful opportunities to serve my community and country, and have seen many communities across America and the he said. want Waterloo to be a proud, pro-growth, progressive place to live so future Waterloo citizens have the same opportunities I have had for years to Powers is a graduate of Columbus High School and completed the industrial service technician program at Hawkeye Institute of Technology. He has volunteered for many groups, including the Waterloo Planning, Programming and Zoning Commission, Black Hawk County Civil Service Commission and Black Hawk County Compensation Board. Powers announces his re-election bid Waterloo councilman won Ward 1 seat in 2016 special election Powers.