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IOWA CITY, IA
- Watching the flags rise atop the golden dome of the
newly-renovated Old Capitol Saturday, University of Iowa President
David Skorton got goose bumps.
Old Capitol is in many ways the heart and soul of the UI campus,
Skorton told the nearly 500 people gathered outside the building for
a reopening ceremony Saturday morning.
The November 2001 fire that destroyed Old Capitol's dome and cupola
and caused extensive interior damage to the 163-year-old building
"left a hole in our spirit and our lives for a long time," Skorton
said.
"Today is a shining moment for the university as we welcome Old
Capitol back after four and a half years," he said. "More than
almost any other symbol, Old Capitol pulls us together as a
community."
As the crowd looked on under a cloudless blue sky, the ribbon was
cut and the front doors of Old Capitol opened, accompanied by
fanfare from the Collegium Tubum and the ringing of the bells in the
building tower.
After four and a half years and more than $9 million in repairs and
renovations, Old Capitol welcomed the public once again.
"It's an absolutely great day to be an Iowan, and it's a great day
to be a Hawkeye," said Mary Louise Petersen, a leader of the fund
raising campaign for the museum renovation who helped cut the
ribbon.
Immediately following the ceremony, the crowd was eager for its
first look at Old Capitol since the fire. There was often a line at
the door to get in, as visitors wandered through the rooms admiring
the new bright paint colors and remarking on the displays. By about
noon, visitors to the building had slowed to a steady stream.
Organizers had estimated that several thousand visitors may come
through Old Capitol over the course of the day.
"It's gorgeous," proclaimed Iowa City resident Mary Woolsey, 48.
"I've missed being able to come in here. I've hated seeing the fence
up around it so it's great to have it fixed."
Woolsey's son, 10-year-old Thomas Peterson, likes history, so he was
interested in reading the displays about the building's use as
Iowa's first capitol from 1846 to 1857. The Iowa Constitution was
written there in 1846. Thomas and his mom smiled as they noted the
spittoons at the end of each row in the second-floor House Chambers,
imaging the days when the politicians needed such things.
"I think it looks really good," he said. "The colors are all really
interesting, really vibrant."
University of Iowa seniors Becky Davenport and Lauren Graupner came
Saturday to get their first-ever look inside Old Capitol. Both are
students from out of state and had never been inside the building.
Davenport, from Grand Rapids, Mich., remembers that her UI campus
visit as a high school senior was three days prior to the Old
Capitol fire in 2001.
"We haven't been able to be in here the whole time we've been in
school," said Davenport, 21. "Not a lot of campuses have a
centerpiece like this, so we're lucky to have this symbol."
Once the state government moved to Des Moines in 1857, Old Capitol
served as the university's first building and the founding place of
many departments. The National Historic Landmark remains the UI's
most prominent symbol, featured on official stationery and business
cards.
Graupner, 22, said she enjoyed Saturday's "big party" to mark the
return of Old Capitol, complete with music, games for children and
snacks. The festive atmosphere on the Pentacrest continued through
the afternoon.
"This is the center of campus and everybody seems really excited to
have it back," she said. "It's beautiful."
Martha Gegenheimer, 94, recalled her love of
visiting the striking reverse-spiral staircase at the center of Old
Capitol while a UI student in the 1930s. Gegenheimer and her friend
Harriett Dean, 83, rode the bus to campus from their Coralville
homes Saturday to tour the building.
"I wanted to refresh my memory -- it's probably been at least 40
years since I've been inside," Gegenheimer said. "I think the colors
really brighten it up in here and give it a lot of character."
Retired elementary school teacher Carl Spaur, 64, of Albia, said the
renovated Old Capitol, with its focus on self-guided tours and the
new Iowa Humanities Gallery and Discovery Center on the main floor,
will be a wonderful place for school field trips.
"It's such an important building in the history of Iowa," he said.
"I'm really thankful that it didn't burn down entirely in the fire."
That concern for Old Capitol was community-wide after a tornado
struck downtown Iowa City last month, said Mayor Pro Tem Regenia
Bailey, who spoke at the ceremony. So many people "worried first
about Old Capitol" upon hearing news of where the storm hit, she
said.
"It's so clear that this building is much more than just a
monument," she said.
Iowa City lawyer Robert Downer, president pro tem of the state Board
of Regents who helped cut the ribbon Saturday, said Old Capitol is
"absolutely breathtaking in its beauty, symmetry and simplicity." He
praised the commitment of past and present university leaders to
keeping alive Old Capitol's legacy.
"May future Iowans show the same fortitude in preserving this icon
of the state as those who have proceeded them," said Downer, a UI
graduate.
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• March referendum: Funding needed to staff new school, offset
driven-down rates
By
Ted Slowik
staff writer
JOLIET — As expected, voters in the Troy School District will see a
referendum on ballots when they head to polls for the March 21 primary
elections.
The school board Wednesday night resolved to seek a 45-cent increase
in the education fund's tax rate. The money is needed to staff the new
school for fifth- and sixth-graders and to maintain academic programs
throughout the district, officials said. Many programs that were cut
before the start of the school year were restored only after the state
granted Troy a one-time, million-dollar bailout.
"There's not going to be that $1 million dumped on Troy next year,"
board member Terry McFadden said.
Troy voters last approved a tax-rate increase in 1999, raising the
education fund's tax rate by 25 cents to $2.18 per $100 of assessed
value. The March referendum will seek to increase the education fund tax
rate to $2.63.
If voters approve the referendum, Troy plans to phase in the rate
increase, starting with a 35-cent hike the first year. That would cost
the owners of a $250,000 home an additional $274 in taxes per year, or
$23 per month. Eventually, the full 45-cent increase would take effect
after five years and translate to an additional $353 for owners of a
$250,000 home.
Troy has been hurt by tax caps, business manager
Al Gegenheimer said. The Property Tax
Extension Limitation law limits increases in the annual dollar amounts
that taxing bodies can collect from property owners. As the value of
homes and businesses increase, more revenue is generated but the tax
rate is driven down. Troy's education fund tax rate fell to $2.02 this
year.
"More than half of this 45 cents we've lost in the last three years,"
Gegenheimer said. One of the quirks of the tax caps is that even though
the referendum seeks to raise Troy's education fund tax rate to $2.63,
in reality it would never climb above $2.30, Gegenheimer said.
"If we were able to keep our tax rate where it's at we would never
have to go to taxpayers," Gegenheimer said.
Without referendum approval, Troy will lack funds to hire teachers to
staff the new fifth- and sixth-grade center being built off Theodore
Street immediately west of Troy Middle School, officials said. The new
school will be ready in August and would ease overcrowding throughout
the district.
"This gives us the opportunity to reduce class sizes that are getting
dangerously high and beginning to impact our test scores," school board
President Jim Relyea said.
Overcrowding is becoming a crisis, Superintendent Larry Wiers said.
Troy Crossroads School's enrollment is approaching 1,000 students, but
the building was designed to handle 700. Troy Middle School's designed
capacity was 1,000, but enrollment already is at 1,200, Wiers said.
Wiers asked that parents or residents interested in serving on a
referendum committee contact him at (815) 577-6760.
Troy voters rejected education fund tax-rate increase referendums in
April of this year and in March and November of 2004.
- Contact Ted Slowik at (815) 729-6053 or at
tslowik@scn1.com.
12/15/05
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