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Call center bringing more jobs to Grinell

July 7, 2009 By

Grinnell will soon be getting a new call center, creating up to 100 new local jobs and over $3.5 million in annual payroll. Thomas L. Cardella & Associates has announced it will open a fifth location in Grinnell.

The company already has call centers in Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Keokuk, and Marshalltown. President Tom Cardella says the company chooses its locations carefully. He says they have enough space for 70 seats and can expand if things go well.

Cardella anticipates the company will be getting settled in town in early August, and should begin hiring in early September. The call center will be located in the former Iowa Telecom facility on 11th Avenue.

Cardella says his company serves some high profile companies. The company focuses on the direct marketing needs of Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, insurance, publication, technology, telecom, entertainment, utilities, and travel industries.

 

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Grassley agrees energy bill a "colossal mistake"

July 7, 2009 By

The U.S. Senate opens debate today on the so-called "cap and trade" bill, which Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley fears will hurt consumers in all sorts of ways. First, one report says the legislation could raise homeowners’ utility bills by $3,000 a year. Iowa’s largest utility, MidAmerican Energy, says the measure would cost it $280-million a year.

Grassley says the bill would be far-reaching. "The figures you gave are only for every time you turn on the light switch," Grassley says. "Remember, when you raise energy costs, particularly in manufacturing, but there’s a lot of services that are involved as well, every step through the manufacturing process, you are adding cost through the increased tax that you have on fossil fuels."

He says every consumer product would end up costing more, by one account, $160-billion a year more by 2020. Cap and trade, formally known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, passed the U.S. House late last month. Grassley will take part in a hearing on the measure tomorrow before the Senate Finance Committee, as he fears it may violate World Trade Organization rules.

Grassley says, "The House of Representatives included in it a provision to impose import duties on products coming into our country from any country that does not have the same efforts to cut down on CO2 as the United States has."

The House version of the bill would put an annual cap on carbon emissions while calling for further reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.  If nations like China don’t adopt the same standards as the U.S., Grassley says it’ll lead corporations to simply move more of their operations out of the restrictive U.S. and into places like China — which means more lost American jobs.

Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican, says the measure would be a "colossal mistake." Grassley agrees, and says House Democrats are "inconsistent in their views."

Grassley says, "They’re compounding problems that they’ve been complaining about, but yet they think we ought to move ahead on the global warming issue and so they’re covering their hind end with this issue of having import duties."

The 1,400 page bill contains a host of efforts to preserve the environment, but according to one report, would also raise energy taxes $60-billion.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Major rail bridge in Cedar Rapids set to reopen

July 7, 2009 By

A major transportation link in eastern Iowa that was destroyed by the floods last year is set to re-open for business. The Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway Company (CRANDIC) bridge over the Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids collapsed into the Cedar River during the flood, cutting off rail access to some downtown businesses.

CRANDIC chief operating officer, Joe McGovern, says the bridge is a key link for the rail line. "It gives us a chance to do interchange with two other railroads that are important to the downtown Cedar Rapids area and it prevented our system from effectively being cut in half based on the geography of the river," McGovern says.

McGovern says the bridge will allow trains to connect to the Canadian National Railroad and Iowa Northern Railroad in Cedar Rapids. The CRANDIC line also connects to the Union Pacific and Iowa Interstate railroads. McGovern says they move roughly 100,000 cars that can carry about 150 tons each travel the rail line every year.

A grant from the federal government paid for most of the $9-million cost to repair the bridge. McGovern says the grant was $6.96 million and it covered both a portion of the bridge reconstruction as well as installation of some of the signals that were damaged during the flood and some of the main line that was damaged after the flood as well.

Trains had to be rerouted hundreds of miles out of the way to get around the collapsed bridge and into Cedar Rapids. 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters Tagged With:

Another Republican contemplating run for governor

July 7, 2009 By

Paul McKinley Another Republican has come forward to say he’s considering a run for governor in 2010. Senator Paul McKinley of Chariton has filed the paperwork to form an "exploratory committee" which lets him begin raising money for a campaign.

Senate Republicans elected McKinley to be their leader after the 2008 election and now McKinley says he’s "aggressively" exploring the idea of running for governor.

"During my travels as senate leader around the state — visiting with groups, activists, business groups, donors — I’ve been actively encouraged to run for governor," McKinley says. "And now I’m going to start and my vision."

McKinley, who is 61 years old, bought a business in Corydon in 1981 and expanded the product line, tripling the size of the firm which employed "several hundred" according to McKinley.

"I’ve written an awfully lot of paychecks, especially during that Farm Crisis era, in that recession era when no one else was hiring," McKinley says. "And I think our government faces many of those same problems that I faced back in my business back then and we can bring those principles of accountability, a top-to-bottom review and reform that’s needed so we can have a place our kids and grandkids can learn, live and raise their families."

McKinley sold his business in the early 1990s. Then, nearly nine years ago, McKinley won a seat in the state senate.

"My vision is we must prepare our state for the global economy and give Iowans back their government," McKinley says, "and I believe my background is best suited to make the necessary changes."

McKinley describes himself as an "issue-oriented" politician who likes to solve problems. During an interview with Radio Iowa this morning, McKinley shied away from directly criticizing Democratic Governor Chet Culver.

"What I’m offering is positive solutions to Iowans, the issues we face in the state and that’s controlling spending We must stop raising barriers to job creation and lower barriers," McKinley said. "…We have to rely upon the ingenuity and hard-work and the ethics and values and self-reliance of Iowans and their native common sense."

McKinley has a website .  You can read more about McKinley and his interview with Radio Iowa on The Blog .

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Drake crew team joins Metro Atlantic Conference

July 7, 2009 By

The Drake women’s crew team will compete for a championship next year. The program is joining the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference beginning in the spring of 2010. Drake coach Charlie DiSilvestro says they have been searching for a league for about four years.

He says they looked at forming a conference with Southern Methodist, Creighton, Tulsa, Oklahoma City University and Murray State, but the NCAA has a moratorium on creating new conferences. After looking around they decided to the Metro Atlantic was a perfect fit.

By joining a conference the program will now have an opportunity to compete for a championship. He says that was the most important thing for him, to compete for a legitimate conference championship. DiSilvestro says membership in a conference also means the members of the team will have the opportunity to earn individual recognition.

DiSilvestro says they have student athlete awards and they will be recognized for work in the classroom and in the water.

The other members of the MAAC are located on the east coast: Loyola, Marist, Fairfield,Iona, Sacred Heart and Manhattan.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

ISU researchers work on improving firefighter gear

July 7, 2009 By

I.S.U. kinesiology research associate Hector Angus explains the physical testing procedures to firefighter Mike Hartman, captain of the Muscatine Fire Department. Researchers at Iowa State University are working to improve the protective gear worn by firefighters.

Professor Young-A Lee says all of the gear combined can weigh more than 50 pounds, so the goal is to maintain the proper protection while improving a firefighter’s comfort and range of motion.

"They are looking for more light fabric and light material to compensate," Lee said. Kinesiology professor Rick Sharp is part of the ISU research team. He was one of the designers of Speedo’s L-Z-R Racer swimsuit, which was worn by most of the top swimmers at last summer’s Beijing Olympics, including Michael Phelps.

"My role will really be to evaluate to what extent the gear (firefighters) currently use holds them back, weighs them down, increases their energy expenditure and reduces their endurance," Sharp said. The researchers are collecting data with help from local firefighters, who are scanned with a 3-D body scanner while using cardio machines in a thermal stress chamber.

Eric Deters, a firefighter in Ames, is hoping the experiments will lead to better fitting gear and ultimately help make his job easier.

"I would like (the gear) to be less bulky, maybe with a little bit less weight, but we still want the protection from the heat as well," Deters said.

"Maybe if it can actually release some of the heat, instead of keep all of our body heat in, that would be pretty good too." Iowa State is one of eight universities participating in the research.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Rock Rapids man given 5 years in jail

July 7, 2009 By

A man who was as a counselor at a northwest Iowa facility for people with disabilities is sentenced to five years in prison after allegedly exploiting a client. The Lyon County Attorney’s office says 45-year-old William Edward Meeks of Rock Rapids was sentenced on Monday.

Meeks was found guilty by jury of sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist, or school employee on February 25 of this year. Meeks was an employee of Hope Haven at the time of the incident when County Attorney Carl Peterson says Meeks exploited a client of the Hope Haven facility.

Meeks must also pay other fines and penalties. Petersen says that the sentence sends a strong message to protect the most vulnerable members of society. The attorney also stated that he appreciated the hard work that law enforcement and witnesses put into this case.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts
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