The Isle of Capri, Inc.'s newest casino at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania has laid off 70 employees because of slower than expected business at the $60-million facility which opened July 1, according to the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.

The resort casino had 450 employees, and the Post-Gazette article quoted Isle of Capri spokesperson Jill Alexander that the facility recently reduced its workforce by 15 percent.

The Isle also blamed the current admission rules for lower than expected business at the casino. To be allowed inside the casino, gamblers must be a customer of the resort as an overnight guest, user of resort restaurants, spa or golf courses, or buy a $10 resort gift card. It costs $45 for an annual resort membership.

Bettendorf's 53rd Avenue – once planned as a 4-lane divided east-west roadway connecting the city's growing northern residential areas – will end in the middle of a cornfield when the city's planning and zoning commission gives its expected approval Wednesday (9/18) to a new housing subdivision in its path.

The subdivision effectively will block extension of 53rd Avenue to Criswell Avenue to the east, and would eliminate an alternative transportation plan proposed in 2003 which would have connected 53rd Avenue with a new north-south street linking to Crow Creek Road on the south and Hopewell Avenue on the north.

The subdivision rezoning, preliminary and final plat for Unity Corporation/Republic Electric Company is part of a deal negotiated by City Administrator Decker Ploehn and approved by the city council last month. That agreement calls for the city to pay the estimated $200,000 cost to build a street connecting 53rd Avenue, where it now ends near Joshua Street, with another new subdivision – Century Heights 20th Addition – north of 53rd Avenue.

Genesis Health Systems wants to build a two-story, 46,500-square-foot medical office building north of 53rd Avenue and west of 18th Street, Bettendorf.

The health systems has submitted a final plat and a site plan for a new addition to Genesis at Crow Valley, located between 53rd and 56th Avenues and west of 18th Street. The area already is home to two existing medical offices and surgery centers, ORA Orthopedics, at the corner of 53rd Ave. and 18th St., and Gastroenterology Associates, P.C., 2222 53rd Ave.

The plat will be reviewed by the Bettendorf Planning and Zoning Commission at its meeting Wednesday (9/18).The plans would then go before the city council for review and approval.

Editor's Note: Consideration of the special use permit for the Clubhouse Indoor Golf and Lounge was deferred at the Board of Adjustment's Sept. 12 meeting. No date was set for consideration of the permit, and no reasons were given at the meeting for the deferral.

More than a year ago, the Clubhouse Indoor Golf and Lounge at 18th St. and 53rd Ave. ran into a storm of protest from neighbors when it sought a special use permit for an outdoor patio and the request was voted down by the Bettendorf Board of Adjustment.

The indoor golf and lounge will return to the city board Thursday (9/12) with a similar request in hopes that moving the patio from the rear to the front of the building will satisfy the board and neighbors.

Commercial developments on the southeast corner of 18th St. and 53rd Ave. have a long and often heated relationship with neighborhood residents who dislike the noise, lights and traffic from businesses in the area. The commercial property abuts residential property – the result of the city rezoning property initially zoned office transitional for residential development than 20 years ago.

Retired city attorney Greg Jager has been re-hired by the city of Bettendorf as a consultant to help negotiate a new contract with city workers.

The no-bid professional services contract – apparently discussed at an executive council session Aug. 20 and then approved after an executive city council session Sept. 3 – calls for payment of $10,000 to Jager for consulting services.

The council went into closed session Aug. 20 stating it was exempt from the open meetings law because the council was to discuss "union negotiating strategies." After reconvening in open session, the council approved a motion "to have staff proceed as outlined in the executive session relative to our negotiating strategies."

Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc., Wednesday (9/4) blamed the weak economy and bad weather for its $4.9 million loss during the first quarter ended July 28.

The loss of 12 cents per share compares with a 17 cents per share profit for the same quarter a year ago.

The negative earnings came despite a more than 5 percent increase in revenues for the period compared with 2012. Net revenues for the quarter totaled $247.7 million compared with $235.8 million for the first quarter of 2012. The higher revenues were offset by a $3.9 million expense from the opening of the Isle's newest casino in Pennsylvania, higher gambling tax expense and higher marketing and administrative costs.

The Isle of Capri owns the Isle of Capri Casino in Bettendorf, the Rhythm City Casino in Davenport, and two other Iowa gambling parlors in Waterloo and Marquette. Revenues at all four Iowa locations were down from a year ago, declining to $57.2 million in net revenues for the period compared with $59.3 million for the same quarter last year.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) – after years of seeking to avoid federal designation of Muscatine for being in violation of ambient air standards – will begin the process of developing a plan to reduce sulfur dioxide pollution in the community.

A meeting has been scheduled by the IDNR for 6 p.m., Thursday, October 3 at the Environmental Learning Center, 3300 Cedar Street, to discuss preliminary plans for addressing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) "non-attainment" designation of Muscatine issued July 26.

With the non-attainment designation comes the requirement the state develop a plan to bring the city into compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The so-called State Implementation Plan (SIP) must be completed within 18 months of the non-attainment designation.

Northpark Mall in Davenport turns 40 this year, and much like humans of that age, the salad days are long gone. In fact, Northpark, like most shopping malls are well past middle age and fast headed to the scrap heap of obsolescence.

The mass relocation of retail shopping from America's downtowns to suburban malls – fueled by cheap gas and two cars in every garage – ran its course some time ago. Most small locally owned stores folded in the onslaught of chain-store competion and high-rent mall leases.

Now it's the malls' turn to be choked by some of the same market forces.

Malls are no longer new, cool or the only hub of retail in the community. Strip malls and the new shopping bully – huge big box stores with their own interstate access and parking acreage – have overtaken the mall shopping "experience."

The Iowa Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA) won't contest any of the $6 million in expenditures made by MidAmerican Energy to examine the feasibility of building a nuclear power plant in the state.

OCA director Mark Schuling said he is not planning to contest any of the utility's expenses, including the $44,000 spent on a "public perception" study on nuclear power conducted by a Des Moines public relations firm in November 2010. The telephone survey – conducted shortly after the utility got the green light from the state legislature to raise rates to pay for the $15-million feasibility study – focused on six locations identified as likely sites for a new nuke plant.

The survey by Flynn Wright Public Relations found residents in Woodbury County would not be happy about the prospects of a nuclear plant nearby, while residents in the two "finalist" sites – Muscatine and Fremont counties – were much more "accepting" of a nuclear plant being built nearby.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has agreed with the state of Iowa to reduce the area around Muscatine to be designated as in "non-attainment" for sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and subject to increased efforts to lower the SO2 pollution levels.

The EPA last February designated all of Muscatine County as in non-attainment for SO2, but the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) in April submitted additional air modeling to support its recommendation the non-attainment area be reduced to include only the city of Muscatine and the immediate surrounding area.