It took six years, but the Sierra Club of Iowa Tuesday (1/22) settled a long-standing score with MidAmerican Energy over air emissions from the utility's coal-fired power plants.

Six years ago, the Sierra Club sued MidAmerican Energy in federal court alleging the utility violated air quality permit regulations at its newest 790-megawatt coal-fired generating unit in the Council Bluffs Energy Center.

Lee Enterprises – owner of the Quad City Times and 47 other daily newspapers – today (1/22) reported first quarter earnings of 28 cents per share, down from 32 cents per share for the same period a year ago.

Overall print and digital advertising revenue for the quarter – normally the newspaper industry's strongest advertising period because of the holiday shopping season – fell 6.3 percent compared with the company's first quarter last year.

Iowa finished the year 2012 with a total of 63 exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, with monitors in Muscatine recording 39 of those exceedances, according to figures release by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).

A total of 35 of the 39 exceedances in Muscatine involved high levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, while the remaining four exceedances involved PM 2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter).

Pleasant Valley High School graduation ceremonies will move across the Mississippi River this year to the iWireless Center, providing additional seating and air-conditioned comfort for parents and family members.

The school board at its January 14 meeting gave the okay to use the larger venue for the high school graduation to be held at 1 p.m., Sunday, May 26.

A public meeting will be held Monday, January 28 to obtain citizen input into a citywide plan for future expansion of recreation trails in Bettendorf.

The meeting from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the QC Waterfront Convention Center is to obtain comments and feedback on a comprehensive trail study being developed by engineering firm Shive-Hattery, Inc. The plan involves 30 bicycle/recreation trail corridors in the community, and was prompted by a controversial project to add a 10-foot recreation trail along Middle Road last year.

As expected, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has filed to exclude a letter from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) from consideration by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit brought by the Iowa League of Cities over sewage "bypass" rules.

". . . the league waited for nearly a year – until after the case was fully briefed and argued – to solicit letters from the states of Kansas and Iowa about the impacts that EPA's letters are supposedly having in those states," the EPA said in its motion filed Wednesday (1/9) to oppose supplementing the court record more than a month after the three-judge panel heard oral arguments in the case.

The Pleasant Valley School District grew by 270 students this fall, surpassing the Bettendorf Community School District in certified enrollment for the first time, according to figures released today (1/3) by the Iowa Department of Education.

Thanks to 622 open-enrolled students in Bettendorf (compared with 273 in Pleasant Valley schools), Bettendorf still has a larger "served enrollment" of 4,441 students compared with 4,169 students in Pleasant Valley schools.

Bettendorf city staff is recommending to the city council a five-year capital improvement plan which would slow the rate of debt financing and result in a debt margin of 29 percent by fiscal 2017-18. The current city debt margin is down to 20 percent, and state law limits municipal debt margins to 15 percent.

The capital improvement plan for the coming 2013-14 fiscal year calls for issuing $10 million in general obligation bonds mostly for street improvements, $700,000 in bonds for the first year of a projected 6-year $4.2 million for development of the new Forest Grove Park, $700,000 for updating of the Family Museum exhibit hall, $4 million for sewer system upgrades and $2 million for stormwater management projects.

Not content to watch from the sidelines, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has jumped into the legal fray between the Iowa League of Cities and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over so-called sewage "bypass" regulations.

Oral arguments were heard November 13 in the case before the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, and both sides are awaiting a ruling by the three-judge panel. The league contends the EPA is imposing sewage bypass treatment rules – not specified in EPA regulations – on Iowa cities.

The Bettendorf Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended denial of a rezoning request to permit the construction of an auto service center on the southeast corner of 53rd Avenue and 18th Street.

The rezoning from C-2 (community shopping) to C-3 (general business) was voted down by the group after hearing from nearby residents concerned about noise from such a facility and fear that the rezoning may lead to more intense use of other properties which abut residential housing.