6 stories to watch in Siouxland in 2020 – Sioux City Journal

Local voters will have lots of opportunities over the next 11 months. 2020 is a presidential election year, and Iowa is again the first state with a contest in the process of determining the nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties.

The caucuses take place on Feb. 3, and a wide Democratic field is vying to finish in the top few spots that give momentum onto New Hampshire and other early contests.

The top of the Democratic field in Iowa includes Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is amassing financial resources and has support of an overwhelming number of Republican officeholders, even as a few other Republicans have become candidates.

The general election is on Nov. 3. In some Iowa races with wide candidate fields, a June primary election will settle the nominee.

One such highly watched contest is the Iowa 4th congressional district race, where U.S. Rep. Steve King has four Republican opponents — Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor, state Sen. Randy Feenstra, former Irwin mayor Bret Taylor and Iowa Great Lakes real estate agent Steve Reeder. Waiting in the wings to take on the GOP nominee in the fall is Democrat J.D. Scholten of Sioux City, who nearly beat King in the 2018 mid-terms.

In Woodbury County, three county supervisors are up for reelection this year, Democrat Marty Pottebaum and Republicans Rocky De Witt and Keith Radig. Republicans currently hold a 4-1 advantage on the board, but a Democratic sweep would flip control.

January and February will be a busy period for the county supervisors and the Sioux City Council, and the combined entity that could ultimately result in a $49.3 million jail proposal before voters for a referendum by the first week of March.

After lengthy discussions in 2018 and 2019, the supervisors concluded it’s time to move past talks to renovate the current LEC jail downtown and instead build a bigger jail on the city’s northeast corner.

If passed, the proposal would raise property taxes to fund what is estimated to be a 100,000-square-foot center that would hold up to 450 inmates. It would be located on a 38-acre plot of land now owned by the city, along 28th Street, just north of the Holiday Village mobile home court and near a church.

In upcoming moves, local officials  proposed the city and county combining to build a “justice center,” including creating a Justice Center Authority, to combine the jurisdictions into one entity. If that happens, Iowa law holds that authority referendums only need a 50 percent affirmative vote to be passed in public measures, which is a far lower threshold than the 60-percent approval required for bond issues that raise local property taxes.

With interest, the 20-year bonds could cost in the range from $64 million to $68 million. The owner of a house with an assessed valuation of $100,000 could pay an additional $21 to $36 per year in property taxes for the project.

The Siouxland Expo Center, a multi-purpose venue boasting approximately 85,000 square feet of arena space, is expected to open by July 1, 2020. 

With a price tag estimated to come in somewhat under $15 million, the Expo Center — built on a parcel of land bounded by Interstate 29 and the Floyd River Channel — is expected to host a wide range of activities, from large trade shows to youth sports tournaments. 

The Expo Center is one of several of the big-ticket items are part of the city’s Reinvestment District, which is diverting nearly $14 million in future hotel/motel and sales tax money into unique projects designed to increase tourism and quality of life.

Just to the north and west, the 150-room Courtyard by Marriott Hotel is expected to open this spring. The Historic Fourth Street hotel, which has a $14 to $15 million price tag, will connect to the Convention Center. 

Hotel and convention center guests and other visitors to downtown will park in a new ramp under construction behind the hotel.

On Sixth Street, the historic Warrior Hotel and Davidson Building are on track to become a 148-room Marriott Autograph hotel, luxury apartments, bars, restaurants and other retail outlets. The mixed-use property is expected to open in the summer of 2020. 

An 87-room hotel Avid by IHG hotel is under construction as part of Ho-Chunk Inc.’s Village Square project; it’s slated to open early in the year. 

The 2020 Summer Olympics take place in Tokyo, Japan, starting July 24 and Sioux City native Shelby Houlihan hopes to play a big part in a couple of track and field races.

Houlihan ran in the 2016 Olympics in the 5,000 meters and she’s come a long way since placing 11th in the event, not only in the 5,000 but also the 1,500-meter distance.

At the IAAF World Championships in October 2019, the East grad set an American record with a time of 3:54.99 in the 1,500 and finished in fourth place. She broke the record by more than a second.

Back in July, Houlihan defended her 5,000-meter U.S. national title at in Des Moines and she also won her second-straight 1,500-meter U.S. national title.

So since the 2016 Olympics, Houlihan has become one of the best distance runners not only nationally, but also in the world based on her 1,500-meter results at the World Championships.

The U.S. Olympic Team Trials is June 19-28 in Eugene, Oregon, at the University of Oregon, where a top-three finish in each race is likely to send Houlihan to Tokyo.

Voters in the Sioux City school district elected four new school board members in the November election. The four newcomers said they plan to meet the apparent desire by voters for tighter oversight of the district’s administration.

The top vote-getter by far was Dan Greenwell, who has been a recent forceful voice pushing back on educational stands elevated by Superintendent Paul Gausman. Greenwell finished with 6,571 votes, followed by Juline Albert with 4,947, Monique Scarlett at 4,495 votes and Taylor Goodvin with 4,351.

The three returning members with terms running to 2021 include Jeremy Saint, Ron Colling and Perla Alarcon-Flory.

After being sworn into office, Greenwell in November and December meetings spoke out on the necessity of changing the time for the public comment portion of board meetings and to have ample financial data to set the next budget. The budget discussions will ramp up in January through March, as Iowa school boards must set financial plans by April 15 for the 2020-21 school year.

Flooding was an issue early in 2019 and remained a concern throughout the year. Heavy rains fell across wide areas of Siouxland, flooding hundreds of acres of low-lying land and delaying planting for many farmers.

Continual heavy rains fell across portions of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Montana throughout the year, and runoff into the Missouri River above Sioux City reached the second-highest level in 121 years of record keeping. As a result, flooding persisted along the Missouri River, especially downstream from Sioux City, and near other local rivers such as the Big Sioux, Vermillion and James.

Those looking for relief from the high river levels might not get it in 2020. At an October meeting in Sioux City, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said all that rain that fell this summer and fall would leave soils near their moisture capacity when they freeze this winter, leaving little ability to soak up water once the ground thaws in the spring.

That saturated soil means most of the spring snow melt or rainfall likely will run into area streams or rivers rather than soak into the ground. Heavy rainfall in the spring and summer could again lead to high river levels and flooding, the corps said.