The City of Avoca is expecting a new hotel to be constructed at the Highway 59 and Interstate 80 interchange. According to the Avoca Journal-Herald, the Avoca City Council Tuesday approved an incentive agreement with Cobblestone Hotels for a 40 unit hotel. The project is estimated to have $2.5 million taxable valuation for the city. The company has shown interest in the past to build on the location but was unable to acquire a site.

The paper says  the hotel group has a purchase option on the site and has committed financing to the project. The city council incentive will have Cobblestone Hotel a minimum of $2 million in taxable value which in turn will generate $68,000 in annual property tax. The hotel will also bring in between $27,000 and $35,000 in hotel-motel tax revenue.

The agreement between the city council and Hotel Company allows the hotel to be eligible for additional tax rebates for the first six years. The hotel is expected to be completed in 2014.

A survey of C-F-Os at companies nationwide finds salaries in Iowa should rise next year at a higher rate than in most other states — in several key industries. Jim Kwapick, district president for the global staffing firm Robert Half, says people in professions that are in high demand will be seeing welcome boosts in their paychecks in 2014. “It is a significant uptick,” Kwapick says. “In other words, the average projected increase of salaries for people in Iowa exceeds that of our national average by quite a lot, actually.”

Chief financial officers, those who make the money decisions, were surveyed in multiple professions across the country, and Kwapick says those in Iowa were very optimistic about the year ahead. “For example, in the general accountant category, we’re projecting for large companies, a 6.9% salary increase. That compares to a national average of 3.4%, so, almost a doulbing,” Kwapick says. “That’s a significant uptick.”

For smaller Iowa companies, accountants may be seeing salary increases of eight-point-eight percent in the next year. Another industry that’s “white hot,” according to Kwapick, is technology. He says tech is a broad category with multiple skill sets. Kwapick says, “If you look more precisely at things like a mobile application developer, with frankly everything going mobile, there is huge demand and short supply which drives up wage rate.” While technology workers overall in Iowa will see a projected salary boost of five-point-six percent, those working in mobile apps may see a jump as high as 13-percent. He also points to gains ahead in several other fields, ranging from agriculture to health care. Learn more at: www.roberthalf.com/salary-guides

(Radio Iowa)

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Des Moines Area Community College administrator has been chosen as president of North Iowa Area Community College.  The Mason City Globe Gazette reports  the North Iowa Area Community College board of directors approved a contract for Steven Schulz on Thursday. His salary will be $165,000. Schulz has worked as provost at the Carroll campus of Des Moines Area Community College since 2006.  He replaces Debra Derr, who left North Iowa for a position in Oregon.

Schulz attended the board meeting with his wife and two daughters, who are students at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.  Schulz grew up in Franklin County and says he’s honored to be chosen for the position.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A 25-year-old man won’t be prosecuted on charges that he shot a foreign exchange student outside a Sioux City bar last year.  The Sioux City Journal reports that authorities say Solomon Harris has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Harris had yet to enter pleas to the charges, which included assault. Harris is accused of shooting 20-year old Natacha Butera, who is from Rwanda. Police say Harris fired the gun while arguing with another man on Nov. 18, but the bullet struck Butera in the chest and an arm.

Harris’ attorney, Greg Jones, says he and prosecutors met with a district judge on Thursday to discuss where Harris should be committed for treatment and safekeeping. Another judge has ruled that Harris poses a danger to the public.