(Radio Iowa) – An excursion boat that’s been sailing in West Okoboji Lake since 1986 is being restored. Jon Pausley is C-E-O of Arnolds Park Amusement Park, where people buy the tickets for an hour-long, narrated cruise around the lake on the Queen Two. Pausley says the boat has been showing her age. “One of the engines just went out completely and we knew we had to do some work to replace it,” Pausley says. The boat was recently inspected. “To find out if there was still life left in the hull and making sure everything was good enough to make some restorations,” Pausley says, “and decided instead of replacing the Queen, we should restore her and get another generation down the road.”

The diesel-powered boat was lifted out of the water earlier this week. Pausley says the Queen should be back on the water by Memorial Day. “Going to get new engines, new generators, new electrical and finish out the windows project, then try to get ahead a little bit on some of the interior beautification of the boat,” Pausley says. That phase of the project might have to wait until after the 2024 sailing season. Pausley says they did consider replacing the boat. An anonymous donor — who was married on the Queen Two — is financing the restoration — at an estimated cost of up to a million dollars

“People love the Queen 2 and there’s a lot of nostalgia and a lot of history and a lot of love for this boat,” Pausley says. “The decision to go ahead and just restore her and make her what she once was again as best we can for a 38 year old vessel…we decided to go that direction.”

The Queen Two has an open air upper deck and an enclosed lower deck. The original Queen sailed the Iowa Great Lakes for 89 years until it was retired in 1973.

(Radio Iowa) – Today (Friday) is the last day on the job for the president of Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. Lori Sundberg is retiring after being appointed president in 2017. Sundberg was Kirkwood’s first female president and she looks back on her six years in office. “I think probably the biggest accomplishment was getting through the pandemic,” Sundberg says, “and keeping the institution financially strong during that time, but also, really trying to figure out how to support students during a really critical time.”

Sundberg’s retirement will bring in a new president: Kristie Fisher, a Kirkwood graduate who has been president of Iowa Valley Community Colleges in Marshalltown since 2019. Kirkwood has an enrollment that exceeds 12-thousand students.

(Radio Iowa) – A team of University of Iowa archaeologists is investigating a network of tunnels beneath Iowa City which were once used by the Union Brewing Company to ferment beer and transport it to taprooms connected by the caves. Researchers are using specialized radar equipment to search out the contours of yet-undiscovered tunnels to get a better sense of the cave system. Doug Alberhasky, the owner of John’s Grocery, is leading tours of one section of the caves.

“You can see that there are tunnels going every which way,” he says. “There was a tunnel going right there at one point. So this is a very large complex and unfortunately, we probably only have about a third of it that we are going to be able to see.”

There’s about four-thousand square feet now open. U-I archeologist Marlin Ingalls says stable subterranean temperatures combined with a little ice from the Iowa River were a winning combination for brewers who needed consistently cool spaces to make lager beer.

(by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Revenue is in the third phase of a multi-year initiative aimed at modernizing and simplifying procedures for both individual taxpayers and businesses across the State of Iowa. On November 13, 2023, the State will add additional tax types and increase online service functionality through GovConnectIowa, the State’s secure online tax and licensing e-Services portal. This third phase includes:

• New features for individual income tax, fiduciary and inheritance taxpayers to make payments and manage their accounts
• Administration of the State of Iowa Setoffs Program
• Expanded functionality for the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing

Five State of Iowa agencies already use GovConnectIowa as part of their mission to make it easier to do business in Iowa and better serve Iowa’s taxpayers:

• Iowa Department of Revenue
• Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing
• Iowa Economic Development Authority
• Iowa Finance Authority
• Iowa Utilities Board

Important Dates:

• eFile & Pay will no longer be available after November 1, 2023. Payments dated later than October 31, 2023 will not be accepted on eFile & Pay.
• PayDebt.Iowa.Gov will be unavailable November 7-15. Effective November 16, 2023, you may use this site to make a payment or create a payment plan for the amount you owe related to Motor Vehicle Use tax, Cigarette/Tobacco tax, Drug Tax Stamp, Environmental Protection, and Elderly Credit.
• GovConnectIowa will be unavailable from November 8 at 6:00 pm until November 13 at 12:00 pm.
• Effective November 13, 2023 at 12:00pm, visit GovConnectIowa to make payments related to individual income, fiduciary, inheritance, sales and use, withholding, field, and corporate income taxes.

Sign up for the Department’s upcoming webinar, New & Updated GovConnectIowa Features, on November 1, for more information.

Updated educational materials, how-to guides, and tutorial videos are available to assist taxpayers and business owners with using GovConnectIowa. Learn more about the modernization effort and GovConnectIowa at tax.iowa.gov/modernization. To receive notifications of resources and guidance issued by the Department, subscribe to updates.