Business Record Daily AM 10.29.20

THE INSIDER NOTEBOOK
Oakridge Neighborhood students debut 'Success is My Protest' video

By Michael Crumb | Senior Staff Writer

Students from Oakridge Neighborhood in Des Moines want you to hear their voice. They want you to hear their message.

To do that they produced a music video that recently went live on YouTube. Their message is clear: "Success is My Protest."

It’s an upbeat, positive message from youth who otherwise may feel voiceless at a time when maybe their voice is needed most, said Emmett Phillips, a youth navigator at Oakridge Neighborhood Services.

"At a time where people are really striving to send a message about how they feel about social inequity and about certain things going on in the world, I thought it was very important for our kids to have their voices heard, but also in way that is in the safest fashion and maybe even a bigger impact than what others may have been doing who had that same feeling," Phillips said.

The youth, in third through eighth grade, are part of Oakridge’s performing arts program that was supposed to have a big show at Franklin Junior High School. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, that couldn’t happen. At about the same time, a friend of Phillips, DeAn Kelly of Beyond Walls, was commissioned by Station One Records in Des Moines to do a community-based mixed tape to generate funds for a nonprofit.

Kelly developed that into the "Writing History" initiative, which grew into a community art project that expanded beyond music to include stories from people in the community.

Phillips said it was part of that project that Kelly reached out to him to work with the youth at Oakridge.

Kelly worked with students during workshops over the summer to develop a concept. That’s when Phillips said, "a really strong feeling hit me."

"This is also a time when there’s a lot of rioting and protests going on and a lot of police and citizen engagement," Phillips said.

He said he heard the message "Success is my Protest" in his mind. He wrote the first four lines and pitched it to the students and it took off from there.

"The kids got really motivated to speak about the things they feel proud about, the things they’ve accomplished and the things that keep them going no matter what’s going on in the world," Phillips said.

He said he worked with another friend, Eli Fox of Elive Productions, who donated his time to shoot the video, "and we were able to organize the kids into doing something really cool."

"A lot of it was self directed by the youth," said Philliips, who appears in the video. "They are a very talented, dynamic bunch. As adults, we mainly helped curate it and keep people focused, but it was very much self directed."

Phillips said the video is a continuation of the work Oakridge does to empower the students to realize their full potential.

"This was really just a manifestation of the type of culture we strive to cultivate with the kids here," he said. "Use your voice, but also do your due diligence so you know what you’re saying and you speak with confidence and feel proud about it."

Oakridge provides a wide array of services to support and engage residents, including housing, child care, pre-school and after school programming, workforce readiness, education and financial literacy, English as second language classes and drivers education.

The "Success is My Protest" video is part of a fundraiser for Oakridge Neighborhood’s arts program and its campaign to build a Creative Arts Center. To contribute go to writinghistory.org.

"This project has shown me how important it is for young people to have a creative outlet to express themselves and to present themselves into the future in a positive manner," Phillips said.

MORE NOTEBOOK ITEMS: Read more Insider bits and bites of the finer side of Iowa business online.

Survey: Retirees cautious about Covid’s long-term impact on economy

By Business Record Staff

Today’s retirees are staying the course with their savings and investing decisions despite the economic uncertainty brought on by the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic and upcoming U.S. election, according to a recent survey by Principal Financial Group.

Findings from the quarterly Principal Retirement Security Survey indicate that while most retirees feel they can live comfortably financially in the near future, that confidence wanes when they think longer term. More than 60% report feeling cautious regarding the economic outlook for next year.

During August and September, Principal surveyed more than 630 retirees and workers across the United States to get a pulse of consumer concerns and actions surrounding saving for retirement, their financial behaviors related to market volatility, COVID-19 and the upcoming election.

According to the research, the percentage of retirees who report they are happier in retirement decreased from first quarter Principal research conducted before the pandemic (from 51% to 41%). Retirees share that they struggle with imagining their life in retirement and are unsure how they’ll spend their time — citing not being able to travel (61%) or see family (58%) and planning for health care and long-term care costs (44%).

When it comes to COVID-19, retirees shared their immediate concerns.
• Nearly 60% are concerned about children, teachers and school administrators staying safe during the school year.
• Nearly half say they are worried about long-term financial implications for themselves, their family, their community and the U.S. economy.
• 45% are concerned about small businesses in their community staying open.
• Nearly 40% worry the U.S. will enter a deep recession for a protracted length of time.

"This survey provides useful insights about the issues that are important to retirees and near-retirees in the current environment," said Sri Reddy, senior vice president of Retirement and Income Solutions at Principal. "Their perspectives and sentiments are important to understand so we can help identify further actions that could help promote their financial security today and into the future."

An ongoing effort to clean up Des Moines’ neighborhoods from the Aug. 10 derecho that devastated trees throughout the metro is entering its home stretch, city officials announced. Over the next several weeks, tons of storm debris that were collected over a four-and-a-half-week period will be mulched by a "super-mulcher" provided by the state of Iowa. The state is footing the cost of the mulching operation and providing the contracted equipment to the city. "It costs several hundred thousand dollars to mulch this much debris," said Jonathan Gano, Des Moines Public Works director. "The fact that the state of Iowa is doing that is a great service to the residents of Des Moines." Now one week into the task, the mulching of the debris — more than 9,000 dump truck loads — is expected to take about two more weeks. If Des Moines residents still have storm debris to dispose of, one final free SCRUB (Spring Cleanup to Reduce Urban Blight) event is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21. Yard waste should be delivered to the MWA Compost Center at 1601 Harriett St. For more information, visit DSM.city/SCRUB.

$28 million-plus approved for derecho survivors; less than one week left to register for FEMA assistance
Survivors of the Aug. 10 derecho have less than a week to register for disaster assistance with FEMA and apply for a U.S. Small Business Administration low-interest disaster loan. More than $28 million in federal assistance has been approved for Iowans so far in 12 counties, including Polk and Marshall counties. FEMA has approved more than $9.7 million in Individual Assistance grants for more than 2,640 households. The Small Business Administration has approved more than $19 million in disaster loans for homeowners, renters and small business. Applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. Nov. 2 to be considered for assistance.

Casey’s spotlighting support of veterans’ organizations
In November, customers of Casey’s General Stores can support two nonprofit organizations – Hope for the Warriors and Children of Fallen Patriots – by rounding up their purchases to the nearest dollar. Money raised during the campaign will be donated to the organizations. In addition, $1 will be donated to the nonprofits from each sale of a large pizza and 2-liter Pepsi brand drink sold during November. The Ankeny-based Casey’s also plans to provide free coffee mugs to customers on Nov. 11, which is Veteran’s Day.

VizyPay, a credit card processing company currently located in West Des Moines, will move its headquarters to Waukee in 2021, locating in a building under construction at 2565 S.E. Encompass Drive, a managing partner in the business said.

VizyPay, which began in 2017, will lease about 16,000 square feet of the building’s second floor with options to expand in the future, said Austin Mac Nab of VizyPay. The lease is for 7 1/2 years, he said. Read more

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NEWS BRIEFS

New Amazon site owner hopes to sell for twice the price
Corridor Business Journal: Less than a year after it acquired the Iowa City warehouse that is now home to an Amazon last-mile delivery center, new owners Tamshazon LLC have put the property up for sale – at nearly twice the price. The business entity created by California-based Cardinal Industrial purchased the 2500 Heinz Road property in January for $13.4 million, or what was then about 165% of its 2019 assessed value of $8,116,130. A notation on the sales record at the time indicated the higher price for the 346,553-square-foot warehouse was the result of the "quality of tenant and lease (Amazon)."

Experts: Iowa’s renewable energy growth depends on better transmission
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Iowa could become an even bigger leader in renewable energy, especially if renewable hydrogen is developed and transmission lines are improved, a panel of university, government and corporate leaders said Wednesday. James McCalley, an Iowa State University engineering professor who studies electrical transmission, said Iowa already is one of the top few states in the share of its power that comes from renewable energy, but is positioned to have far more wind and solar energy. "The coupling between wind and solar growth and transmission is very tight," McCalley said on a Zoom session arranged by Power Up Iowa, a renewable energy industry group. "We are second in the nation in terms of capacity and first in terms of percent of energy from renewables," McCalley said. "There’s very definitely potential for making more progress but that is not going to happen without a very large investment in transmission."

U.S. economy notches record growth in third quarter
Reuters: The U.S. economy grew at an unrivaled pace in the third quarter as the government poured out more than $3 trillion worth of pandemic relief which fueled consumer spending, but the deep scars from the COVID-19 recession could take a year or more to heal. Gross domestic product rebounded at a 33.1% annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said in its advance estimate on Thursday. That was the fastest pace since the government started keeping records in 1947 and followed a historic shrinkage rate of 31.4% in the second quarter.

ONE GOOD READ
The Plight of Rural Hospitals (Part 2)

David P. Lind Benchmark: Similar to our vehicle’s check engine light, we hope to be alerted with any major problem BEFORE something catastrophic happens. Sometimes, however, depending on the make, model and year of the vehicle, once the red or yellow light is flashing, the damage may have been done, leaving us shocked, frustrated and perhaps stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Similarly, we don’t want this to happen to our critical access hospitals. If a financial stress light is not activated early enough, indicating that a particular rural hospital is in deep financial trouble, local officials and state policymakers are forced to react to something that could’ve been addressed earlier had the problem been closely monitored. It’s about being proactive and having the right tools to assess and manage over a period of time.

Section 1031 Like-Kind Exchanges: 98 Years Old, Powerful and Tricky
JOE KRISTAN, CPA, PARTNER, EIDE BAILLY, LLP

Anyone who is still around from the Warren Harding administration is entitled to some respect. And maybe even a bit of … fear? The tax law’s "like-kind exchange" provision—popularly known as "Section 1031 exchanges" after its current home in the Internal Revenue Code—may indeed be ancient, but it remains spry enough to be a great tax planning tool.
> FULL ARTICLE

KCCI TOP STORIES

DMPS board members discuss current coronavirus metrics
Des Moines school board members on Wednesday discussed metrics related to the coronavirus. As the number of hospitalizations increase and the weather gets cooler, concerns were brought up. "You have less humidity in the air. Those viruses spread easier person-to-person, but then you're also driving people indoors and around each other which better facilitates spread of the virus," explained Dr. Meg Schaeffer, a consultant and CEO with Aperio Statistical Consulting contracted by DMPS. Read more

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