Update Rock Island is a segment at City Council meetings given by Mayor Mike Thoms focusing on news in Rock Island. The video segment from the meeting is available on YouTube.
R.I. City Council Approves Nearly $300,000 in Additional Grant Funding for Businesses Impacted by COVID-19 – The Rock Island City Council approved $292,000 from the second round of the Small Business Emergency Response Grant. This allocation comes on top of $250,000 that was allocated earlier this year. The program is designed to stabilize businesses directly impacted by COVID-19. Businesses that have been impacted by mandated closures, reduced revenues, and customer traffic, and those that have made necessary modifications to their business to accommodate social distancing measures will be eligible to apply. The allotments for a single business are $2,500 to $10,000.
The grant application can be accessed through the Forward portal beginning November 13th at https://forward.livestories.com/login. The application can also be accessed at https://portal.neighborlysoftware.com/rockislandil/participant/Login. You will need to request a password in order to login. This may do that online. Questions from businesses regarding eligibility should be directed to Rock Island Economic Development team members Tarah Sipes at (309) 732-2923 or sipes.tarah@rigov.org or Stacey McIntosh at (309) 732-1186 or smcintosh@rockislandforward.com.
Holiday Refuse, Recycling and Yard Waste Collection Schedule – During the week of the Thanksgiving holiday: Refuse will be on schedule Monday through Wednesday, the rest of the week will be one day late; Recycling will be on schedule Tuesday and Wednesday, the rest of the week, one day late; Yard Waste will be on its normal collection schedule.
The Drop-Off Center located at Millennium Waste, 13606 Knoxville Road, Milan will be open on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 12 noon.
City of Rock Island offices will be closed on Thursday, November 26th and Friday, November 27th.
The ‘Winter Nights Winter Lights’ Exhibit – The outdoor gardens at the Quad City Botanical Center will be in winter bloom with over 130,000 glowing lights. Showcasing their largest light display yet, new areas of the outdoor gardens will be lit, including the Children’s Garden. Explore the lawns, pond and pocket gardens of the outdoor light exhibit.
Open every night including Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and the night of New Year’s Day. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Tickets must be purchased online for timed entrance every 30 minutes. Admission is $8.00 for adults, $4.00 for Youth and Free for children under 2. A small processing fee will be added to all tickets. All events have limited capacity and are subject to change based on state mandates governing public health.
Leaf Collection Program – The City of Rock Island is providing leaf collection for its residential refuse customers now through Friday, December 4, 2020. Customers must place the leaves in approved paper yard waste bags. The bags must be placed at the normal refuse collection location on the regular refuse collection day (a separate truck will collect the leaf bags). The bags may not contain anything other than leaves.
The bags furnished by the City are at no cost at the following locations:
Public Works Department
Martin Luther King Center
South Rock Island Township Office
Rock Island Township Assessor’s Office
Highland Springs Golf Course
Saukie Golf Course