A look at Moline, Rock Island and East Moline priorities heading into 2025
By JOSHUA SHIMKUS – Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa (TNS)
One of the major tasks cities undertake each year is to plan and to pass a budget.
City representatives from Rock Island, Moline and East Moline communicated with the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus about their approved budgets for 2025, and shared highlights and how they felt about each city’s overall financial position as they head into the new year.
Rock Island: Projects stir developers
For Rock Island, priorities include maintaining the city’s position while preparing for the future.
Rock Island’s Mayor Mike Thoms and Finance Director Jessica Sager said the city hasn’t had any big expenses come up recently. They said the city has made progress paying off debt while positioning itself for upcoming expected economic development.
“I’m excited about where we’re going,” Sager said. “We have a lot of projects that are on the horizon that will have a really big impact for the city.”
“The pipeline is fuller than it used to be,” Thoms added, speaking about city development projects. “Seven, six years ago I was very frustrated. To get people interested in doing things today, it’s a lot easier, so I’m really excited about that.”
One of the major differences between the city’s 2024 and 2025 budget is its spending down of American Rescue Plan Act funds. ARPA was an economic stimulus bill enacted in March of 2021 to help the United States recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Local governments received restricted funds which must be invested for designated purposes like infrastructure investments and unrestricted funds that have a broader flexibility.
By law, ARPA funds had to be allocated by the end of this year and must be spent by the end of 2026. In Rock Island’s 2024 budget, the city had over $16.2 million in ARPA funds to use. Only a little over $3.6 million is budgeted to be spent in 2025.
Sager said she was proud of how the city has used its ARPA funds.
“I think the council has been really good about how thoughtful they were with spending the ARPA dollars, and staff has been really good with leveraging the ARPA dollars,” Sager said. “It’s going to be amazing all of the different amenities that the city can offer.”
Some of the major ARPA projects include Rock Island’s downtown redevelopment, utility meter replacement, updates to the city’s financial software and City Hall renovations.
The city recently unveiled its renovations to City Hall, but the other projects are still underway. Thoms said he expected the construction downtown to be finished by mid-spring of 2025 and that the city is starting to see more interest from developers.
“It may be a year or so from now, but the revitalization stirred that up, so to speak,” Thoms said. “People are saying, ‘I want to invest, I want to be there early on,’ we’re starting to see that already.”
Moline: Riverfront development a focus
Moline’s City Administrator Bob Vitas described goals like Rock Island’s in an interview about city finances.
“We’re always looking to the future, and how we can make ends meet down the road,” Vitas said. “We’re going to leave it better than we found it.”
Vitas said that generally Moline has been conservative with its budget, not just under current leadership, but also under previously elected city officials and city staff. He said that the city has its reserves fully funded, and that the budget is planned for the next three years under their strategic plan.
“I don’t see anything on the horizon that is a red flag,” Vitas said.
Vitas highlighted a few changes from previous budgets that were included in the plan for 2025, like the planned hiring of six new firefighters to staff an additional ambulance in the city. Moline is also increasing its funding support for the “Level Up” program, a poverty-reduction collaboration with Project NOW.
But Moline’s largest upcoming change is its planned redevelopment of the riverfront area near the I-74 bridge and downtown Moline. Vitas said that some of the projects within the overarching development were beginning to be funded, but that many still needed funding.
“Our special capital projects fund, which is basically all the riverfront redevelopment, all of those lofty goals and ambitions that we have, those have all survived,” Vitas said. “I think it’s the most exciting project being done on the Mississippi right now.”
East Moline: Increasing training budgets within city
East Moline also ended the year with similar goals to its neighboring cities, maintaining regular city operations while working toward the redevelopment of its own downtown. East Moline’s City Administrator Mark Rothert shared a budget message document that highlighted several of the city’s 2025 goals.
The city’s budget is balanced while increasing training budgets for city departments. The police department will be fully staffed, and the city plans to add a firefighter in 2025 to improve efficiency and reduce overtime for the department. The city also expects to launch Business Improvement Grant Program.
As previously reported, the city will have to balance these priorities with upcoming necessary improvements to the city’s water infrastructure.
(c)2024 Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa
Visit Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa at http://www.qctimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
