Instead of giving the speech herself, Moline Mayor Stephanie Acri summed up the city's achievements during the past year with a panel discussion. Several department heads joined her for Monday's State of the City Address to members of the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs.
Public Works Director, J.D. Schulte says one important achievement is "transparency" - people can learn about the many projects now going on in the city by going to Moline's website.
"When you click the box here, it's going to tell you everything - it's going to tell you the footprint of the project, it's going to show you the contractor that's been engaged to the the work, and if it's been let, it's going to show you the funding source we're bringing in. "
And that includes information on proposed projects throughout the city.
Mayor Acri says parking downtown has been a problem for a long time, and some recent changes try to balance the needs of shoppers with downtown business owners.
"There was a survey and some adjustments. When I took the office of mayor, I probably spend a half hour a day on the phone with frustrated parkers, and that has been diffused."
Fire Chief Jeff Snyder says his department has started installing smoke detectors for Moline residents.
"The smoke detectors are provided free of charge, firefighters come and install them, and we try to make it as easy as possible with social media and the city's website."
Snyder says since the beginning of February, 167 new smoke detectors have been installed, and there's already a long waiting list.
