To help local businesses survive the pandemic, East Moline, Moline, and Rock Island have hired a company to help them provide information on loans, grants, and other assistance that might be available.
East Moline City Administrator Doug Maxeiner says LiveStories.com will provide information through each city's website on how to recover from COVID-19.
"There's only so many hours in the day that I can be on the phone with a business trying to walk through with them what resources might be available. If we can get this information to businesses in a more timely fashion and more efficiently, then hopefully we can get them in the queue to get some of those resources to keep them operating."
Monday night, the East Moline city council approved signing up with LiveStories.com for one year. And the economic development group REDEEM will pay the 6,000 dollar cost.
LiveStories calls itself a "civic data hub" and it helps communities analyze and use data, whether it's presenting health and demographic information, infectious disease trends, or a weekly flu report.