The city of Moline and United Way Quad Cities are asking residents to join their pilot program, 'Snow Angels,' which assists residents aged 60 and over and people with physical disabilities in clearing their sidewalks.
WVIK spoke with Moline Public Works Director Denver Schmitt about the program.
The interview has been edited for clarity.
WVIK: Could you tell me or summarize the thinking...timeline of the 'Snow Angels' program between the city of Moline and United Way Quad Cities?
Schmitt: Yeah, so we actually just launched the program a few weeks ago. And thinking-wise, I started in my position in January. Shortly after that, we had a historic snowfall. And with that snowfall and many other snowfalls that are over two inches, residents are actually required to shovel their sidewalks. So because of that, many of them reached out to us, told us that they couldn't do that for a variety of actually legitimate reasons. So that helped us kind of focus on maybe there's a different way to do it. So I gave the idea to my staff. I really have a great staff. They kind of ran with the idea and developed a program over the last, I'd say, nine to ten months. City Council was very supportive of the program. Finally got to the point where we were ready to launch.
WVIK: I note you mentioned you started this year. How long has that ordinance been on the books for residents to remove snow if it's two inches or more?
Schmitt: For as long as I am aware of. It's fairly common for municipal communities to have that requirement of having the residents maintain their sidewalks, the front sidewalk near the roadway. So, Moline is similar to other communities.
WVIK: This is a volunteer program. I'm assuming are the volunteers coming from United Way Quad Cities?
Schmitt: Yeah. So, volunteers can actually go to our website and sign up through an application process. United Way is actively working with us as well to get volunteers on their side as well and then would kind of coordinate those volunteers with us.
WVIK: Do you have an estimate of the current number of volunteers or people interested in helping?
Schmitt: Yeah. So that's a challenge for us right now. We currently have less than a handful of volunteers. So definitely that's an area we're hoping to improve upon soon. You know, if we could get even a dozen more, that would be great for the program.
WVIK: How would this program work? Residents would call the city or United Way and request assistance? Do they have to go through an application process of their own?
Schmitt: Yeah. So interested participants would go to the city's website as well. It's moline.il.us. And there's an application that they would fill out. It gets sent to our staff. We take a look at it. And then as best we can, we try to pair the volunteers with a participant within their kind of neighborhood. We really don't want them to go more than a mile away. So we don't want them to go across town, rather just someone in their neighborhood where they can help.
WVIK: And for the equipment, snow shovels, salt, is that something that's provided by the residents if they have their own equipment, the city, United Way?
Schmitt: Yeah. So currently it's the volunteers would bring their own equipment, salt, if they wanted to as well. That's something we considered since it's more of a pilot program. Kind of thought, you know, using your own equipment. You might be more familiar, might be more comfortable with your own shovel that you might be already using.
WVIK: Is there anything that you would like to tell listeners, especially mentioning you'd like more, a handful more volunteers ...of what this program can do if successful?
Schmitt: Yeah, definitely. You know, I think the goal of the program really is to have a safe community. We're aware that residents, students, postal workers, city staff, all use sidewalks year round. So really hoping that this program can help make sidewalks more accessible, more safe, even during the harsher winter months. So yeah, if you're interested, definitely go to our website. You can give us a call at our public works line. It's (309)-524-2345. And we're ready to help you out if you're interested.
WVIK: Thank you so much, Denver. And at this point, is there anything I may not have asked about the pilot program that you think is important for listeners to know?
Schmitt: I don't think so. But, you know, it's a community type endeavor. You know, our city council has core values and collaboration is at the top. So we're really hoping that the community comes together, collaborates, and we can make the community a little bit safer.

This story was produced by WVIK, Quad Cities NPR. We rely on financial support from our listeners and readers to provide coverage of the issues that matter to the Quad Cities region and beyond. As someone who values the content created by WVIK's news department, please consider making a financial contribution to support our work.