Rock Island City Council further demonstrated its commitment to Downtown revitalization on Monday when it voted to put $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds toward a proposed $7 million project that would modernize and enhance the city’s historic center of commerce and culture. That money will be supplemented with about $1.5 million […]
The following story is shared from WVIK News as part of QuadCities.com’s partnership with WVIK. To see the full story click here. Republican Rock Island Mayor Mike Thoms is running for the Illinois Senate. Thursday morning he began a several-stop announcing tour of the new 36th Senate district. If elected, he says his focus would […]
Rock Island broke ground on a new YMCA building in its downtown yesterday! Mayor Mike Thoms posted the following on social media to celebrate: We broke ground on another exciting project downtown Rock Island. The YWCA is building a 45,000 square-foot new facility, at the former Zimmerman car dealership lot. Their services are greatly utilized […]
BREAKING NEWS: Rock Island has stopped exploring selling off its water and sewer services to a private company. The city issued the following statement this afternoon: “The Rock Island City Council is suspending further exploration into the privatization of the City’s water and sewer utilities. The elected officials and staff of the City of Rock […]
EXCLUSIVE: Thurgood Brooks, who recently led the charge to pass The Resolution to improve relations between police and the Rock Island community, is considering a run for lllinois State Representative for the 72nd District, which includes the Quad-Cities. The current representative, Mike Halpin, announced today he would be leaving the seat to run for State […]
UPDATED: After a lengthy question and answer session with American Water, I still think Rock Island selling its water and sewer would be a horrible idea, and I think the Rock Island mayor and city council needs to stop being disingenuous about stringing the idea along and put it aside. After I’d previously written on […]
EXCLUSIVE: There’s been a wellspring of controversy over the past few months as the Rock Island Mayor and City Council have contemplated selling the city’s water and sewer systems to a private company, American Water. On July 26, American Water gave a presentation to the city government officials pitching them the potential sale. After that, […]
EXCLUSIVE: Rock Island Mayoral candidate and community organizer Thurgood Brooks lost in a surprisingly close election to incumbent Mike Thoms earlier this year. Since then, Brooks has been working to put together a commission to increase communication between law enforcement and citizens, working on various community initiatives, and contemplating his political future after an impressive […]
On May 12, the Rock Island-Milan Education Foundation awarded $10,000 to Rock Island High School entrepreneurs at the Final Pitch night in the RIHS Auditorium. 5 student teams presented their products or services to a panel of judges in hopes of winning 3 different awards: Best Pitch, Best Business Potential, and Best Business Model. The […]
BREAKING NEWS: In a surprisingly clean-fought yet vigorously challenged campaign, Mike Thoms has won re-election for Mayor of Rock Island over energetic and impressive challenger Thurgood Brooks. According to official results, Thoms won 52-48 percent with a little over 5,000 votes cast. This is Thoms’ second term. He won over a number of challengers in […]
