Moline City Council & Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting – February 28, 2024: Right of First Refusal, Fire Station Study, and Riverfront Vision
Moline City Council & Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting – February 28, 2024
Note: The agenda and transcript record this meeting as February 20, 2024; per instructions, the date given is February 28, 2024.
Consent Calendar
- Resolution 10.1: repealed old special event policy and established new policy (approved).
- Resolution 10.2: approved Pride 5K event on June 15, 2024 with $5,000 grant and street closures (approved).
- Resolution 10.3: approved TBK Quad Cities Marathon on Sept 21-22, 2024 with street closures (approved).
- Resolution 10.4: authorized IDOT permit for I-74 ramp closure for marathon (approved).
- Resolution 10.5: declared vehicles and non-motorized assets as surplus and authorized disposal (approved). All consent items passed 8-0.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Tom Paper, a Moline resident, presented on climate engineering/chemtrails, expressing concern about health effects and urging awareness.
Discussion Items
- Right of First Refusal (Item 5.1): City obtained absolute right of first refusal on ground lease property owned by Civic Center Authority (underlying Wyndham hotel, restaurant, parking). The hotel owner had requested a right; the City secured priority. Motion approved 8-0.
- Central Fire Station Location Study (Item 12.1): FGM Architects and Illinois Fire Chiefs Association presented analysis of 27,797 incidents (2019-2022). Current four-minute drive-time coverage: 79% of road miles. Moving Station1 to 12th Ave & 6th St area improves to 82%; adding relocation of Station2 gives 86%. A fifth station could achieve 95%. Current Station1 is beyond useful life; sites considered: ballfield (17 ft fill, shoring needed), and vacant medical offices on 7th St (city purchase needed). Council leaned toward medical office site and asked for cost-benefit analysis.
- MKSK Riverfront Mid-Project Update (Item 12.2): Three concepts presented: (1) Native & Naturalistic (natural park, water features), (2) Seasonal Playground (active sports, skating, kayak chute), (3) Food & Farming (ag heritage, food hall, gardens). Council feedback favored mixing (1) and (2), expressed concern about blocking river views with residential, emphasized maintaining greenspace, and called for more attention to east side of I-74, reuse of the Tower, and recreation elements like dog park and skate park. Survey open with 420 responses.
Key Outcomes
- Resolution 5.1 approved (8-0) authorizing the Right of First Refusal Agreement.
- Consent Agenda resolutions 10.1-10.5 approved (8-0).
- Ordinances 11.1, 11.2, 11.3 advanced to second reading (each 8-0).
- Fire station: Staff to conduct cost-benefit analysis on candidate sites (including medical offices) and report back with timeline through March-April.
- Riverfront: MKSK to refine concepts, incorporate council and community input, and present unified vision; emphasis on activating east side, Tower reuse, and diverse recreation.
Meeting Transcript
Calling this committee of the whole to order at 6 p.m. in the committee of the whole room. We do have a real electronic attendance. I would like to make a motion to approve the remote electronic attendance of all the person that Murphy of the Committee of the Whole and City Council meeting of February 20th, 2024. Do you represent Less? Second. All right, roll call, please. Older person. McNeil. Hi. Castro. Hi. Massia. And Zach. I motion passes. Welcome. And as I said, Alder Person Murphy, please, you know, shout out something if I miss your hand raised since you're sort of back into my right now. Okay. Yeah. Public comment. That's Tom Key. Mayor, there's no uh blocking here, so I'll keep the time back to okay. Thank you. Hi there. Hi. Hi, it's Tom Paper Mowling, Illinois. I've been here before on this. Uh Mary's already got a copy of this, so I've come across some information here. I want one of you guys to read. Um I want to pay attention to the uh next to the last page. This is about climate engineering, by the way, because you don't know. It's uh government spraying programs going on this town. He says that my major concerns that there's evidence that they are spraying tons of thousands of nanos phenomenon compound has been demonstrated in the scientific medical literature that anasized particles are equally more reactive and induced inflammation and a number of tissues. A special concern is the effect of these nail particles on the brain and spinal cord. There's a going list of neurotherapic diseases such as Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and strong related to spraying program. So I'm not I'm not gonna start trouble with things, I'm just here to inform people. And uh I'm assuming my thought belongs for the last 10 years about this. Uh you know, I live long enough at 17 years old. Um grandkids. Thanks. Don't kill a messenger by the way. Okay, thank you. All right. Uh any questions on the agenda. I have no modifications today. So we start with our cow agenda items 5.1. A resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a right of first refusal agreement between the city of Moline and the Illinois Quad City Civic Center Authority, granting a right of first refusal to property, which is the subject of a ground lease upon which Moline Hotel LLC operates a hotel presently known as the Wyndham at John Deere Commons. Mr. Vitas. Thank you, Mayor.
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