DAVENPORT, IOWA (February 11, 2026) — The next meeting of the Quad Cities Flood Resiliency Alliance will be held on Thursday, February 19, 3PM, in the City Hall Community Room in Riverdale, Iowa. The Alliance is open to the public and is a forum for timely and educational information on flood prevention, mitigation, flood insurance, and floodplain management. The agenda for the February 19 meeting includes:
Presentation by Clay Merritt, Director of Engineering and Capital Projects, City of Davenport, “Davenport’s River Mitigation Plan.”
Clay Merritt Bio: Clay Merritt has worked with the City of Davenport for over twelve years, working as a management analyst, capital manager, assistant public works director, and currently serving as the director of engineering and capital projects. Clay Merritt graduated from Auburn University, receiving his Bachelor’s degree in History and his Master’s degree in Public Administration.
Presentation by Tim Maiers, Executive Director, Midwest Flood Control Association, “Protecting What Matters: The Midwest Flood Control Association.”
Tim Maiers Bio: Tim Maiers currently serves as the Executive Director of the Midwest Flood Control Association in Payson, Illinois. Maiers graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Economics and has worked in the agricultural sector for 31 years. In addition to serving for the Midwest Flood Control Association, he has also served as the Executive Director of the Upper Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri Rivers Association (UMIMRA).
About the Alliance: At River Action’s October 2018 Upper Mississippi River Conference, a workshop launched a new initiative for the greater Quad City region within the Mississippi River watershed. The Quad Cities Flood Resiliency Alliance kicked off with many local river cities, towns, and villages showing a keen interest in flood prevention, flood damage mitigation, and floodplain restoration. Quarterly meetings followed, starting in November 2018.
The Quad Cities alliance includes parts of Scott, Clinton, Muscatine, and Louisa counties in Iowa, and Rock Island, Whiteside, Mercer, and Henry counties in Illinois. It provides a forum for river stakeholders to share information, resources, flood prevention or mitigation policies, and to get to know river neighbors for assistance before, during, or after flood events.
About 75 communities comprise the alliance footprint, but out of the Quad City communities; only three are currently enrolled in the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System.
The CRS encourages a wide variety of creditable activities that communities can undertake as they continually strive to improve their ratings. The base rating begins at ten, and a variety of activities take the rating toward the best rating of one, which earns the largest flood insurance discounts. The activities themselves provide benefits to the community in reduced or avoided flood damage, quicker recovery, and stricter floodplain regulations to continue these benefits into the future.
Moline, Davenport, and Rock Island County are rated eight, seven, and six, respectively, and currently earn modest discounts on flood insurance premiums.
Goals of the alliance include educating communities on the CRS program and assisting with application and enrollment, training certified floodplain managers to eventually have one in each community, and establishing pre-disaster communications and relationships between communities to enable sharing of resources and assistance around flood events.
Meetings are held quarterly. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, contact River Action at 563-322-2969 or e-mail kwine@riveraction.org.
