21
Feb
2006
• The Unitarian Church, located on Eastern Avenue at East Kimberly Road in Davenport, is in the process of converting its building's heat and air-conditioning systems to run on geothermal energy. Geothermal uses heat from the earth to replace natural gas for heating during the winter. And during the summer months, the process is reversed, and heat is drawn out of the building and stored in the earth. The system is becoming increasingly popular for residential use, as well as for new structures such as Davenport's new police-department headquarters. Retrofitting existing structures to geothermal technology is less common. The renovation of the heating and air-conditioning systems at the Unitarian Church has been undertaken by Bill's Heating & Cooling of Moline and is believed to be the largest geothermal retrofit project in the Quad Cities. The constant temperature of the underground looped system provides heating and cooling at high efficiency without the need to burn natural gas. Projected savings will reduce the church's heating and cooling bill by 75 percent.
• Heart care at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport is safer, less invasive, and more efficient than at most United States hospitals, according to a report from the American College of Cardiology. Of every 100 patients who undergo heart procedures at Genesis, only eight require more invasive and more expensive procedures that require a chest incision. Other hospitals nationally are reporting that 20 to 30 of every 100 patients - or three to four times the number at Genesis - require chest incisions. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has predicted that between 2005 and 2010, the number of open-heart procedures performed each year in the United States will decline by 21 percent, from 265,000 to 209,000. In 2002, there were 306,000 open-heart procedures performed nationally.
• Renewable-fuel supporters lobbied at the Iowa Statehouse recently to support legislation to increase the use of ethanol and other renewable fuels in Iowa. Farmers, ethanol-plant investors, plant workers, economic-development officials, community leaders, Future Farmers of America students, and others arrived in buses from 20 communities across the state. The Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association sponsored the event. The proposed Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard legislation would require 25 percent total renewable fuel usage in Iowa by 2015. The proposal is currently in the Senate Agricultural Committee as Senate File 2184
• The Bettendorf and DavenportOne chambers of commerce are taking a stand against the state of Iowa's efforts to change the eminent domain law. Both chambers believe that the use of eminent domain for economic growth - when used properly - is an important tool to grow Iowa's economy. Lawmakers in Des Moines are debating scaling back local governments' ability to use eminent domain to take over private property. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of eminent domain for private economic development is constitutional.
• Ten Quad Cities-area students who plan to pursue nursing educations will receive assistance from the 2006 Gala Nursing Scholarships, presented by the Genesis Health Services Foundation. This program will provide $5,000 in financial assistance to recipients pursuing a baccalaureate nursing degree in the region. The scholarship is awarded as a forgivable loan, meaning Genesis will waive repayment if the recipients agree to work full-time at Genesis for two years upon completion of a degree. Applications for the Gala Nursing Scholarship Program may be obtained at the financial-aid office of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, as well as some other eastern-Iowa colleges and universities. Applications are also available through area high-school guidance counselors, and can be downloaded from the Genesis Health System Web site (http://www.genesishealth.com). Applications are due by March 3. For more information, call the Genesis Health Services Foundation office at (563)421-6865.
• The National PTA has certified Eisenhower Elementary School in Davenport as a Parent Involvement School of Excellence. Eisenhower is the only school in Scott County to have achieved this level of recognition. The certification is evidence of the school's meeting the standards developed by the National PTA for involving parents in the school community.
• Trinity Regional Health System's parent organization, Iowa Heath System, ranks 16th in this year's Verispan survey of integrated health networks, published recently in Modern Healthcare magazine. Iowa Health System is one of only two integrated health systems in Iowa named to the prestigious list. As a member of Iowa Health System, Trinity is part of the only ranked system providing health-care services in the Quad Cities. Verispan, a Chicago-based health-care research firm, selects the honorees from a universe of 566 non-specialty local and regional health-care networks in the United States that meet the necessary critical success factors. Iowa Health System compiled its highest score ever of 83.64, to rank in the top 20 for the first time. Iowa Health System ranked 32nd in 2005. For an electronic version of the ratings, visit (http://www.verispan.com).
• INNOVATE Illinois is a business-innovation challenge identifying the most innovative small businesses that create jobs and generate revenues in Illinois. It is the only event of its kind to bring together the most innovative companies of the northern, central, and southern regions of Illinois. Operated through the Chicago West Side Entrepreneurship Center, the Entrepreneurship Center at Bradley University in Peoria, and the Southern Illinois University Entrepreneurship Center in Carbondale, INNOVATE Illinois is actually three regional competitions, culminating in a statewide challenge held in Chicago. Read more about INNOVATE Illinois at (http://www.nwrec.org).
• Heart care at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport is safer, less invasive, and more efficient than at most United States hospitals, according to a report from the American College of Cardiology. Of every 100 patients who undergo heart procedures at Genesis, only eight require more invasive and more expensive procedures that require a chest incision. Other hospitals nationally are reporting that 20 to 30 of every 100 patients - or three to four times the number at Genesis - require chest incisions. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has predicted that between 2005 and 2010, the number of open-heart procedures performed each year in the United States will decline by 21 percent, from 265,000 to 209,000. In 2002, there were 306,000 open-heart procedures performed nationally.
• Renewable-fuel supporters lobbied at the Iowa Statehouse recently to support legislation to increase the use of ethanol and other renewable fuels in Iowa. Farmers, ethanol-plant investors, plant workers, economic-development officials, community leaders, Future Farmers of America students, and others arrived in buses from 20 communities across the state. The Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association sponsored the event. The proposed Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard legislation would require 25 percent total renewable fuel usage in Iowa by 2015. The proposal is currently in the Senate Agricultural Committee as Senate File 2184
• The Bettendorf and DavenportOne chambers of commerce are taking a stand against the state of Iowa's efforts to change the eminent domain law. Both chambers believe that the use of eminent domain for economic growth - when used properly - is an important tool to grow Iowa's economy. Lawmakers in Des Moines are debating scaling back local governments' ability to use eminent domain to take over private property. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of eminent domain for private economic development is constitutional.
• Ten Quad Cities-area students who plan to pursue nursing educations will receive assistance from the 2006 Gala Nursing Scholarships, presented by the Genesis Health Services Foundation. This program will provide $5,000 in financial assistance to recipients pursuing a baccalaureate nursing degree in the region. The scholarship is awarded as a forgivable loan, meaning Genesis will waive repayment if the recipients agree to work full-time at Genesis for two years upon completion of a degree. Applications for the Gala Nursing Scholarship Program may be obtained at the financial-aid office of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, as well as some other eastern-Iowa colleges and universities. Applications are also available through area high-school guidance counselors, and can be downloaded from the Genesis Health System Web site (http://www.genesishealth.com). Applications are due by March 3. For more information, call the Genesis Health Services Foundation office at (563)421-6865.
• The National PTA has certified Eisenhower Elementary School in Davenport as a Parent Involvement School of Excellence. Eisenhower is the only school in Scott County to have achieved this level of recognition. The certification is evidence of the school's meeting the standards developed by the National PTA for involving parents in the school community.
• Trinity Regional Health System's parent organization, Iowa Heath System, ranks 16th in this year's Verispan survey of integrated health networks, published recently in Modern Healthcare magazine. Iowa Health System is one of only two integrated health systems in Iowa named to the prestigious list. As a member of Iowa Health System, Trinity is part of the only ranked system providing health-care services in the Quad Cities. Verispan, a Chicago-based health-care research firm, selects the honorees from a universe of 566 non-specialty local and regional health-care networks in the United States that meet the necessary critical success factors. Iowa Health System compiled its highest score ever of 83.64, to rank in the top 20 for the first time. Iowa Health System ranked 32nd in 2005. For an electronic version of the ratings, visit (http://www.verispan.com).
• INNOVATE Illinois is a business-innovation challenge identifying the most innovative small businesses that create jobs and generate revenues in Illinois. It is the only event of its kind to bring together the most innovative companies of the northern, central, and southern regions of Illinois. Operated through the Chicago West Side Entrepreneurship Center, the Entrepreneurship Center at Bradley University in Peoria, and the Southern Illinois University Entrepreneurship Center in Carbondale, INNOVATE Illinois is actually three regional competitions, culminating in a statewide challenge held in Chicago. Read more about INNOVATE Illinois at (http://www.nwrec.org).
