LeClaire's new downtown is finished, and the city is attempting to set a world record for the longest ribbon-cutting to celebrate. The event will be held at the MedicEMS building, 107 North Cody Road, from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, November 18. There will be food, fireworks, kids' activities, a $1,000-LeClaire-shopping-spree drawing, and live music by Blue Fuzzy Monkey. For more information: call (563) 289-9970 or visit (http://www.leclairechamber.com).
If you are interested in helping the 19 families affected by last week's fire at the Mansur Woods apartments in Carbon Cliff, visit (http://www.carbon-cliff.com/index.html).
Niabi Zoo is finishing the season and will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. through December 8. Admission is free through the end of the season. For more information, take a look at (http://www.niabizoo.com).
Effective Thursday, November 15, the public parking lot for the Locks & Dam 14 Recreation Area will be closed for construction of the new Mississippi River Project Office. Parking will be available adjacent to the lot at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources boat-ramp parking lot. Access to the recreation facilities will remain open to include Smith's Island National Recreation Trail, picnic shelters, and all fishing access points. For further information, contact the Corps of Engineers Natural Resource Management Office at (309) 794-4524.
Writer-director Bruce Heppner-Elgin, along with producers Kristina Swanson, Mark Britton, Eric Dean Freese, and Stan Parker, have created a movie that is believed to be the first feature film produced in the blog format and made specifically for release on YouTube.com. The feature film Jenny's Blog centers on a young couple, Jenny and Michael, who move out to the country and soon find that things are not as tranquil as they appear. The story began webcasting in late October and continues with daily blog entries from the main characters. Jenny's Blog can be viewed at (http://www.youtube.com/user/JennyWhitlerHill). The first Jenny's Blog entry can be seen at (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK7ljIDXlg8).
Staff from the Robert Young Center for Community Mental Health will participate in a community forum on eating disorders to be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, November 19, in the Silver and Gold rooms at the Moline Public Library, 3130 41st Street. The forum will consist of a brief video titled "Perfect Illusions: Eating Disorders & the Family." Following the video, a panel of community health providers will facilitate a question-and-answer session regarding eating disorders.
Churches United of the Quad City Area is announcing a new event related to the Souper Bowl of Caring. Each year Churches United holds the Souper Bowl of Caring event to raise money for its hunger programs. The organization operates 26 food pantries and three meal sites on both sides of the river. This year Churches United is offering a raffle, limited to 3,000 tickets at $3 a piece. The grand prize is a 42-inch LG plasma TV. The drawing will be held in mid-January. Anyone wanting to purchase tickets should call Churches United at (309) 786-6494.
U.S. Representatives Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) and Phil Hare (D-Illinois) have announced that a House-Senate agreement on a military and domestic spending bill includes $3.35 million of federal funding to renovate the Rock Island Arsenal's Police & Fire Station. Braley and Hare requested the funding for the project. President George W. Bush has threatened to veto the bill.
The Iowa Finance Authority Board of Directors approved $1.942 million in grants from the Local Housing Trust Fund Program. The funds will be used for purposes such as subsidizing local down-payment-assistance programs, providing low-interest loans or grants to help Iowans rehabilitate or weatherize their homes, financing construction of new single-family housing for low-income Iowans, and supporting transitional housing programs and initiatives to assist the homeless. Of these funds, Scott County Housing Council received a $146,251 grant that will be used to supplement its existing affordable-housing grant/revolving loan fund. Assisted projects will promote the goals of the Quad Cities Housing Cluster's two-year strategic plan.
Quad Cities-based Living Lands & Waters has recently established a tree nursery in Beardstown, Illinois, as the nucleus of its most recent endeavor: the Million Trees Project. More than 130,000 acorns, collected by staff and community volunteers over the past month, will be planted at the Cargill facility this fall. The goal of the project is to plant and grow at least 1 million trees throughout the Midwest within the next 10 years. For more information about Living Lands & Waters and the Million Trees Project, call (309) 496-9848 or visit (http://www.livinglandsandwaters.org).
