The Amy Helpenstell Foundation has awarded grants to three local organizations: WQPT, Churches United, and Habitat for Humanity - Quad Cities. WQPT, the Quad Cities' PBS station, received a charitable donation for its "Ready to Learn Literacy Initiative." The $15,000 donation will support activities for the project, including the WQPT First Book Program, which has distributed approximately 85,000 books to children in the region since 1984; Family Literacy Workshops and the Ready to Learn Conference, which provide the latest information on early-childhood practices to area teachers and caregivers; and the Healthy Habits for Life Initiative focusing on healthy foods, exercise, hygiene, and rest. WQPT and its partners will work with child-care centers serving low- to middle-income families. The foundation also awarded $10,000 to support the construction next year of a Moline home by Habitat for Humanity - Quad Cities. The house will be located at 430 and 434 Sixth Street, on lots donated by the City of Moline. And Churches United's Winnie's Place received $15,000 from the Amy Helpenstell Foundation. Winnie's Place is an emergency shelter for homeless women with or without children.
Air service to Denver, Colorado, from the Quad City International Airport (QCIA) has been enhanced with another daily nonstop flight from United Airlines. Starting last week, travelers have a third daily flight to and from Denver from which to choose. The flight will depart the Quad Cities at 5:15 p.m. and connect to all evening westbound flights out of Denver. The Quad Cities has had two daily flights since February 8, and almost immediately the load factors were at or near capacity every month.
Acting on legislation passed during the previous session, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack has appointed 11 people from throughout the state to serve on the Business Community Investment Advisory Council. Appointees included Scott Tunnicliff, president and CEO of the Bettendorf Chamber of Commerce, and Sylvia Banes of the DeWitt Development Company. The enabling legislation credits $1 million to the Community-Empowerment Gifts & Grants account within the Iowa Empowerment Fund. It reserves that amount for distribution to implement the recommendations made by the council. The group is composed of representatives from state business organizations, educators, and early-childhood program providers from the public and private sectors, plus some ex-officio state-agency officials. The council will be meeting during the final quarter of 2006, and submit a report of its recommendations to the Iowa Empowerment Board before the end of the year.
Black Hawk College and Moline Dispatch Publishing Company have announced an agreement designed to position the Quad Cities area at the forefront of high-speed wireless Internet access service. The agreement is a long-term lease of licensed frequencies held by Black Hawk College. The Educational Broadcasting Service channels will enable the newspaper company's Quad-Cities Online unit to construct a high-speed Internet access "cloud" to serve residential, business, and government agencies as well as educational initiatives throughout the Quad Cities area. The system will utilize WiMAX technology to deliver the high speed wireless Internet service to homes, offices, and laptop-computer users in the area. Ultimately the system is expected to provide mobile wireless Internet access throughout the Quad Cities metro area. Quad-Cities Online currently serves thousands of dial-up, DSL, and wireless clients in the area. The new system will reach thousands of Quad Cities-area homes and businesses that currently cannot get true high-speed Internet service at reasonable prices because they are located in areas with outdated telephone-company lines outside Quad-Cities Online's current wireless delivery system. Under the agreement, which has been submitted to the Federal Communications Commission for its approval, Quad-Cities Online will build Internet service cells throughout the Quad Cities area. Black Hawk Colllege initially will use the Quad-Cities Online network to serve its multiple campus and outreach locations. The college will utilize the network to reduce its telecommunications and data-transmission costs.
Trinity has announced that it has been named a 2006 CareScience Select Practice National Quality Leader hospital by excelling in overall hospital quality and efficiency. Trinity is one of only 45 hospitals nationally, and the only hospital in the area, to be recognized for this distinction. As a recipient of the 2006 Select Practice Quality Leader award, Trinity is in the top 1 percent of performers across the 4,500 acute-care hospitals in the United States as identified by CareScience. All acute-care inpatient facilities in the United States were eligible to receive a CareScience National Select Practice designation. CareScience Select Practice National Quality Leaders are identified by using both quality and efficiency dimensions to rate hospital performance. Unlike other national hospital rankings, which rely heavily on finance-based measures and/or opinions of a hospital's reputation, CareScience analysis uses only clinical and quantifiable data to determine excellence in quality and efficiency, including 16 different clinical indicators.
The City of Rock Island has expanded the application process for its Lead Hazard Control Grant program after being awarded a $1.9-million Lead Hazard Control grant from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. The program is a three-year grant, and the funds will be used to reduce lead hazards in 140 private homes in Rock Island and Moline during that time. Lead hazards include such things as lead dust and chipped, cracked, and peeling lead paint. To accomplish the program goal, the city has partnered with the City of Moline, Project NOW, the Rock Island Economic Growth Corporation, and the Rock Island County Health Department. For more information, contact the lead-program manager at (309) 732-2900.
