Scott Community College is building a new science addition featuring a large, high-tech lecture hall with comfortable seating; updated lab facilities; and full multimedia classrooms and labs. The building will house the college's chemistry, physics, and physical-science classes. Construction began this winter on the south end of the campus. It is expected that construction will be completed in October, and classes will be offered in spring 2010. This project is one of three capital-improvement projects planned on the Scott Community College Belmont Road campus in Bettendorf. Other improvements include a second college entrance and a renovation/addition to the Applied Technologies building.

Jackson Pollock's Murual

When the River Cities' Reader profiled Figge Art Museum Executive Director Sean O'Harrow in March 2008, he was, by virtue of having just seven months on the job, mostly talk. There wasn't much of a track record to cite, but he spoke with passion about enhancing the Figge's educational and community missions.

Ten months later, O'Harrow seems poised to deliver on many of his promises.

For example, a March exhibit of Michaelangelo sculptures will be the first time those have been seen outside of Florence, Italy, O'Harrow said.

More importantly, those Michaelangelo sculptures - newly cast in bronze from the fragile originals, which were scanned with a laser - can be touched, and O'Harrow is working to bring in sight-impaired people to feel them.

"Art museums normally ignore these communities," O'Harrow said in an interview Monday. "My view is: Bring everyone in sometime, somehow, for some reason. ...

"I'm really keen to have people experience things in different ways," he added. "No one living has ever been able to touch a Michaelangelo work."

The announcement on Friday that the Figge would be housing most of the University of Iowa Museum of Art collection (nearly all of which is being stored in Chicago following the summer flood in Iowa City) was further confirmation that O'Harrow is serious about education.

The Figge Art Museum in downtown Davenport will store and display much of the permanent collection of the University of Iowa Museum of Art and will also host some of its traveling shows and University of Iowa Museum of Art-organized exhibitions. With the exception of a selection of nearly 250 works of art that returned to campus in October, the collection has been in storage in Chicago since it was moved during the June 2008 flood. The University of Iowa Museum of Art staff is currently working to finalize plans to install a special exhibition of masterworks, including the museum's famous Jackson Pollock Mural, for public viewing at the Figge in April.

The forum "Democracy's Challenge: Reclaiming the Public's Role" will be held on Thursday, January 22, at 6 p.m. at the new County Extension Office, 321 West Second Avenue in Milan. It will address the issues of public engagement, why civic duty is important, and our role as citizens in the democratic process. The cost is $5 per person and includes an issue book produced by the Kettering Foundation. Programs are open to adults and high-school students. Register online at Extension.UIUC.edu/rockisland. For more information, call (309) 756-9978.

 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded two grants totaling nearly $1.3 million to Iowa fire departments. Included is the Davenport Fire Department, which received a $975,420 grant from the Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response program. Funds under this program support the hiring of firefighters and the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters to assure that communities have adequate protection from fire and fire-related hazards.

The Waste Commission of Scott County is sponsoring free "e-waste" disposal for all residents of Scott County through February 27 at the Electronic Demanufacturing Facility, 1048 East 59th Street in Davenport. The commission noted many residents will purchase new digital televisions over the holidays for the February switchover from analog to digital and will want to recycle an older set to make room for the new. The commission is providing free recycling for televisions and any electronic waste, or e-waste: anything with a circuit board or cathode ray tube. This includes items such as computers, monitors, VCRs, DVD players, stereos, cell phones, cameras, printers, and scanners. For more information about the Electronic Demanufacturing Facility and Waste Commission of Scott County, visit WasteCom.com or call (563) 381-1300.

 

A new coffee shop will open in early January at the Davenport Public Library's Fairmount Street location (3000 North Fairmount Street). Cams Coffee Shop is the new coffee vendor at the library, featuring Seattle's Best Coffee. Also featured at the shop will be fresh cinnamon rolls and cookies, Italian sodas, and other drinks. The shop will open Monday through Saturday at 7 a.m. and will close at the same time as the library. For library hours, visit DavenportLibrary.com.

 

Reader issue #715 Rodney Blackwell insists that he did not make the difference.

"It wasn't me, I'm telling you," he said last month.

We are discussing Kone Centre, the planned 18- to 20-story building with approximately 130,000 square feet that will change Moline's skyline, ensures that 375 Kone employees will remain in the Quad Cities for 15 years, and completes - with an exclamation point - the major components of the Bass Street Landing initiative that was supposed to be finished in 2003.

Renaissance Rock Island last week hosted the 20th-annual "Hard Hat" celebration at Jumer's Casino & Hotel. The event recognizes investment in the community and thanks those who have helped strengthen Rock Island. Award-winners included Chippiannock Cemetery, Greenbush Neighbors, Keep Rock Island Beautiful, Handy True Value, Hughes Tire & Battery, Quad Cities Woodturners, Spirit Partners, Trinity Regional Health System, Virdi Eye Clinic, Jumer's Casino & Hotel, Phil Dennis, Anita Adams, and Mark Schwiebert. For more information, visit LiveRI.com/news.php.

 

Moline's Centre Station, located across from the i wireless Center in downtown Moline, has been recommended as the Quad Cities Amtrak Station. Based on this recommendation - part of a recently completed Metropolitan Rail Study - the proposed Amtrak route would start at Centre Station and end at Chicago's Union Station. The City of Moline will move forward in developing plans for the station. The Quad Cities Passenger Rail Coalition is advocating on behalf of the region for restored passenger-rail service. Amtrak service from Chicago to the Quad Cities is the linchpin for an extended route being planned to Iowa City and Des Moines, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska. More information about the Quad Cities Passenger Rail Coalition is available at QCRail.com.

 

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