QC Forum - 5-12-24

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Quad City Forum, aweekly community service program produced by iHeartMedia to
look at the issues and opportunities thatexist in our community. Now here's your
hosts for a Quad City Forum,Pat Luke and Denny Linhowe. Tory Smith,
chief executive officer with the Boys andGirls Club of the Mississippi Valley.

(00:21):
Big event that Tory and everybody wantsyou to be a part of. We'll
talk about that in just a second. But with the Boys and Girls Club
of the Mississippi Valley, it's anorganization. I mean when you go back
to the Boys Club that started backin the eighteen hundreds, it is like
anything you've been around that long.Like anything, it's going to change every

(00:41):
now and again. But probably sinceabout the nineteen nineties, it's been known
as the Boys and Girls Club ofthe Mississippi Valley, at least for the
Quad Cities. But really the onetheme has always stayed the same, and
certainly it's more important nowadays Tory thatwhen you have a lot of kids that
are maybe mom and dad are workinglooking a lot, they need a productive

(01:02):
place to go and a place thatthey can feel safe, and that's where
the Boys and Girls Club even todaymore important than ever, absolutely with people
that want to find out more whatare the prerequisites or what do they need
to do to be able to takeadvantage? Yeah, they can so an
application. We have that available atone of our club sites in Molling or

(01:26):
in Davenport. They can also goon the website to find out more information
and submita application. We have avery low fee for the school year.
It's fifteen dollars for the school yearfor kiddos to come for after school programming,
and then in the summer we areopen between six to eight hours a

(01:46):
day and the fees are very affordable. For the summer it's one hundred and
fifty dollars. We do give discountsfor multiple children and a family attending.
We also have scholarships available so wedon't turn anybody away. So anyone who
wants to come to the Boys andGirls Club is welcome. Now, Tory,

(02:07):
what are the numbers or a website? I would gather a Google search
boys and Girls Club with the Misissippivalleuo pop something up. But is there
an acronym for the website or whatare the phone numbers? Just so people
can once they get done hearing thisinterview, go ahead and call if they
want to find out more. Yeah, our phone number is three zero nine
seven five seven seven three zero sevenand our website address is www dot BGCMV

(02:34):
dot org. This big event that'scoming up on the seventeenth, Blue Jeans
and Blue Doors. Now, tellme how you came up with the theme
for the blue jeans in the blueDoors. So we are moving away from
doing a formal dress up gala eventand just really want people to be comfortable
and casual and come to our clublocation so you can actually see our wonderful

(02:57):
facility and where all the magic happenswith the kiddos in the building. It's
our thirtieth anniversary celebration, so we'rereally excited about that. So, as
you mentioned, it's Friday, Mayseventeenth, from five to ten pm at
the Anna Farot Youth Center in Moleen. And certainly, when I think of
Annaverus, i hear that name,I think of the late Bob Anaverus.

(03:17):
It did so much for the longesttime, helping out a lot of people
in such a great business man,and it's hard to believe it in the
place that you're at because it wasn'tthat long ago that the building that you're
at in Moleen doesn't look as greatas it does right now with a lot
of hard work that was spearheaded bya lot of people along with Bob.

(03:38):
But with the blue doors, isthat just a theme? Is that tied
in with the Boys and Girls Club? The Blue Doors? I thought that
was kind of interesting to see thatin the title too. So blue Doors
is a national trademark for Boys andGirls Clubs of America and all the local
organizations throughout the country. It's Friday, May seventeenth. There is there going

(04:00):
to be any live music? Arewe going to see? Are they going
to be any other drawings that aregoing or are auction items that people could
bid onto in case they can't makeit, maybe they want to make a
bid on it they help out theBoys and Girls Club. Absolutely, anybody
can go to our website and makea donation at any time. But as
you mentioned, there will be youthperformances. We'll have guest speakers, so

(04:21):
we're gonna feature our Youth of theYear and our outstanding club alumni. We're
also gonna have silent and live auction. We'll have a fun of cause we're
gonna have food truck, we'll havelive music, it'll be a great night.
Again. We're talking to Tory Smith, chief executive officer with the Boys
and Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Valley. But one more time, phone numbers

(04:45):
and that website toy so people canfind out more and help www dot BGCMV
dot org. And the phone numberis three zero nine seven five seven seven
three zero seven. If you oryour organization would like to be featured on
Quad City Forum, please visit thecontact page on our station website. Now

(05:08):
back to Pat Luke and Danny Linnhowe. We've got Kirk Marski, the Mollene
Center program manager, on the phone, talking to us today about again all
the things that are going on inthe city of Molling, and namely when
I talk about Moleen, I'm talkingabout that Fifth Avenue corridor and just the
downtown area really is revitalizing. Kirk, thanks for being a part of the

(05:32):
forum today. But you've got bigstuff that's happening here real soon. Another
is not a secret weapon because everybodyknows about it, but Bass Street is
just about ready to start their outdoorcounterts here soon. Summer concert series Thursday
nights and it starts up a Thursdaynight this coming Thursday night, May sixteenth.

(05:53):
Fantastic Five is the band. Itruns through August eighth. The cloor
for the series is the Danny LynnHowe band. That's right, So I
got to remember, yeah, andI have heard of them, and I
think I told you before we startedthe interview, I said, I get
paid five bucks every time Danny's bankgets brought up, So thank you.
You won't see any of that money, Kirk. But but what's great about

(06:17):
this is for people that want togo in because they seem to remember.
There could have been other outdoor concertsin other parts of Moline over the years,
but the bas Street landing is justso perfect to just love that synergy.
Yeah, it's good. We likeit because it's kind of a medium
sized event. We have the bigevents down at Arena, and then we

(06:39):
have a number of places that havelive music downtown. They are a little
smaller settings at the bars and restaurants, so but you just can't beat an
outdoor setting and that size of anevent in the summertime. It's free,
it's all ages show, so everybodycan bring their family if they want to

(06:59):
have a night out with the family, or bring your coworkers or whatever you
want to do, but plenty ina room and we just ask people to
bring a lawn chair. There isfood and beverage for purchase, but it
is a free show, yeah,And it's just another signal even though it's
maybe not officially summer. Yep,summer is happening Bass Street and downtown Mollene
and that all starts this coming Thursday, the sixteenth. Is there a way

(07:24):
for people to see because we talkabout the Funtastic five and then Danny's band
over there booking ending it. Butare there because they a lot of these
bands do have loyal followers, theydon't always know where they're going to be.
Is there a way to see thelineup? Well, a couple of
places If people follow the Mollene CenterFacebook page, we have an event for

(07:45):
all of the individual shows on everyThursday or well in the full schedules on
the Facebook page as well well,if you go to Mollincenter dot org.
We have a a Bass Street landingpage a web page on there under the
events section, and that's new thisyear. But we have the schedule on

(08:05):
there and a map to where BassStreet Landing is. We sometimes I think
I forget that people don't always knowwhere Bass Street Landing is actually located for
a lot of people. So alot of times I may have to say,
no, Whitmanue, is that wherethey used to be? Where is
that close to where Sterling products usedto be? Yeah, you know,
I'll kind of I'll go, I'llkind of work my way back with my

(08:28):
some sort of memory trick. Buta lot of times we just assume everybody
knows. And that's a great wayto kind of tell them. Right off
of River Drive, what are wetalking about? Probably two three blocks from
Vibrant Arena, one block off ofRiver Drive. It's at seventeenth Street.
River Station is the building that's there. That's where the Visit Quad Cities Destination

(08:50):
Center is and Pub eighteen forty eight, number of other things are in that
building as well, but so juston the north side of that. It's
also west of Stony Creek in isanother reference another another great landmark there.
And again we're talking to Kirk Marsky, Molene Center program manager, and again
go to the website check out thesocials to find out more on that,

(09:13):
but of course that's not the onlything going on this this summer. And
really you could talk about all ofthe stuff that just Moleine has going on,
Kirk and you could be here tothe better part of an hour.
But you're also doing something with RiverActions kind of cool too. Yeah,
they have a riverine walk that theycall it. They do a series.

(09:33):
They also do their Channel Cat talkstoo, and those are actually on the
Channel Cat. The one that Ithe one that I'm doing, is land
based, so it's a riverine walk. You're not what you don't have your
sea legs about you? Me,boy, what's going on? Shiver me
timbers? What's going on there?So? What what is this? What?
What's this event called? And andtell us all about it, past,
present and future of Moleene Center's riverfront. And I actually get to kick

(09:58):
off the series this year, butit's May twenty ninth, which is a
Wednesday, and June first. Ifpeople go to the River Action website,
they would have the information there.But we are actually doing our presentation at
the City of Mollen water Treatment plant, which is sort of in the area

(10:20):
where the old Ice seventy four bridgewas and one of the reasons we picked
that location to base our presentation wasbecause a lot of the things we're going
to talk about are actually right inthat area. So the Riverfront plan,
the area that they're starting to developnow is right next to that. The

(10:43):
Spiegel building is nearby, and alsothe bridge Point property. Pat you probably
remember that as the Montgomery Elevator.Well, yeah, and I still remember
that, and I probably still usethe Sterling Products Building as a landmark to
get over to that. But yeah, it's amazing how much that has changed

(11:03):
now. It's really amazing. Oncethat bridge has gone, all the things
that Mouleene certainly will at least betrying to have happen here soon. A
lot of empty land now, buta lot of potential in that area.
So the work continues. This summer, they're supposed to announce the plans for

(11:24):
the riverfront development. So the consultantthat's working on that is still doing some
community engagement, but they should bemaking a recommendation to the city for what
to do, primarily west of theIce seventy four Bridge, and then the
bridge Point property. They they're decidingwhat to do with that as well as

(11:45):
far as the tower. I imaginethe tower will stay and be some kind
of observation deck, but there's anumber of buildings connected to the tower that
you know, maybe some will stay, maybe some will come down. Well,
it isn't at the problem occur twowith Yeah, everybody wants it,
but you have to make sure thateverything is structurally sound. Yeah you may

(12:07):
want that landmark, but you know, and that sometimes can be a discussion
for another time when you talk abouthistoric landmarks. Nobody wants to see the
buildings, any building be raised,but yet nobody nobody want. I mean,
people run away when they say,well, this is going to cost
how much? And then everybody says, well, then you better knock it
down. So you know, it'skind of a catch twenty two with that,

(12:28):
isn't it. Yeah, you kindof try. You have to strike
a balance with it. And thenice thing about doing the community engagement with
any project really is you do getfeedback from people and then sometimes there's just
not an interest in pursuing, uh, saving the building or repurposing it,
and a lot of a lot oftimes there is, but you get that

(12:50):
feedback and you can take that intoconsideration too. So now with the with
the walk that you with the RiverineWalk that you're going to be hosting that
first one. This won't be anythingof about that. You'll you'll basically be
just talking about some of the thingsin that area that people should be aware
of. Yeah, so I'll havesome information to present on. What I'm

(13:11):
actually waiting to do is get thelatest information. So it'll probably be kind
of like an eleventh hour scramble.Well, somebody will Kathy Wine be passing
you stuff just as you're coming upto take the microphone. It could happen.
Well, and that's certainly and youenough time in radio where you've you've

(13:31):
had plenty of times whereas you're walkingto the mic you don't even know what
you're supposed to say, And that'sright, and you're going to be ready
to go with that. But ifpeople want to find out more on that,
again, that's the river Action websiteprobably is where they can do the
refer to that. And when isthat date that you're going to be hosting
that. So the presentation is thesame on both dates, but you can

(13:56):
pick which one you want to goto. One is Wednesday, May twenty
nine and the other one is Saturday, June first. The Wednesday time,
it starts at six point thirty.I think these are each an hour and
a half long. And then Saturdayit's at nine am and I think there
are ten dollars for well, they'refree if you're a member of River Action.

(14:18):
I think it's like ten dollars tobe part of it. And we
also, if the weather is goodand people are able to, we'll also
do a little bit of walking kindof in the area to take a look
at some of the historic buildings nearby. And also if we can make our
way over to where JC Penny Buildingis. Yeah, you got some new
things happening there, right, Soyeah, well it's exciting stuff. City

(14:41):
Molling really is exciting. Really,the quad cities overall, just the vibe
is fantastic. Kirk continued success withthe summer series in Downtown Molling or the
Bass Street Landing Summer series and goodluck with the I would think you're not
going to need any help with becauseyou're not a shy guy. No,

(15:03):
no, not. It should begood to go on that. But again,
if people want to find out more, because we're just talking about two
basic locations in Molling, there area lot of other things going on,
any other way that they can kindof keep abreast of what's going on just
in case we can't get you inevery weekend on the Quad City Formed to
talk about it. If people goto the Mollen Center website, we have

(15:24):
an event page and we have anevent calendar on there. So Mercado on
fifth also has their season starting upon May twenty fourth, Poor Brothers.
They do a rail Side series,so that runs from May until September.
Of course, the Sound Conservatory hasthings going on and a whole list of

(15:46):
other events, and we have ablack Box theater too that does live theater,
so more things than we can getto on this segment. But if
people go to the Mollen Center website, which is Mollincenter dot org, there's
an event calendar on there so theycan stay updated that way as well.
Sounds good. And again the Conservatorythat used to be the old Moling Public

(16:07):
Library, so I'm sorry, whichis a few blocks away from Sterling Products.
But anyway, enough about that,Kirk, Hey keep doing the great
stuff there. It's always great tostand in touch and let us know anytime
we need to promote something for you. Okay, I appreciate the time.
If you or your organization would liketo be featured on Quad City Forum,
please visit the contact page and ourstation website. Now back to Pat Luke

(16:30):
and Danny Linnowe Victoria Kline, themarketing director. Now I've got the acronym
fm WR, Victoria, what doesthat all stand? For? Family Morale,
Welfare and Recreation? And every timesomething happens on the Arsenal, we've
always it's a great thing because it'snot just for the Arsenal. Everybody's invited

(16:55):
and big stuff going to be happeningright about the middle of May, all
part of Armed Forces Day on theArsenal. Yeah, so we're having a
big event May sixteenth to the nineteenth. We invite everyone to come join us
to our Armedforces Day celebration, alittle bit of everything for everybody, one
of them kind of buried here.But I see Honor Among Wrestling, So
exactly tell me what's going on there. Are we're going to see Greco wrestling?

(17:21):
Are we going to see professional wrestling? What are we going to see
on that live performance from Honor AmongWrestling. They're a veteran own wrestling company,
so it's like the wwea style wrestlingin the ring, telling the story,
all the fun stuff, getting thecrowd hyped up. We're very excited

(17:41):
to have them this year. Thatagain is on Saturday the eighteenth, and
that'll be in the late afternoon ataround five thirty. Kind of give us
the lineup of what people are goingto be able to see when they show
up to the island for Armed ForcesDay on Thursday. We are starting off
Thursday. We will have the carnivalfestivity starting at four o'clock on Friday,
May seventeenth. Again, starting atfour o'clock, we'll have our packet pick

(18:04):
up for the racers that will berunning the race on Saturday, they can
pick their packets up. Friday,the carnival will be going on at four.
We're going to do our big openingkeg tapping ceremony around then, and
then the Matt Fuller Band, it'sgonna take us through the night. At
five o'clock they'll get on on stage. Well end the events around ten o'clock.

(18:25):
Saturday, we've got the big America'sKids Run starting us off in the
morning. That's the opportunity for thekids to run the Rock and then it
goes into our five K and ourten k run, the rock Big Races,
followed by the carnival, food trucks, vendors, more bands, Moonshine
Run and Superfly Samurai. And thenwe're ending the night with a fireworks display

(18:47):
that takes us to Sunday, morecarnival and more live wrestling. It really
is something for everybody. I likethat it's a full family event. Now,
wait, the big question everyone's goingto ask, oh do it?
You know, sometimes it's hard toget onto the island because you got to
do the visitors plat passes and allthat. But is this right you're waving
at people? You can just comeon. Yeah, so this weekend you

(19:11):
will not need a visitors pass.You'll just show your ID at the gate.
They're going to verify the ID tothe person and you'll be able to
get right onto the island and comejoin us at our Armed Forces Day.
Oh this is perfect. This wouldbe great for the whole family. Yeah.
Yeah, I forgot to mention onSaturday there's a car show, so
even an another element. Yeah,fun, You've got you've got wrestling and

(19:33):
the Quad City Cruisers yeah which yeah, yeah, I love that. Well,
now for people that want to eventhough it's like basically I would say,
a fairly easy way to get ontothe island, if they want to
be a part of the runs,what do they have to do to get
registered? Yes, so they oneto go to www dot Get me registered

(19:59):
dot com, slash are Ia Runthe Rock, go online register for the
races. We are so so excitedfor this. We're excited about it.
We're excited about Armed Forces Day again. So for people that want to be
a part of this, again,give us the dates and just just kind
of a rundown and we're exactly,are you going to be singing or doing

(20:22):
stand up or anything like that,just checking me personally. No, I'm
going to be running around making sureeverybody's got what they need this day.
But May sixteenth or May nineteenth,the Armed Forces Day celebration on the Rock
Island Arsenal open to the public.We're always open to the public, but
this weekend it's going to be avery special event. We hope to see
everybody there. If you want toget registered for the run, come run

(20:47):
the Rock. That's that, Getmeregistered dot com, slash ari Run the
Rock. We are really looking forwardto this event. And we want to
make it one of those big stapleevents in the community, and we can't
do that without all you community membersand lovely people coming to these events.
If you or your organization would liketo be featured on Quad City Forum,
please visit the contact page on ourstation website. Now back to Pat Luke

(21:10):
and Danny Linnou Natalie Dunlop with theDavenport Figy Museum Marketing and Communications. How
can people kind of see what's goingon? We're at Figy Art Museum dot
org and you can always find afull listing of our exhibitions, events,
programs, classes, you name it. It's the resource for all things Figgie.

(21:32):
Who want to bring a family downmaybe sometime this weekend or sometime in
the next couple of days. Whatcan we do? Right? So,
we have free admission every Thursday eveningfrom five to eight pm, and that
is a really great way for peopleto come in experience the museum. But
then we also have free programming thoseevenings and there's a variety of things.
There's performances, we have special tours, there's artist talks, you name it.

(21:57):
There's a lot of things going onand that's all free of charge.
And then in addition, we alsoare free every second Saturday of the month,
so we have different themes that usuallyrelate to our exhibitions on view,
but it's free admission and free activitiesall day long. Again same thing.
We've got some musical performances, gavengerhunts, other activities. We also do

(22:19):
yoga with those second Saturdays, sothat's actually a lot of fun and a
great way to be around the surroundedby the art, but also while taking
care of yourself, perfecting your downwarddog right there at the figure It's also
just nice to get the kids outso they're not looking at the computer screen.
Oh absolutely, And I mean notonly is it's just a great way

(22:40):
for people to get acquainted with themuseum but also have some fun as a
family. So lots of options,that's for sure. How many people have
probably come into the Figy and didn'teven realize what was in here? Oh
yeah, we hear it all thetime. I mean I think that it's
just you never know what you're goingto experience at the Figi and things are
changing all of the time. Whileright now we have several amazing exhibitions on

(23:02):
view, it does change every fewmonths, so you know, your one
experience might be a little bit differentthan the next. So it's always a
good thing to visit often and checkout what we have going at. Okay,
so we've got the free family day. What else is happening or will
be happening at the FIGI. Yeah, so we have a couple of exhibitions

(23:22):
on view. We obviously we haveour Young Artists at the Figie, which
is elementary art students artwork. We'veactually partnered with several districts here in the
community and they actually select works fromelementary students to have them on display for
two weeks at a time for differentschool districts, so that's really fun to
see. That's the local angle.We also have the Rock Island Art Guild

(23:47):
by an Arts exhibition on view,which is another local angle because that is
artwork from artists within a two hundredmile radius of the quad Cities, so
that's actually really incredible to see thetalent coming out of that. We also
have our Sculpture Garden that's kind ofneat because that is large sculptures from the

(24:07):
Figgy collection on view, and thenthere's a lot of different prompts that people
can experience to kind of calm theirmind and relax and experience the art in
a different way. So there's aton going on, but that's why the
website is great, because you couldbe changing things between a Sunday and Monday
of next week too, and that'swhere the website is. Access is a

(24:30):
great access, absolutely absolutely. Thenthose are just you know, some of
the things. We also have summercamps that actually will be launching here in
June. So that's going to beexciting because we've got you know, camps
for kids ages five to eighteen andwe're offering over sixty camps this summer.
So it's if you're looking for,you know, basically think about what you

(24:52):
would like to do, and Ithink we probably have it. If you
take a peek at our take apeak at the website, there's a to
see, a lot to do andit's definitely a great way to get acquainted
with the art but also then toget a little bit deeper of an experience.
One more time, just as wewrap this up, website again that
people can refer to sure Figiartmuseum dotorg. That's Figy Art Museum dot org.

(25:18):
Natalie Dunlop from the FIGI thank youso much for the time today.
Absolutely, thank you before we completelyrun out of time. Happy Mother's Day
to one and all, and forthose of you that can remember, Saint
Anne's and the Knights of Columbus invitingyou to their Mother's Day brunch the Saint
Anne's Great Hall in Long Grove thismorning. It's from nine am to noon,

(25:40):
a menu that is full of allsorts of great choices and of course
the money raised will go to programsout at Saint Anne's Church in the Knights
at Columbus. But again that's thismorning from nine to noon St Anne's Great
Hall in long Grove Isle as wewrap up our Quad City Forum here this
morning. Recently, one of ourcolleagues from WOC News, Michaels, talk
to Carry Tompkins, or Scott CountyAuditor about some of the changes that you'll

(26:04):
find at the Scott County website,and they could not have come at a
better time. All the information thatwe've had, it's just easier to use.
So when I started, that's probablythe area that I received the most
feedback was our website and that itwas just not very user friendly. So
now it is very user friendly whereyou have everything is right up front,
and there's circles that you can clickon, so you can get to information

(26:26):
that you need pretty quickly. Butotherwise it's all of the information election information
that we've had previously, just justformatted differently. That's Scott Countyiowa dot gov.
That's the website Scott Countyiowa dot govand Craig Askerry. Also, what's
the feedback on the website so far? People love it. And actually there

(26:47):
are two things that we didn't havebefore, so let me clarify. One
is you can go online and youcan request an ABR so an absentee ballot
request form. You can do thatright online and there's a red banner at
the top that you just click onthat and you fill out the information and
we will mail you an ABR.So that's nice. You can do that
twenty four seven instead of having tocall us during the day or print it
off and mail it in. Sothat's one. And the other thing is

(27:11):
finding your elected official, So againthat's one of the circles. You go
there, you put in your addressand it gives you all of your local
elected officials and all of your electedofficials according to your address, and the
primaries next month. What about earlyvoting not yet, No, that does
not start until Wednesday, May fifteenth. So early voting will take place in
our office down here at the Hounitor'sOffice on the fifth floor. And again

(27:33):
that starts on Wednesday, May fifteenth, and it goes through Monday, June
third. We will also be openon that Saturday, June first, from
eight to four so if anybody needsa weekend, they can come in then
as well. And we will havea satellite location. The Bettendorf Public Library
will be open on Thursday, Maytwenty third, from noon to sixth and
then also Friday, May twenty fourth, from nine thirty to three thirty,

(27:55):
and anybody in the county can govote there. For everybody voting, remember
the ballot's going to look a littledifferent this time than it will come general
election time in November because it's theprimary election. There's a lot of confusion
because it's Iowa has a closed primaryelection, so you get a ballot.
It's actually running three different kind ofelections. It's one for each party,

(28:15):
So your ballot. You have tobe registered with a party in order to
vote in the primary and the peopleon your ballot are only for that party.
So just wanted to be clear becausepeople will come in and ask for
you know, how come I can'tvote for this person while it's because they're
in a different party. Remember itis your civic duty to vote and if
you need to find out more inScott County anyway, Scott Coountyiowa dot gov.

(28:40):
That's Scott County, Iowa dot goov. You've been listening to Quad City
Forum, a weekly community service programproduced by iHeartRadio. If you were your
nonprofit organization would like to be featured, please visit the contact page in our
station website or contact Quad City Forumand careb i Heearts, India, Quad

(29:00):
Cities three five three five East KimberleyRoad, Davin Forts, Iowa five two
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