Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati celebrated 2024 as a year of economic growth, significant community investment and progress in Moline’s efforts to meet the community’s needs Monday, Feb. 3, during her Moline State of the City.
She also told an overflow crowd at the Sound Conservatory that the city will work to expand those efforts in 2025 as its leaders wait to see the impact Trump administration policies may have on federal investment dollars.
Sound Conservatory Owner Andrezej Kozlowski was among those on hand for Ms. Rayapati’s “Practical Progress, Positive Growth” address at the former Moline Carnegie Library at 504 17th St., Moline. Ms. Rayapati saluted him for accomplishing “so much here in the last year.”
As has become a tradition, Ms. Rayapati shared the morning’s spotlight with Moliners who are making a difference. They included Emily Allen, who helped save Bob Vogelbaugh’s 2024 free Thanksgiving Dinner after it lost its SouthPark Mall venue. Volunteers worked with Mercado on Fifth to stage a successful event in 2024. It served nearly 2,000 people.
Now that group is working to become a 501(c)3 so it can keep the free holiday event going for years to come. She also recognized Felix Vallejo, who bought and restored a historic Skelly Gas Station that is now on the National Historic Register, and Kelly Nache, who along with others helped get Moline designated as a Bee City.
As for the city she has led since 2021, the mayor said, “We truly have made very practical progress over the last 12 months” including by creating programs that are meaningful to the long-term success of the city and its residents.
Sidewalks get upgrade
It includes a program that helped Moline replace 2.4 miles of neglected sidewalks in 2024. Getting rid of uneven pavement, Ms. Rayapati said, shows residents their city cares about pedestrian access, safety and how the community shows itself.
The mayor also highlighted “social infrastructure” investment including new neighborhood groups in Forest Hills and the East End; electronic signage that shares important community information; and the Moline Neighbors United program. She also touted the Level Up program, a partnership with Project NOW that allows participants to retain their property and avoid eviction.
The city also focused on green spaces in 2024, for example, adding native plants and pollinator gardens to the hillside at the John Deere historic site. Moline also issued a request for proposal for a Climate Action plan to address the city‘s climate resiliency needs.
Ms. Rayapati also reported that Moline’s rental housing program licensed 1,877 units in 2024 compared to just 434 in 2023. More is needed, she said, citing a council presentation that showed Moline currently needs 1,100 new housing units of all kinds. That number could climb to 4,400 units if the city’s economic activity increases.
“Only with an increase in the supply of housing types can we begin to bring down the rent burden that many hard-working Moliners feel,” Ms. Rayapati added. “This is a national issue and we will do our best to address it smartly.” That includes development deals in the works that could bring 239 new units online in Moline.
Practical progress
“Practical progress is the kind that is enduring, that gets to the heart of community needs, and that sets us up for success in the near and distant future,” Ms. Rayapati added. “It’s the kind of progress that is true to our Midwest values of common sense and preparation.”
For example, in 2024 Moline completed 11 miles of paving and reconstruction of streets as well as improving intersections at 16th Street and Avenue of the Cities and at John Deere Road and 41st Street. The city also focused on multi-modal transportation.
“If you wound your way around the 19th Street constructions last year, like I did, you’ll now find it complete with new pavement, markings and new, safer access for walkers and bikers making their way to and from downtown and the riverfront,” the mayor said,
Ms. Rayapati also saluted completion of the city-wide Metronet broadband installation and she reported that leaders are “gaining ground on tackling our maintenance of water and sewer infrastructure” to make sure “basic services work well for our residents.”
She also reported that the city’s application for Quiet Zones in downtown Moline is awaiting Federal Railroad Administration approval. “Once that project can commence, you will be able to sleep at a downtown hotel peacefully, or eat at a downtown restaurant without having to wait to continue your conversation until the train whistles stop blowing,” she said.
City laying foundation
At the same time, the mayor added, Moline is “laying a foundation for economic advancement and improved quality of life.” That includes, she said, refinancing pension obligation bonds, “tidying up old or exploring new TIFs, investing in our fire and police personnel and equipment, finding and securing grants to pay for major projects, stabilizing our utility funds, or changing our code to create opportunity or improve our community culture, 2024 has been another in a series of years that preparatory practical progress has laid a foundation for growth.”
For example, Ms. Rayapati said Moline paused work on its riverfront and downtown development project to address critical questions of access and building stability for the Kone Tower. “Now that we are armed with proper information we continue working with MKSK (riverfront plan designers) to get their final proposal in front of the council and weigh all of our options for design and funding,” she added. “We are truly proud of the community input that went into getting to these plans and we’re looking forward to the next steps.”
Some 2024 highlights
Among the economic development projects she outlined were:
- Working with state lawmakers on legislation to join the River’s Edge Redevelopment Zone designed to make downtown more attractive to developers.
- Ongoing progress on the Parr Instrument Company’s construction project in a new TIF.
- Preventing an “oversaturation of vape shops in the community.”
- Creating an “Accessory Dwelling Unit ordinance to allow for interested parties to help us build our housing stock up, not out.”
- Engaging in a planning effort to envision the future of the SouthPark Mall with its owners.
- Permits pulled outpacing the previous year, from just under $62 million to just under $65 million. That’s “a pattern we are getting used to, so that more and more of our commercial activity is vibrant and growing,” the mayor said.
- Doing preliminary work for a South Slope Wastewater Treatment facility upgrade.
- Addressing the function and safety of the Central Fire Station. “With a building past its useful life, careful attention to location and land acquisition for a new Central Fire Station has been a hallmark of 2024,” Ms. Rayapati said. “Soon we’ll be looking at designs and balancing our needs.”
- Purchasing the Bethany Building at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 19th Street. Among future uses are a “one-stop shop for permitting” and other economic development needs. The parks department also plans to provide programming in the building’s attached gymnasium.
Even with all those new additions, the mayor said, city leaders continue “our habit of combining conservative budgeting and lean operating costs.” That has resulted in the municipal tax rate dropping from $1.80 to $1.71 per $100,000 of Equalized Assessed Value. At the same time, the levy also will fall from $1.2 million in 2025 to $496,225 this year.
City keeps growing
In all, Moline’s economy has grown year over year since 2021. For example, in 2022, it grew by 5.05% and by 5.75% in 2023. In 2024, preliminary projections put growth at 8.06%.
“Certainly, this may adjust downward over the course of 2025, but we have evidence that we have been on the right path,” Ms. Rayapati said.
In addition, she said, “there are projects that require more work and more skillful attention to funding and financing and we’re leaning into the skills of the Community and Economic Development Department which is helping us battle the economic headwinds of being a border community and the impact of federal economic policies that will make projects harder to pencil.”
Ms. Rayapati added, “The future that we’ve prepared for with more economic activity may blur out of focus for a bit, but we will work tirelessly together to keep it in plain sight.”
For example, she said Moline will continue investing in entrepreneurs and working to attract investment via such tools as the city’s evolving Revolving Loan Fund and Rivers Edge Redevelopment Zone.
Moline also will “continue to lobby at the state and federal level for levers that help us bring passenger rail to the Quad Cities,” the mayor promised. “Despite progress in the agreement, a large funding gap still exists” that continues to derail the effort.
As former U.S. Transportation Secretary (Pete) Buttigieg advised recently, she added, “We’ll ‘keep pushing’ to make this tool a reality.”
Other upcoming projects include developing the Shine On Moline Agrivoltaic solar farm. Ms. Rayapati said it is “so unique that the U.S. Department of Energy chose us for their Clean Energy Communities peer-learning cohort.” The city is one of only 14 entities in the U.S. to explore a project that combines agriculture and solar power.
