By Dustin Lemmon, QC Times

Four proposed construction projects in the Illinois Quad-City area took a step forward this week by securing some federal funding.

The largest designation was $1.5 million for the design and construction of River Tech Boulevard, which will be one of the access points for Western Illinois University’s future riverfront campus in Moline.

Other grants and projects include: $300,000 to MetroLINK for a new maintenance facility; $170,000 to the Martin Luther King Center in Rock Island for building expansion and $200,000 to the Whiteside County Community Health Clinic, also for expansion.

The designations were announced by the Illinois Quad-City congressional delegation, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, and U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, all of whom are Democrats.

John McGuire, director of university relations for WIU, said the boulevard will be a critical access point when the Mississippi River floods and forces River Drive to close on the north side of the proposed campus, east of Interstate 74.

“Once we’re in the facility, it will maintain an alternative entryway in case of flooding,” he said. “As the area develops, it’s quite conceivable that area could be the main entry.”

The university still is waiting for state funding to move forward with construction of the campus.

“We’re optimistic (funding will come soon) because it’s high on their priority list,” McGuire said.

Jeff Nelson, executive director of MetroLINK, said the money the mass transit system received will help move its maintenance facility at 2929 5th Ave., Rock Island, to a new location.

He said MetroLINK studied the possibility of either renovating the existing building or moving and found that, given its landlocked location between railroad tracks and 5th Avenue, it would be best to relocate. The process of trying to purchase some nearby land is under way, but Nelson declined to identify the location.

With the latest grant, MetroLINK has received about

$3 million in federal money toward the new $17 million facility, he said, noting that the project has been in the planning stages for five years.

“The designation can easily get us jump-started and down the path to building a new facility,” he said of this week’s announcement.

Jerry Jones, executive director of the Martin Luther King Center, said there are plans to expand by an additional 12,735 square feet to the north of the 32-year-old building at 630 9th St., Rock Island.

The $3 million project will include additional community room space and an expanded kitchen room and storage area, he said, adding that the hope is to begin construction in autumn 2008. The center hopes to fund the addition through state and local money, including donations.

Jones said that when the center opened, it was designed only to house social services and not provide programs. The center now offers several programs, but with more space, participants will be better served.

“This will, of course, allow us to improve on the services, but we’d also like to expand on the volume with programs,” he added.

The center also received $200,000 in federal funding to expand its training program to educate and mentor at-risk youth.

Whiteside County Public Health Administrator Beth Fiorini said the money will be used toward a 5,000-square-foot-expansion of the community health center in Rock Falls, Ill., that just opened in May 2006.

The center, which serves those on Medicaid and Medicare, was designed to handle 7,000 patients and is, within 14 months, already seeing 9,000 patients, she said, adding that patients come from as far as the Quad-Cities, Rockford, Ill., and Chicago.

“A lot of places don’t take Medicaid and more are not taking Medicare,” she explained. “We knew pretty quickly that we needed to expand.”

Fiorini said officials at the clinic, which also provides dental care, would like to begin construction in spring 2008 and be finished by the end of that summer. Once they are finished, she hopes there will be  room to continue expanding for some time.

“I think we’ll continue to grow,” she said. “I hope we have (enough) growing room.”

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.

© Copyright 2007, The Quad-City Times, Davenport, IA