As we're now three months into the city of Bettendorf's 2013-14 fiscal year, it's time to turn our attention to what city leaders – the mayor, council and city administrator – plan to work toward over the remaining nine months.
Here is the "top priorty" list which emerged from several meetings in March/April or thereabouts (the public wasn't invited to participate and the press didn't attend):
If that isn't enough for everyone on the city council and staff to get their sleeves rolled up, here's the "high priority" list, those goals ranked just below the top priorities listed above:
Some of the goals have been listed before, most are pretty self-explanatory. But one goal – the WOW Project – really pops out as you're reading through the list. Unfortunately, no where in the 112-page "Leader's Guide 2013" prepared by consultant Lyle Sumek, of Florida, is the WOW Project described or defined.
Having asked – but not yet heard back – on what the project is, here is some speculation what WOW might mean. (See end of article for city's explanation of "WOW Project.")
It may be a World Of Wonder amusement park like the one promised by Bernie Goldstein to convince legislators to approve limited stakes riverboat gambling. Our gambling entrepreneur used Mark Twain's name to cajole politicians, but a generic "World Of Wonder" might be a better fit in today's litigious society.
Perhaps it stands for World Of Warcraft, the hugely popular computer game, and is part of a plan to woo thousands of computer geeks to a new Bettendorf WOW campus overlooking cornfields planted to resemble the terrain of a new WOW game module.
Maybe it's a euphemism for an economic development project never seen in these parts. Bigger than the Oramscon nitrogen plant in Ottumwa that set new records for state, local and federal subsidies. Even better than Dubuque landing the IBM plant, or Des Moines getting (but now losing) all those Wells Fargo Mortgage jobs. This WOW deal could be even bigger, like WOW, a really big corporate headquarters that would use all four quadrants of the I-80/Middle Road interchange. A project so huge, the federal government would pay for a second new bridge across the Mississippi River.
But that might be too optimistic a vision of WOW.
Could be it stands for a secret Wonderland Of Winter development consisting of outdoor hockey rinks, an indoor hockey rink that seats 5,000 fans, six Dek Hockey rinks for winter and summer use, plus an Olympic-size curling stadium. This could portend a new marketing effort to lure Canadians seeking a warmer climate but with all the great amenities back home. Such an effort would help the city realize all its economic development goals.
Maybe, though, it isn't a wonderful new thing, but rather something more basic to city operation.
A Wastewater Operations Waystation could be on the drawing boards. A large underground cavern would be excavated under the riverfront to serve as a holding tank for sewer system overflows, which are now pumped into the Mississippi River.
Another public service WOW project might be related to stormwater. A Watering Our Wildlife initiative could be planned to funnel storm water runoff into a series of lagoons, which would attract raccoons, deer, possums and squirrels and keep them out of residential backyards.
A final possibility for the WOW project could be that it stands for Wagering Our Waterfront, an "all-in" renovation of the current ugly, mostly vacant riverfront into a gambling mecca with neon signs so bright the city can turn off its downtown streetlights. Under this scenario, the docked gambling boat would be unstuck from the mud, pushed downstream and converted into a city storage facility for roadway salt and recycling bins.
Then, the city's events center would be converted into a posh new land-based gambling parlor, which by chance or strange coincidence, is already connected to the riverfront hotels. With the boat relocated, gamblers would be able to view the river (and new I-74 bridge construction) from Bettendorf's own "skybridge" skywalk between the new casino and hotels.
Stay tuned for the unveiling of the actual WOW Project, which will occur just after a new Tax Increment Financing (TIF) deal is cut with the developers.
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Editor's Note: Here is the city's explanation of the WOW Project from City Administrator Decker Ploehn. "A wow project is something that comes from one of the other opportunites like Events and Festivals….Downtown Vision and Plan, Youth Sports Complex, that creates a space or project that causes everybody to go Wow! One of the ideas that surfaced was as a concept was an ice skating rink in the downtown plaza area. That sort of thing with no specifics."
