Moving forward with a proposed plan, Galesburg city council will be ask to okay  the creation of a business development district.The hotel developer will also being asking the city to help fund the $1.4 million in infrastructure costs. Its purpose is to bring more businesses and revenue to the city, but not everyone is on board.

Right now grass covers eight acres of land off of Seminary Street, but it could be filled with a business, that’s if city council approves the purposed plan.

54:10 “I think that the idea makes sense and we’ll see how it goes,” says Galesburg Mayor, John Pritchard.

The plan is to create a business development district. There are talks of building retail businesses, Aldi grocery store and a hotel.

The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities says anyone who prepared for Wednesday’s storms was smart, even if the storms didn’t hit your location.

Severe storms that included funnel clouds and left behind damage struck counties in the WQAD viewing area just north of the Quad Cities during the late afternoon and early-evening hours Wednesday, June 12, 2013.

The NWS sent a storm survey team to survey damage Thursday, June 13 from confirmed tornadoes that struck the night before in Jo Daviess and Carroll counties in northwest Illinois.

The NWS predicted the front, along which the storms would form, would be stationary along Interstate 80 in the Quad Cities.

The annual regatta featuring boats made of cardboard and other recycled materials won’t happen this year at Sunset Marina in Rock Island.

The regatta, held annually on July 4, started out as a competition to create one-person boats made of cardboard that would float at Lake Potter.  That’s when it was known as the “Cardboard Boat Regatta.”

A few years ago, the rules changed to allow other recycled materials to be used in the construction of the boats, and the event was renamed the “Recycled Raft Race.”

Dozens of contestants spend time working on entries for the regatta each year.

The regatta has been held for decades, but the event won’t happen July 4 this year.

“What about the people that are planning to attend and  participate by working for weeks to prepare an entry boat for the ANNUAL tradition?” asked Deb Schone, who says her teenage son has been working for months on a boat to enter in the 2013 regatta.