The City of Go!

This motto for the City of Galva, Illinois has been the backbone for economic development within the city for the past 80 years. This summer I had the opportunity to work as the Community and

Economic Development Intern for the University of Illinois Extension-Unit 7; where I was placed with the City Administrator of Galva.

Galva Illinois is located in the northwest corner of the state and has a population of 2,600 people. When you hear this number, if you're like me, you may be thinking Casey's General Store, a Dollar General, and everyone knows everybody. Now, Galva has all these things; however, this little city carries the rest of our area when it comes to Economic Development. According to the Quad City Chamber of Commerce, the city of Galva was responsible for 25% of the economic development for the Quad City Metro area in 2015.

There is a great manufacturing base within the city that for has been fulled by the community college within the city, Black Hawk East College. The college has worked closely with business in the area to create qualified workers for the existing businesses. In 2015 Preferred Health Care invested $1.4 million within the city, JMAC metals also invested an additional 1.4 million. Dixline Corp. invested $3.2 million, Branchfield Casting invested $5 million, and Big River Ethanol spent $20 million. Altogether there were 90 jobs created in the process.

This summer I got a behind the scenes look at the relationship that the city has with the businesses in town. I sat in on many meetings with the City Administrator and business owners. Some of the projects the town is working on now are bringing solar farms to the city, as well as opening a new restaurant, and expanding the existing Dixline Corp. headquarters. However, I spent most of my time creating a downtown building database for the city. For this project, I took pictures of all of the buildings downtown and provided information about the structure including the taxpayer identification number, address, owner, assessed value, and current use. I then put all of this information into an ebook that I created.  We hope that the ebook will draw attention to some of the great vacant buildings in town, and will encourage business within the city.

I only live 20 minutes away from Galva, and I had no idea how many businesses were here. For a community of fewer than 3,000, they have everything in Galva. There is a dentist, eye doctor, chiropractor, doctor, pharmacy, five restaurants (including a Cajun restaurant that just opened), Frisbee golf, mini golf, community pool, drive in movie theater, on top of all of the manufacturing, and much more! It is safe to say that this little city is certainly GOING.