Closing time in The District could be 2 a.m. by the end of the month. Rock Island's city council Monday night gave their first approval to the plan to close the bars in The District an hour earlier.
Mayor Mike Thoms wants the bars closed earlier because of an uptick in violence, including a deadly shooting, in the area.
But bar owners in The District say they are being unfairly blamed for crime in the area.
“We stepped up to the city. We closed early. We put up fences. Monitored the plaza with security. This didn’t happen inside the secure fences or anything else. Here we are a week later or two weeks later. We’re getting our license changed by the city council and there’s no reason to,” Terry Tilka, owner of RIBCO, told KWQC-TV 6 following Monday's meeting.
Earlier this summer the council voted to close the bars early, but it failed due to a lack of a super majority.
The next vote on the question comes in two weeks.
(Photo from KWQC-TV 6)