The summit is pretty crowded, LeClaire Mayor Bob Scannell surmised Thursday night.

Scannell called a summit of business owners and municipal and civic leaders to discuss the looming April 5 partial closing of the Interstate 80 bridge for repairs. The bridge will be down to one lane of westbound traffic at the start of repairs.

Those who spoke at the summit talked of cooperation to help businesses make it through the repairs. The Quad-City Visitors Center saw

40 percent fewer visitors last year when the bridge was partially closed, so the concern returned this year.

“I think we got some good positive ideas,” Scannell said. “Each individual is looking out for their business, but they know if they don’t work together, they’re going to get hurt.”

Among the ideas floated were billboards, Web site promotion, increased evening hours for downtown shops, package deals and coupon books. A traveling display for the Buffalo Bill Museum is also planned.

The repair contract has incentives for early completion of the work, with hopes of returning to two-way traffic as early as June 15 if work on the eastbound span is completed.

Inspectors shut down the bridge to eastbound traffic on May 18 with just hours of warning after cracks in bridge supports were found during an inspection. Although two-way traffic resumed Aug. 14, repairs to the supports couldn’t be done until this year because needed materials were unavailable.

Along with the annual Tugfest, events such an “American Pickers” weekend are in the works. The new event plays on the early success of the History Channel’s “American Pickers, which features two LeClaire men. A retro-themed market days weekend also is planned.

LeClaire tourism manager Donna Walley reminded those at the meeting to think of other events, even if they are smaller.

Business owners must be bargain-minded, too, said Mavis Dare, vice president of hotel sales and marketing for Great Lakes Management Group, which runs the Holiday Inn Express in LeClaire.

“We all look for deals,” she said. “There wouldn’t be hotels.com or tripadvisor.com if people weren’t looking for deals, and they are looking for them in your stores.

“Next year, we can go back to being retail, from being wholesale this year.”

Walley said action would be taken quickly on the recommendations from the meeting. Scannell said another summit could be scheduled before April 5, if needed.

The Bier Stube, in a nod to picking up boat traffic, is awaiting approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a request to install a 100-foot dock on the Mississippi River below the restaurant, general manager Mike Rebitzer said. With approval, the dock could be installed by April.

Walley said she has had an early discussion with someone interested in running a water taxi between the Iowa and Illinois sides of the river.

LeClaire City Council member Ron Leiby acknowledged that despite the summit being aimed at LeClaire, it is a lesson for the entire Quad-Cities. Businesses in Davenport and Bettendorf also felt the effects of the bridge closure.

Leiby recommended people make the effort to drive out of their way to patronize an Illinois business or vice versa. He recalled how it was like “old home week,” when he and other LeClaire residents went to Brothers, a restaurant near the foot of the bridge in Rapids City.

“Let’s not have ‘old home week,’” he said. “Let’s keep going to businesses on the Illinois side, even if it is a little out of the way.”