By: Barbara (Miller) Sandberg (Posted by the Dispatch/Argus on Dec. 17, 2012)
During the holidays back in the 1970s and into the 1990s Moline's downtown, once filled with busy shoppers and colorful holiday lights had gone dark and the downtown was mostly forgotten.
But over the past 20 years, Moline has steadily brought new life back to its downtown with emphasis on preserving its heritage.
Following the renovation of Moline's oldest commercial district along River Drive came the lighting of the John Deere Commons which has become an annual family event that stretches beyond the Commons on to the Butterworth Parkway.
Now this year we have the new outdoor skating rink at Bass Street Landing. What a positive transformation for this historic district.
Then there is Moline's Fifth Avenue district which has recently seen major changes bringing back on street parking and extensive plantings along the sidewalks. Planners brought back historic street lighting and provided hookups for the beautiful holiday lights that now shine across the Avenue and on street poles and plantings.
Moline Centre is now part of the national Main Street program and also is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Loft apartments are now becoming popular complementing the many restaurants and shops throughout the downtown.
This transformation from a blighted district to a vibrant and growing area came about due to the ongoing efforts and dedication of several mayors, city councils, Renew Moline, city staff, property owners and preservationists.
The acceptance by property owners to establish a special service area taxing body has made possible the colorful planters in summer and the creation of the beautiful holiday lights we are seeing this year.
Take time this holiday season to visit Moline's downtown and marvel at the beauty that has been created.
Check out the window paintings, get a close up look at all the lights and stop into the shops and restaurants that are waiting to serve you. The lights are back on in Moline Centre and the crowds are back once again.
Happy Holidays!
Barbara Sandberg of Moline is chairman of the Moline Historic Preservation Commission.
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Posted by QC Times on October 10, 2012 8:47 pm • Alma Gaul
“It’s not very long,” Barbara Sandberg, the chairman of the city’s preservation commission and a member of the Moline Preservation Society, said Wednesday.
“But at least by that time we’ll have an inclination of what kind of corporate sponsors we have. We will have made the contacts.”
Working together, members of both preservation groups have secured about $30,000 in pledges from individuals, and “we need to go to corporates now,” Sandberg added.
The reprieve until December was granted Tuesday night by a unanimous decision of the city council.
The circa-1900 building on River Drive stands in the way of the new Interstate 74 bridge project, and preservationists previously had brokered a plan they hoped would save it: Move the depot to the Western Illinois University campus, also in Moline, where it would be renovated as a welcome center.
In addition to involvement by the university, the Illinois Department of Transportation agreed to spend up to $1 million to move the building and provide a new foundation, and the city had informally agreed to donate the building and pay for repairs and utility disconnections, an amount estimated at $155,000.
Preservationists thought everything was on track until last month when aldermen, meeting as the committee-of-the-whole, voted instead to sell the building to the state, which would then demolish it.
Council members said that, given the difficult economic times, they did not want any taxpayer money from the city or state going toward moving the depot, Mayor Don Welvaert said.
An ordinance to sell the depot was on Tuesday’s agenda, but before the meeting, two aldermen asked that the proposal be pulled to give preservationists more time, and the consensus was that the issue could wait until the end of the year.
“I picked the 18th (of December) because that’s our last meeting of the year,” Welvaert said.
“At some point in time, the council has an obligation to sell or relocate the depot one way or another,” he added.
Members of the preservation groups, including Sandberg and her husband, Dick, solicited pledges over the weekend by staffing a booth at the Great Train Expo, a traveling show that was at the QCCA Expo Center in Rock Island.
“If we didn’t see what we’re doing as worthwhile, if we didn’t see the value in it, we wouldn’t do it,” she said.
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Posted by QC Times on October 30, 2012 3:30 am • Alma Gaul
The goal is $155,000, and the city council has set a deadline of Dec. 18, the date of the last council meeting of the calendar year.
Speaking in front of the circa-1900 depot, Moline Preservation Society president Diann Moore said the group is beginning a letter-writing campaign to solicit pledges from both corporations and individuals. “We need to pound on some doors and office buildings,” she said.
Accompanying the letter will be a four-page brochure explaining the history of the depot, why it needs to be moved and why it is important, including the idea that it will create a tourist destination and enhance the riverfront and bike path.
People can make pledges online at their website, savethemolinedepot.com. The group is not asking for money, only pledges, at this time, she said.
The group is also printing yard signs to keep the issue before the public and to build awareness, she said.
“We have a long way to go, but we have come a long way in a very short time,” said Barbara Sandberg, the chairman of the city’s preservation commission. “Often, it takes time to get a project started, but this one took right off.”
Sandberg said she is heartened by people who call to offer support. “Although we need thousands (of dollars), everybody can participate in the opportunity to move this depot.”
The depot stands in the way of the new Interstate 74 bridge project, but preservationists had brokered a plan they hoped would save it: Move the depot to the Western Illinois campus where it would be renovated as a welcome center.
In addition to involvement by the university, the Illinois Department of Transportation agreed to spend up to $1 million to move the building and provide a new foundation. The city had informally agreed to donate the building and pay for repairs, including a hole in the roof, as well as for utility disconnections and reconnections.
Preservationists thought everything was on track until September when Moline aldermen indicated that they favored selling the building to the state, which would demolish it.
Council members said that, given the difficult economic times, they did not want any taxpayer money — city or state — going toward moving the depot.
The brick building served as a depot until 1934 when it was sold to Frank Foundries. In 1994, it was purchased by the city, designated a local landmark and remodeled for use by the Quad-Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau. The bureau moved out in 2008 and the building has been vacant since then.
The group trying to save the depot is comprised of members of the general public, the nonprofit Moline Preservation Society and the city of Moline Preservation Commission
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Posted by QC Times on December 18, 2012 8:10 pm • Thomas Geyer
The historic Moline depot won an eleventh-hour reprieve Tuesday when the state of Illinois said it would help pay for moving it out of the path of the new Interstate 74 bridge project.
Diann Moore, president of the Moline Preservation Society, said she had been prepared to go before the Moline City Council on bended knee to beg for more time to save the circa-1900 depot. The group has been campaigning to raise $155,000 to move the old brick depot from 2021 River Drive to the Western Illinois University riverfront campus rather than see it demolished. A Tuesday deadline had been set for their fundraising efforts.
However, an email Moore received Tuesday made her begging unnecessary — and gave society members an early Christmas present.
The email from the Illinois Department of Transportation said Gov. Pat Quinn has promised up to $82,000 to help the preservation society pay for moving the depot.
Mayor Don Welvaert said he got a phone call from Ann Schneider, secretary of IDOT.
“She (Schneider) said the governor’s office called her and promised money to fill the gap between what the preservation society had raised and the cost of moving the depot,” Welvaert said.
Now, the city can move forward with selling the property to IDOT for $141,000 to make room for the bridge project, he said.
Moore said that too often the society is on the losing end when it comes to saving historic buildings.
This time, it turned out differently.
“It just came out of the clear blue,” a beaming Moore said after the city council meeting. “We don’t know how it happened.”
Moore said the society has been in touch with other local and state historical preservation agencies in Springfield and Chicago looking for money and ideas.
Somehow, Quinn got wind of the Moline organization’s needs, she said.
“I know he’s very supportive of historical preservation,” Moore said.
The society has raised a little more than $73,000 in pledges from about 400 donors, Moore said. The money from the state fills the gap between that amount and the $155,000 needed.
Welvaert said an additional cost could come because new street lighting is being erected in the area of the Western Illinois campus. Some of that lighting will have to come down when the depot is moved and then put back up. That would cost about $20,000 — and will pose no problem, he added.
Once in its new home, the depot will be renovated and used as a welcome center.
