President Linda Anderson and spouse Bruce Ohrlund were our hosts at the annual mostly social holiday meeting. A large group gathered and shared many tasty snacks at their historic Highland Park home at 1718 21st Street.

The business was informal announcements, with no formal action needed or taken on any issue.

Our next meeting on January 15 will be held in Davenport. It will begin with an optional 6:00 pm tour of a recently restored home at 822 Gaines Street followed by a business meeting from 7 – 8 pm at the Jipp House and Grocery, 730 Gaines Street. The meeting will be followed by a tour of the building which has become a non profit restoration salvage warehouse. Our hosts are Jack Haberman and Marion McGinnis. For both tours meet at 730 Gaines, and park on Gaines or 8th Avenue. The business part of the meeting will focus on planning for 2008.

Linda said that Jeannie Dasso has provided Rock Island historic brewery information to the speaker that will present a brief summary of local breweries during the February 14 joint meeting at the Davenport Front Street Brewery sponsored by the Scott County Preservation Society. We'll have more details on this as the time approaches.

Linda said that she had been contacted by a representative of the Rock Island Schools who wanted to make a presentation to us about the upcoming bond issue. However given that we have only one meeting, which is completely planned and full, before that vote as well as the fact that the bond issue is not part of our mission, there was a consensus that this would not be done.

Diana Alm noted that her term on Neighborhood Partners expires. We suggested that the position be filled at the February meeting, which is election time. Diana will plan to attend the Neighborhood Partners meeting which will occur in February before ours. She also noted that organizations now may have two representatives, neither of which is considered “alternate”. Clayton Peterson is currently serving as our alternate.

Thanks were given to Pete and Terri Cone who represented RIPS and dressed in Victorian garb for the Hauberg Open House on December 2. Diane Oestreich and Kim Bolyard decorated the tree for the entry; however we all forgot the date when the decorations were to be removed. Our apologies were tendered to Rebecca Davidson.

Martha Dismer said they were in the process of selling their historic Welch Home at 817 23rd Street and expected to close on December 27. The Dismers have moved to a riverfront property on Moline's South Shore drive.

Deb Holmes invited everyone to celebrate the season during their annual Open House on Sunday, December 23 between 12 and 4:30 pm. Enjoy the Holmes’ hospitality and their spectacular home at 720 20th Street.

Linda noted that this year has seemed particularly bad for Rock Island in terms of preservation of significant buildings (Memorial Christian Church; Armory; Villa), she also noted that RIPS is doing its job. She relayed a comment from a resident of another of our Quad Cities - “Rock Island is lucky because it just has so much more than other cities to preserve.” While we acknowledge that other cities have just as much as we do, the fact that it's perceived that we have more is due in large part to the continuing education that is our main mission.