The Rock Island Preservation Society and Moline Preservation Society see the passing of the Historic Preservation Tax Credit bill passed by an overwhelming majority of the Illinois General Assembly and signed by Governor Rauner, as a great opportunity for Rock Island County to attract investors to participate in a public/private alliance to renovate and reuse the Rock Island County Courthouse. Thus they are asking the Rock Island County Board to work together with them and Landmarks Illinois, to seek out potential investors.

To kick-start this effort, RIPS and MPS are starting a campaign to raise funds to advocate for renovation and reuse of the courthouse. The funds will be used to create marketing materials and information about the courthouse, to expand the search for investors beyond the local area, and to bring potential investors on-site to see the courthouse and for meetings with county officials. This approach is based on the best practices used by other counties in surrounding states to save historic courthouses.

A key part of the effort is to make sure that a decision on the future of the courthouse is not rushed in order to give time for the tax credits to become available and investors to be found. This would include if necessary, action to prevent illegal use of the Justice Center Annex bond funds for demolition of the courthouse.

Signs are going up around the county saying “Save Our Courthouse – For Us, Our Kids, Their kids, Their…” If you would like to display a sign, contact us via our Facebook page RockIslandPreservationSociety and we will deliver one.

To donate funds to our campaign, go to GoFundMe.com/SavetheRockIslandCourthouse  We thank you for your support.