March, 2010 Newsletter

February Meeting

Members Lance & Trish DeLire hosted this month. Their beautiful Queen Anne on Madison Street hill was built in 1893 by local Jeweler and Watchmaker, A.R. Staufenbeil (thank you, Encyclopedia Dubuque –I would have never gotten that spelling right! See Staufenbeil. He had 6 kids from 2 different wives – including twin girls: Ruby & Pearl. Jeweler humor, I guess.
Ruby purchased the home in 1932 or ’33 for about $5000 and did a remodel of the home including turning the butler’s pantry into a bathroom. Ruby’s son, James inherited the property and still owned it when Trish & Vance moved into the second floor. They purchased it in 1993.
I learned something new: if you take a photo of decorative, painted-on boarders to Sign Makers, they can make a stencil of it for you. Who knew? We were all very impressed by how much of the house (including some wallpaper, stenciling, and a built-in ice box) remains original.

Business meeting

President Diane Schulz called the meeting to order at 7:25pm.

Guests and Introductions

Bob & Kathy Halko (homeowners of one of our House Tour homes this year) joined us. Jean Kilburg’s daughter, Debbie stopped in as well.

Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer Dale Knipschield reported a balance of $7223. He also gave an update on the status of our non-profit application. He has one form remaining to file and will do that soon.

Grants

Meg Wall-Wild reported that the grant application is available on our website. So far, we’ve had only 1 inquiry from the City of Dubuque. If you know of any eligible organizations, please spread the word. A press release will likely go out soon.

Membership

Pres. Diane Schulz asked for volunteers to take over the Membership committee since Marie is busy with the House Tour. No one volunteered. Diane will call previous Membership Committee chairs Jim & Jo Edwards to see if they are interested.

House Tour

(May 22-23) – Co-chair Kay Kluseman announced that we have found 5 homes for the Tour, but would consider others to replace one of the homes which is a bit far from the other four.
Our 2010 Tour homes are:
Clarke Manor 216 Clarke
506 Clarke
486 Clarke
306 Lowell
175 W. 17th.
Other plans are on-track. We’re looking for house coordinators for a couple of the houses yet. Contact Kay if you’re interested.

Preservation

Vance DeLire reported that LK Development – owners of the Dubuque Malting & Brewing building’s north side – were before City Council asking to make some changes. They were referred to Historic Preservation. Dick Vorwald announced that there will be a sustainability conference in Dubuque on March 9.

Social

We have people signed up for treats through April and only need 1 more volunteer for May. Dick Vorwald announced that we may not need treats for the March meeting at St. Mary’s as we will purchase treats from them. He will contact those who are signed up.

Old Business

none

New Business

This years’ Dubuque’s Main Street Business PM at the Hotel Julien is scheduled for February 16, 5-7pm.
We had a discussion of whether we should purchase our own insurance for the Tour this year. However, we will not have our non-profit status in place soon enough to do so. We will go through the Dubuque Fine Arts Council as we have in years past.

Future Meetings & Events

March 11 at 7pm – St. Mary’s Church – 1584 White Street Park and enter through east side of the church. Church tour first, then the meeting. Cookies & coffee from St. Mary’s. Dick will bring juice & rolls.

April 8 at 7pm – Diane Schulz’s house – 1045 W. 3rd Street Treats by Jackie Arnold, Jim & Jo Edwards and Kristen Smith.

June 10 (picnic?) - TBD Treats by Kay Kluseman, Jim & Marie Nadeau (will move to another month if we have the membership picnic in June).