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Summer 2016

Car club for the whole family to enjoy

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Sterling-Rock Falls

COVER • STORY

MAGAZINE

Publisher Sam R Fisher Advertising Director Jennifer Heintzelman Editor Jeff Rogers

Bringing back the bloom

Magazine Editors Kathleen Schultz Christopher Heimerman Page Design Lucas Pauley Published by

Sauk Valley Media 3200 E. Lincolnway Sterling, IL 61081 815-625-3600 Articles and advertisements are the property of Sauk Valley Media. No portion of Sterling-Rock Falls Living Magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility of Sauk Valley Media. The information in this magazine is believed to be accurate; however, Sauk Valley Media cannot and does not guarantee its accuracy. Sauk Valley Media cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.

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Man devotes life to restoring prairie

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Contents 8

5 – New River Model Railroad Museum Organizers aim to educate public about model trains

8 – Sauk Valley Shifters Car club provides fun for the whole family

13 – Spirit of the Heart New gallery promotes art’s impact on health, recovery

16 – Tim Keller Sterling resident a longtime protector of the prairie

13 16

23 – Patricia Lorenz Newman High grad publishes another inspirational book

25 – Creative Kitchens & Bath Couple still offering personal touch to work with customers

29 – Corner Tap Local bar has new owners who are planning improvements

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Travel back in time

History is chugging away northwest of Sterling Douglas Brandau talks about the West Virginia towns the New River Model Railroad Museum portrays.

STORY BY SHELBY KUEPKER & PHOTOS BY PHILIP MARRUFFO FOR STERLING-ROCK FALLS LIVING

Continued on page 6

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Continued from page 5

Museum approaching completion W

e all have that one thing that really stirs our passions, that makes us light up just thinking about it, that we could talk about forever. For Douglas Brandau, 69, that passion is model railroads. Building, and sharing. His New River Model Railroad Museum northwest of Sterling is approaching its completion, mostly because the building it is housed in is almost out of room. Brandau and his fellow model railroad builders, Bill Hall of Polo, Dick Jones of Polo, and Paul Pierson of Loves Park, have been bringing history to life since 1999. Their HO scale model, a replica of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia in the 1950s, has grown over the years to a 36-by-40-foot layout, wall to wall and practically ceiling to floor. The New York Central and Virginia Railway also are featured. During the time period, “these three railroads competed with each other,” Brandau said. The model depicts 100 miles of railroad, from Hinton to Hanley, West Virginia, plus all of the branch lines along the way and where they ended up. “We run it like a real railroad,” said Brandau, who has been interested in model railroads “all my life.” Years ago, he was building models in the basement of his house, but the small space limited his work. In 1999, one of his friends suggested moving his projects to the old horse barn. He chose to model the West Virginia railroads because he had traveled the area, by car and by train, and loved it. “The railroads around here are flat as a pancake. In that area, you see something different,” he said. By different, he means the massive West Virginian mountains. Brandau’s model shows not only the entire Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad system and all of the towns they passed through, but also the mountain ranges. He chose the 1948 to 1952 time period because he is passionate about the importance of that era. In the ’50s, coal was a hot commodity, and the only way to transport it was by train. Towns sprung up, and people moved in, because of the railroads. “If it weren’t for the railroads, a lot of things would be different today,” Brandau said. He’s also a member of the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, which is the primary source of his knowledge, since most of the railroads no longer exist, and even some of the

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A steam engine passes through the scenic New River Model Railroad Museum.

To view the choo-choo

Buildings, cars and people fill the towns at the museum.

towns have become ghost towns. The historical society gives him full access to its photos; those and old maps are what enabled Brandau and his buddies to recreate the extinct railroad system down to the last detail. Every single piece was put together by hand, either from a kit or built from scratch, he said. The trains, pulled by diesel and steam locomotives, run on a double main line through the New River Gorge, past towns, past people at work, and past grazing animals, bustling shops, and flowing rivers. Turntable railroads are a thing of the past, but Brandau’s detailed model shows exactly how they worked. In addition to railroad history, Brandau likes to teach children about railroad safety, warning them to stay off the tracks. Now that they’ve run out of room to add on to their model, the men are adding lights, so

The purpose of the New River Model Railroad Museum is to educate, show and operate model trains, and to teach the importance that railroading had in the history of this country, say the men who built it. The museum, at 17845 Rigler Drive in Sterling, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday or by appointment any day but Sunday. Admission is $7 for ages 5 and older, and groups are welcome. To get there, take state Route 40 north of Sterling, make a left on Fulfs Road, go 3.7 miles and turn left on Rigler. Contact Douglas Brandau at newriverrailroad@gmail.com or 815-6257699 or 815-499-9129 to make an appointment or for more information. You also can find the museum on Facebook. that will light up when it’s run it in the dark. Realism is their goal, Brandau said. It’s just a plus that the museum has made their hobby a shared delight. “All of us are adults who just haven’t grown up yet. We’re still having fun,” he said. “God gave me the tremendous gift of building this, and I like to share it with other people.” s

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Chuck Popejoy, a member of the Sauk Valley Shifters car club, stands next to his 1947 Ford pickup rat rod May 21 during the Sterling Main Street Car Show.

Family of fast cars

Group organizing swap meets, car shows, family night STORY BY CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN & PHOTOS BY MICHAEL KRABBENHOEFT FOR STERLING-ROCK FALLS LIVING

ome guys work on their cars as an excuse to escape family for a while. A new local car club wants to get whole families in on the fun. Twin Cities residents Dan Covell, Carl Sword and Chuck Popejoy founded the club around the first of the year, and it’s got about a dozen members already. During the May 21 Sterling Main Street Car Show, Popejoy was bouncing around from the rat rods to the swap meet the club was running,

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trying to keep the event running smoothly. Tunes from 3D Sounds and the tempting smells of grilled foods filled the air, making the setting feel more like a fairgrounds than streets and parking lots. Popejoy’s daughters, Taryn and Madison Moore, 15 and 16, respectively, were trying to sell some of his rusty junk at the swap meet. His sons, Logan, 6, and Owen, 9, were en route. “My youngest, Logan, he’d have a car right

now, if he could,” Popejoy said while showing off the low-riding 1947 Ford pickup rat rod he built. It’s that rusty, classic ride with the emerald-green wheels you might have seen around town. It’s tough to miss. “There have been cars I’ve had, and he says, ‘That’s mine, Dad. That’s mine.’ I’m going to get a special one and keep it for him. It might even be this truck.” The girls dig cars, too, and Owen gets into it some of the time.

“He teeters in and out, but I think he’s going to come around,” Popejoy said. “You don’t want to push them into it.” The group has another swap meet and car show planned for Oct. 9 at Covell’s business, Ink Storm Tattoos, 110 Second Ave. in Sterling, but the members also get together for cruises near and far – the Meltdown Drags in Byron is a must-attend event. They hope to bring more shows to the Sauk Valley, and bolster existing ones. Last year, the Main Street event drew about 120 cars. This year, by combining the car show, swap meet and rat rods, there were that many cars by 10 a.m. In the works for this summer is an event that should appeal to kids young and old: a family night at the business, complete with hot rods and movies projected on the side of the building. “If we don’t get a screen, we’ll paint the wall white and project the movies on there,” Sword joked. Popejoy caught the mechanic bug when he was a kid and his cousin raced mud trucks. “He’d let me bang a wrench against the side of it, and it stuck with me ever since then,” he said. He only recently carved up his truck’s chassis and re-welded it to make it a low-rider. “I just love the look of it,” he said. “It’s just lying there in the sun, taking a nap.” As for those unmistakable tires, they’re only shimmering green because that’s how he painted the dash. Continued on page 11

A rat rod owned by Dan Covell, a member of the Sauk Valley Shifters car club, is displayed at the Sterling Main Street Car Show.

More about the club

Sauk Valley Shifters meets at 6:30 p.m. every Thursday at Ink Storm Tattoo, 110 S. Second St., Sterling. Membership for the nonprofit club costs $60 a year. Find Sauk Valley Shifters on Facebook or call Dan Covell at 815-4999127 to learn more. The club will host the Extrav-O-Ganza vintage and rat rod swap meet and car show from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 9 outside the tattoo shop. The club is also planning a family night, which would feature movies projected on the shop’s back wall, as well as hot rods. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for that date, to soon be determined.

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Continued from page 9

ABOVE: Detail shot of the pistol shifter on Covell’s rat rod. RIGHT: The interior of Popejoy’s 1947 Ford pickup rat rod.

A detail shot of the headlight on Covell’s rat rod at the car show. The group has another swap meet and car show planned for Oct. 9 at Covell’s business, Ink Storm Tattoos, 110 Second Ave. in Sterling.

“I needed to paint something else that color to tie it in, and actually, I didn’t like the tires green at first,” he said. “But it grew on me.” Among other artistic touches is a BB gun mounted below the rear window with a crescent wrench. He and other members are bent on getting Joe Michels, 29, of Rock Falls, to build his own rat rod. He’s got visions of a 40s Ford truck. “I like the look – the body lines and everything,” Michels said. “I don’t have anything of my own yet. I just help them wrench on all theirs.”

“We’re gonna get there, though,” Popejoy said. “We’re working on it.” It’s a labor of love, but it’s also art form for many of the members. Covell brings the flair of his vocation as a tattoo artist into the garage. “I just love this,” he said, showing off the eccentric build of one of his rat rods. “This and tattooing is my life. That’s what I do.” As for the swap meet, it’s anything but limited to car parts, or even car-themed stuff. While there’s chrome galore, a thrifter could find anything from tools to Johnny Cash 8-tracks.

DANCEWEAR •SHOES ACCESSORIES

Primitives

Covell was trying to part ways with a deep-sea diving helmet and an old gas tank shaped like a World War II bomb. “It was interesting to me for a while,” he said. He wanted “Sauk Valley” in the club’s name, because he wants it all-inclusive, and he wants to be clear that no matter your passion – whether you’re into rat rods or a purist – you’ll feel right at home in the club. “We’re all pretty laid-back, easygoing guys,” he said. “It’s not a rat rod club. It’s a car club, and we’re in it for the love of cars.” s

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The

art of healing

Deb Keashall, CGH’s Volunteer Services manager, stands with artwork from Woodlawn Arts Academy students.

CGH invites all to visit new gallery, unique gift shop STORY BY MITCHELL BRINKMAN & PHOTOS BY PHILIP MARRUFFO FOR STERLING-ROCK FALLS LIVING

urns out, there are a couple of good reasons to go to this hospital, even if you aren’t sick. CGH Medical Center always has been dedicated to community involvement, but its newest project breaks new ground. On May 17, CGH opened its Spirit of the Heart art gallery, a joint project of its Marketing Department and the CGH Auxiliary. It’s intended to be not only a venue for local artists, but also a healing force for patients, families, and even hospital staff, to help promote the idea of art’s positive impact on healing and health. The inaugural exhibit, “Spirit of the Heart,” was coordinated by Woodlawn Arts Academy and CGH, and featured artwork from academy students. Plans call for exhibits to run 6 or 7 weeks; the next one opens July 14. Continued on page 15

The exhibit gives visitors and staff a little break as they walk trough the hallways.

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Continued from page 13

Gifts for all occasions are available at the CGH Medical Center Gift Shop, including the always-popular choices of flowers and jewelry (above).

Local artists are encouraged to submit pieces that in some way reflect the healing arts. They will be reviewed by a committee, to determine if they are appropriate for the gallery, then exhibited at no cost. Artists can sell their pieces, too, if they choose, but 15 percent of their proceeds must be donated to the Auxiliary, to support its programs. For now, the gallery is on the first floor, in the northern hallway between the hospital and the CGH Main Clinic. Those involved in the project, including Deb Keaschall, CGH’s Volunteer Services manager, hope to see it grow. “In the future, we hope to expand the gallery into the patient care areas,” Keaschall said. “That way, patients who are unable to move as far from their areas can enjoy the works on display.” CGH also hopes that as public awareness of the gallery grows: it also will reignite interest

Pay a visit

The CGH Medical Center Auxiliary Gift Shop is open from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Go to cghmc.com and click on About Us, then Volunteers & Auxiliary to learn more. Works in the Spirit of the Heart art gallery can be viewed from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Contact Deb Keaschall at 815-625-0400, ext. 5727, or info@cghmc.com to volunteer in the gift shop, or to submit works for the Spirit of the Heart art gallery. in another of Auxiliary projects, the hospital gift shop, which has been providing patients, guests, staff and drop-in shoppers with service and comfort for more than 55 years. Its shop is chock full of a revolving slate of unique and colorful items – from candy to jewelry, baby gifts to home decor, even clothing – anything you might need to brighten the mood of a patient, or just surprise a special someone.

“We are a service to both the patients and staff,” manager Pam Koster said. “It is a comfort for them to be able to get what they may need here, and provides them a relief from whatever may have brought them to the hospital in the first place.” Proceeds are used to help smooth the way for future generations of caregivers, through scholarships for students in health care-related studies. s

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Tim Keller looks over the natural prairie area at Thomas Park in Sterling. Keller, along with students from Lincoln Elementary School, planted the prairie.

Meet Father Nature Tim Keller has devoted his life to conservation, preservation, restoration STORY BY TERRY THOMAS & PHOTOS BY PHILIP MARRUFFO FOR STERLING-ROCK FALLS LIVING

t’s mid-morning, and the sun shines brightly in the eastern sky as Sterling resident Tim Keller stands in the flower garden in his backyard. “I want to introduce you to one plant,” he says, proudly pointing to a particularly striking one festooned with brilliant blue blossoms. “These blossoms will all be gone by noon, and tomorrow they’ll all be back. That’s its daily cycle this time of year.” The plant is spiderwort, a native species that was ubiquitous in northern Illinois when prairies covered upward of 90 percent of the region’s landscape prior to the arrival of Euro-American settlers in the early 19th century. In the ensuing decades, the pioneers plowed under the prairies, replacing spiderwort and other indigenous plants and grasses with

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endless fields of wheat, corn, and soybeans. Domestic livestock overgrazed and decimated what remained. The transformation resulted in the creation of one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions. But the destruction of the land’s ancient ecosystems was a steep price to pay, says Keller. For Keller, reclaiming at least some of the Sauk Valley’s original natural heritage has been a lifelong enterprise, one fueled by a passion that verges on obsession. “It’s something I have always believed in,” the 74-year old Sterling native says. “It probably goes back to when I was in grade school. My teacher gave me a series of science books and was very supportive of my interests” in the natural world. “I remember reading about the passenger

pigeons. There were so many of them in the 19th century they filled the skies,” he says. “But the last passenger pigeon died in 1914,” an extinction directly attributable to the excesses of human beings. “I really think that’s what got me started.” Keller nurtured those interests as he proceeded with his education and early professional career. After serving in the Peace Corps and graduating from college in the early 1960s, Keller took a position as a soil scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Soil and Water Conservation Service. His soil mapping took him across much of northern Illinois. At the time, the accepted wisdom was that many, if not most, types of prairie plants and grasses were simply extinct, victims of modern farming and urbanization.

Keller points out the wild quinine at the natural prairie area at Thomas Park.

But Keller soon came to a different conclusion. Although grievously wounded, the prairie persevered, relegated to tiny patches in out-of-the-way places, such as rural cemeteries and railroad rightof-ways, that Keller encountered as he traveled across the region conducting the surveys. “I remember a meeting in Elgin where they were saying these things,” Keller says. It was the consensus there that a rural cemetery in Will County might be the only spot where a remnant population of a particular prairie plant survived in northern Illinois. But Keller knew better. “I said, ‘I don’t mean to disagree with you, but I think there’s places like this one out my way.’ So I started looking.” It was the beginning of a journey of discovery that continues to this day. Not only did Keller find remnant prairie populations all over northern Illinois, but he also devoted himself to restoring and expanding them, offering local residents at least a glimpse of the primordial ecosystems that greeted the pioneers when they first arrived.

“You’d see a plant around a headstone” in a rural cemetery, he recalls of those early days. “And you’d ask permission to do a controlled burn to see what would come up.” Sure enough, the resilient prairie shoots would reappear from the charred aftermath of the fires, much as they had in the days when the fires were sparked by lightning strikes and native peoples. Over the course of the next half-century, Keller worked assiduously to bring the prairie back to life in the Sauk Valley. In the process, he demonstrated that the region’s original habitats can coexist and even flourish alongside the trappings of modern civilization. The list of his accomplishments is truly astounding. He has been a driving force behind prairie restorations at the Spring Slough in Whiteside County; the Lyndon-Agnew Railroad Prairie; the Clyde and Heaton cemeteries; the Smack Prairie near Erie; the Doug Wade Nature Preserve; Temperance Hill Cemetery; De Wolf Cemetery; Beach Cem-

etery; and the Munson cemetery in Henry County. He also has been involved in the development of Sauk Valley Community College’s prairie and helped start the Byron Forest Preserve District’s Jarrett Prairie Nature Preserve. Along with his wife, Carolyn, he has also been a leader in the Sauk Valley’s burgeoning environmental movement, and a guiding spirit in the formation of many local prairie restoration groups. Together, the Kellers epitomize what volunteerism can achieve. When not saving native ecosystems, the couple also farmed, and operated a successful small business, Ye Olde Cider Mill, which they opened in 1971 and ran until retirement in 2012. They even found time to raise two daughters, who have since married and enriched the couple’s life with five grandchildren.

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Keller points out the mountain mint at the prairie area at Thomas Park.

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Continued from page 19

Keller looks over a flowering milkweed plant at the natural prairie area at Thomas Park.

Perhaps Tim Keller’s most notable contribution to the local preservation movement has been his work with the Nachusa Grasslands, a 4,000-acre restored prairie in northeast Lee County near Franklin Grove operated by The Nature Conservancy. The site attracts thousands of visitors annually to experience its diverse prairie ecosystems, which now even include a herd of bison, another of the region’s native species that succumbed to the march of civilization in the early 19th century. But this impressive site likely never would have materialized if it had not been for Keller and a handful of other environmentalists. “We call him one of the fathers of Nachusa Grasslands,” said Bill Kleiman, The Nature Conservancy’s project director for the site. “Back in the late ’70s and early ’80s when most people didn’t understand what prairie was, Tim recognized this area’s potential, and worked to convince people of the importance of preserving it.” The site’s potential originally had been identified as the result of a natural area survey of Lee County conducted by the Natural Land Institute in 1970. The resulting 20-page report ended up at the Lee County Soil and Water Conservation District office, where the district’s secretary, Hazel Reuter, decided to send a copy to Keller, according to information compiled by Carolyn.

As a result of the report, Keller went to work, coaxing the site’s latent prairie back to life. During those early days, Keller labored at the Nachusa site alongside Doug and Dot Wade, a local couple who also did pioneering work in prairie restoration. Together, they crafted small demonstration plots, called exclosures, to prove that the prairie still survived beneath the overlay of imported grasses and vegetation. “Doug and I put up electric fences around small plots to keep the cattle away,” Keller says. “We set up the exclosure plots to see if we could bring the grasses and plants back.” “We did that for a couple of years, and it worked so well that we proved the prairie could thrive there. In fact, we showed that this land wasn’t very good for crops, but it was ideal for prairie.” But for all their success, the project faced a crisis in the mid-1980s, one that threatened to destroy the site before its promise could be fully realized. The original landowner put the property up for sale, and it appeared likely a developer would buy the acres to build subdivisions. In a desperate effort to save the nascent prairie, Keller and others attempted to convince various individuals and conservation organizations to step in and buy the land. Their efforts eventually succeeded, but just barely.

In 1985, an auction was scheduled to sell off the property in small parcels, with the most likely result that those parcels would be sold for home construction, not prairie preservation. But representatives of the Natural Land Institute and The Nature Conservancy arrived 15 minutes before the auction and persuaded the owner to sell the entire site to the conservancy. Thus was born the Nachusa Grasslands. That original purchase amounted to about 400 acres, Kleiman said. Today, Nachusa Grasslands is 10 times that size. “It’s been 30 years of slow accumulation,” Kleiman said of the site’s growth. “And a lot of it has been made possible by tons of labor provided by volunteers. “And it really began with Tim’s vision to seed those small plots and demonstrate that the prairie was still there. That’s why I say Tim is one of the fathers of the Nachusa Grasslands.” For Keller, the grasslands are but one example of what can be done when determined people join together for worthwhile causes, such as reclaiming the region’s natural heritage. “If we don’t do it, it isn’t going to get done.” And, for all that’s been accomplished, there’s still plenty to do, he says. “I think we were sort of on the cliff, maybe even starting to go over the cliff. Now, I think things are better, but there’s a lot more that can be done.” s

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Wise with her words Newman High grad publishes another inspirational book STORY BY JEHOVIA MINIEL & SUBMITTED PHOTOS FOR STERLING-ROCK FALLS LIVING

hen it comes right down to it, love knows no age. Patricia (Kobbeman) Lorenz, 73, a 1963 Newman Central Catholic High School graduate who grew up in Rock Falls, has published her 14th book, “57 Steps to Paradise: Finding Love in Midlife and Beyond,” dating advice for folks from their 40s to their 90s. Lorenz, whose writing style is described as inspirational art-of-living humor, invites Patricia Lorenz readers to journey through her life, loves, friendships, and encounters. Married three times, she nonetheless advises them to give love another try, to never quit looking for that lifelong love who could just be around the corner, no matter your age. Lorenz, who now lives in Largo, Florida, has been writing more than 4 decades, publishing her first piece in a Guideposts magazine contest in 1982. Her first successful story: “The Baggy Yellow Shirt,” about her relationship with her mother, who was very special to her. Since then, through her writing, “I learned to unzip my soul, and expose foibles, and admit mistakes,” she said. “People should write what they know. Whether it be about love, loss, or more, ... something you’ve experienced, or have seen.” She follows her own advice: “57 Steps to Paradise,” as well as her other books and short stories, draw inspiration not only from her three

Looking for more by Lorenz?

Other books by Patricia Lorenz: • “Stuff That Matters for Single Parents” (1996) • “Life’s Too Short to Fold Your Underwear” (2002) • “5 Things We Need to be Happy” (2009) Copies of her books are available from Lorenz, from MSI Press at editor@ msipress.com and from Amazon.com. Call her at 727-593-3040 to learn more about her availability for speaking engagements or to buy a book. You also can follow her on Facebook, go to patricialorenz.com, or email her at patricialorenz4@gmail.com. marriages, but also from her four children, whom she raised on her own since 1985, and her friends. They deal with parenting, emotions, stress, and other everyday adult situations. In addition to being a prolific author, Lorenz also is one of the top contributors to the “Chicken Soup For the Soul” books; a contributing writer for 18 Daily Guideposts books; and a former columnist for the Catholic Herald in Milwaukee. She also travels all over the country, doing speaking engagements on a wide variety of topics. She gets back to the area fairly often. Her parents, dad Ed, 96, and stepmom Bev Kobbeman, 91, still live in the house in Rock Falls that Ed, a decorated World War II fighter pilot, built in 1947. Writing is not her only creative outlet: Since

October 2014, she has been creating Yupo paintings – vibrantly colorful works on plastic paper done with alcohol ink. “The painting has become a passion, although not nearly as important to me as writing is,” she said recently on her Facebook page. Her wish for her readers everywhere? “May all your creative genes begin to flow and make you as happy as I am when I’m painting or writing.” s

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Steve and Pam Workman have operated Creative Kitchens & Bath in Sterling since 1987.

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ABOVE LEFT AND LEFT: Creative Kitchens & Bath in Sterling offers a variety of kitchens cabinets for your needs. With Holiday Cabinetry, Creative Kitchens can offer a lot more than your typical cabinet provider. The cabinetry can be customized to size in 1/8-inch increments, and in oak, hickory, alder, maple, cherry, and quarter sawn oak, all in various stains, paints, and glazes. ABOVE RIGHT: Granite is displayed at the store.

t’s been 30 years since Steve and Pam Workman opened Creative Kitchens & Bath. They sell cabinets for any area of the house you can think of, but their main business, like the name says, is kitchens and bathrooms. The provide not only good design, but also the nuts and bolts of good design: countertops, sinks, hardware, and accessories. The Workmans, both 61, have been selling Holiday Cabinetry since 1990. The Rice Lake, Wisconsin, custom cabinet manufacturer has been in business more than 70 years. Don’t let that word “custom” scare you away, though. Holiday also offers a variety of options, which allows them to compete with the big box stores. Steve and Pam’s mission is to help their customers pick and choose every little detail of their projects, all while sticking to their budget. When it comes to designing a kitchen or bath, good service and good advice are paramount, Pam said. They’re ready with as much help as you need, whether you know exactly what you want or have no clear idea.

“We want to make it a good experience. We will work through the process, however fast or slow the customer wants,” Pam said. The process usually begins with a tour around their showroom, examining the different cabinet construction and options, followed by a home visit from Steve, tape measure in hand. With Holiday Cabinetry, Creative Kitchens can offer a lot more than your typical cabinet provider. The cabinetry can be customized to size in 1/8-inch increments, and in oak, hickory, alder, maple, cherry, and quarter sawn oak, all in various stains, paints, and glazes. After the top coat is applied, all Holiday Cabinetry is baked in infrared ovens, which makes for a nice, tough finish, “something that is hard to achieve in a local shop,” Pam said. Customers also pick and choose the little things that add character, such as washes and glazes. “There are lots of things you can do to achieve different finishes on the paint,” Pam said. The Workmans then help choose accessories: a rollout wastebasket, some nice glass work, or super lazy Susans, or other details, such as the edge shapes of doors and drawers, and the dec-

orative hardware – all the little odds and ends that will make your kitchen perfect for you. One thing Creative Kitchens offers that you just can’t find just anywhere is the personal attention they put into your designs. Steve gets help from a computer program, but, unlike other businesses, he never lets the computer do the actual design. A computer can fill the space, but can’t use logic to decide what or why. Steve takes the time to personally design the layout of every project, incorporating both his and the customer’s ideas, to get the best possible outcome. It takes 6 to 8 weeks for your special cabinets to be delivered, and during that time, the Workmans work with you to pick out countertops. They offer granite, quartz, and Cambria countertops in numerous colors, as well as solid surface and laminates. They also can arrange the delivery and installation, and can even help line up an electrician or a plumber. At Creative Kitchens, collaboration is key. “We want to give people the kitchen that they’ve always dreamed of,” Pam said. s

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Corner Tap owners Matt Prescott (left) and Tim Kendrick will be making slight changes to the bar. The bar has made it a priority to have the largest hard cider selection in the area. The Corner Tap is in downtown Rock Falls at the corner of West 2nd Street and Second Avenue.

Corner Tap change-up With the promise of better quality food, personable employees and a little remodeling, the new owners see a bright future for their business

STORY BY KACIE KLINGE & PHOTOS BY MICHAEL KRABBENHOEFT FOR STERLING-ROCK FALLS LIVING

orner Tap has been a downtown Rock Falls staple for years, but now it’s under new ownership. Matt Prescott and his business partner, Tim Kendrick, both Sterling natives, stepped in after the previous owner, Donna Ahlstrand, decided to retire. It’s always been Kendrick’s favorite spot to kick back with a cold one, and they wanted to make sure it fell into good hands. They plan to maintain the bar’s classic appeal, but would like to make some improvements along the way. “There’s some remodeling in the future, and just maintaining general cleanliness,” Prescott said. “It’s also about putting the right people behind the bar, who are friendly.”

Kick back and relax at Corner Tap

The Corner Tap, at 120 W. Second St. in Rock Falls, is open from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. 7 days a week. Call 815-625-4463 or find it on Facebook for more information. Prescott is no amateur when it comes to running a business. He and Kendrick also own Long Shot Sports Bar and Grill in Rock Falls, all three Candlelight Inn restaurants, and Sauk Valley Plumbing. “When we bought Long Shot, which was 3 and a half years ago, we’ve doubled the business since then,” Prescott said. “It’s a different customer base there. “Our customer down here isn’t the customer

that wants to go see live entertainment. The Cooler and Whiskey Barrel down here do great jobs with their live entertainment, but if you’re over there having a casual conversation and all of the sudden a band starts playing, you just are going to want to get away where you can relax.” That’s where Corner Tap, with its laid-back, conversational atmosphere, comes in.

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Corner Tap in Rock Falls has been a downtown staple for years. Prescott and Kendrick plan to maintain the bar’s classic appeal, but would like to make some improvements along the way.

“

“You can go into places, buy the cheapest meat possible, put cheese on it, throw it on a bun and say here’s a cheeseburger – that’s not what I want to eat. They used to serve an 80/20 beef hamburger, now we serve Angus. It’s still a burger, but it’s a better quality product. Matt Prescott co-owner of Corner Tap

“

The bar isn’t getting quite as many regulars as it used to, but Prescott hopes to change that. “Every morning ... you can come in and have doughnuts and coffee,” Prescott said. “That’s the goal, to get traffic. We hope to build on that and bring in more regulars. “If you take care of people and do the right thing, your clientele will grow. The more people you run through your door, the better off you are.” Plans also call for bringing in a larger variety of ciders than any other bar in the area (they now have nine), improving the quality of the food, and remodeling the bathrooms. “You can go into places, buy the cheapest meat possible, put cheese on it, throw it on a bun and say here’s a cheeseburger – that’s not what I want to eat,” Prescott said. “They used to serve an 80/20 beef hamburger, now we serve Angus. It’s still a burger, but it’s a better quality product. “That’s probably the biggest change that we’ve made. That’s my philosophy: I’m not going to be the cheap guy, I’m going to be the best guy.” The menu, which changes daily, includes food such as Italian sausage, hot turkey with potatoes and gravy, a soup of the day and salad, plus tacos every Friday. His biggest challenge so far was finding the right employees to work the night shifts.

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“Not everybody is made to be in customer service,” Prescott said. “It’s tough to look the customer in the face every day, and there’s certain people that are cut out for it and certain people that aren’t.” Prescott believes in taking care of his employees first, because if they are well taken care of, they will take care of customers in return. “The number one secret that I have in the hospitality business is, I give every employee I have the right to do what it takes to make the customer happy,” he said. “So if you come in and we screw up your meal, my employees don’t have to call me or come get me, they just have to make it right with the customer. We all make errors, but if you make it right with the customer, they’ll still continue to be your customer.” He plans to be with the bar for the long haul. “We want this business to be here 20 years from now, when I want to retire,” Prescott said. “We’re not trying to make a bunch of money in 5 years and shut the place down.” Ultimately, he tries to make every business he owns a place he would enjoy being a customer. “I want to do things the way that I would want it done. If I wouldn’t want to come in as a customer, then it’s not going to work. I can’t get behind it Corner Tap plans to have the largest hard unless it’s something I believe cider selection in the area. in.” s

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