SVM_Dixon Living - Fall 2022

long-time lawyer whose family made a name for Dixon rests his case

The power plant peering over the Rock River has been a part of downtown Dixon’s landscape for nearly 100 years, but have you ever looked inside?

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Staying power

The power plant peering over the Rock River has been a part of downtown Dixon’s landscape for nearly 100 years, turning turbines that turn out green energy — and sparking a fair share interest among people who pass it by.

inside

4He rests his case

A Dixon lawyer whose family helped make a name for their hometown looks back on a decades-long life and legacy in public service.

20All the world’s a peace of art

There’s nothing you can make that can’t be made into something else ... Just ask the newest members of Dixon’s business incubator family: a couple of creative cats who hope their gallery sparks a Renewed interest in the arts.

28

Tons of fun

It took 172,000 pounds of steel, more than a million pounds of concrete, and a ton of teamwork to make the Dixon Park District’s new community complex a reality, and now that it’s done, people have a place that’ll facilitate fun all year round and all under one roof.

Rubbing shoulders with governors, a nominee for the nation’s presidency, and a future

UN ambassa dor reads like a chapter out of a history book, but for Henry S. Dixon (seen here during a recent interview at his home), it was just life grow ing up in the hometown that carried his fam ily’s name.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/ APASCHAL@ SHAWMEDIA.COM

Christmas

Walk

ou could easily make the case that the city of Dixon wouldn’t have been the same without Henry S. Dixon’s family.

In fact, it wouldn’t even have been Dixon.

If it weren’t for Henry’s great-grandfather, people would probably be driving under an arch that says “Ogee’s Ferry.”

Henry S. Dixon is one in a long line of Dixons who’ve made a difference in the city that bears his family’s name, not only as one of the torchbearers of justice in a law firm that’s passed that torch from family to family for more than 160 years, but as a Lee County state’s attorney.

Dixon, 88, owned a law firm that began with his great-grandfather Sherwood in 1869 and ended only recently, with Henry’s retirement a couple of years ago and the closure of his law firm earlier this year, bringing an end to 163 years of family service in the local courts. In its final days, the firm was known as Dixon, Giesen and Flessner, with Henry’s wife, Linda Giesen, and Kelly Flessner moving elsewhere in town, to the firm of Ehrmann Gehlbach Badger and Considine.

The roots of the city’s family tree and the Dixons’ family tree will forever be inter twined — and like the city they’ve called home, the family is proud of its commitment to serving the people of Dixon.

It’s the city’s legacy, and it’s the Dixon family’s legacy.

Dixon, Dixon, Dixon, Dixon, Dixon and Dixon

John Dixon, known by local historians as “Father John Dixon,” bought a small set tlement named Ogee’s Ferry along the Rock River in 1830, and soon renamed it Dixon’s Ferry – which was shortened not too long after to just Dixon. Illinois had only been a state for 12 years, and the building blocks that would become the foundation of its legal system were still being laid. When it came to the knowledge of those new laws, Father John’s grandson, Sherwood, wasted little time in becoming an expert.

Sherwood — who would have a grandson who shared his name — earned his Illinois law license in 1866 and opened a firm with Solomon Bethea in 1869. Bethea’s wife, the former Katherine Shaw, is the namesake of KSB Hospital. Bethea later left the firm and Sherwood’s son, also named Henry S. (Sherwood) Dixon, joined just before the turn of the 20th century.

Story | Cody Cutter | Sauk Valley Media

DIXON cont’d to page 7

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The elder Henry also served as mayor of Dixon from 1903 to 1904. In 1926, the father and son opened new offices at 121 E. First St., which would be used by subsequent generations of attorneys until recently.

The second Sherwood Dixon entered the fam ily legal fold after serving in World War I, and his legacy stretched well outside of the city’s borders. He served as lieutenant governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953 under Democratic Gov. Adlai Steven son II. When Stevenson unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States in 1952, Dixon ran for Stevenson’s office in Springfield but lost to Republican William G. Stratton.

“My dad was a profound influence on my life, both in the military and when we came back after the war,” Dixon said. “He resumed his law practice with his law partners, and in 1948, he was elected Lieu tenant Governor of Illinois — a wonderful title: The Lieutenant Governor of Illinois.

Had seven children, a wife, and a salary set by statute at $5,000 a year.”

Henry, who joined the firm in 1963, is the oldest of seven chil dren of the former lieutenant governor, a sibling bunch that also includes James E. Dixon, who also served in the firm at one time and was Dixon’s mayor from 1983 to 1991.

“I had great love for my family, my dad and my mom,” Dixon said. “I opted to go to law school and come back to Dixon and got into practice at my dad’s law office.”

Dixon met his future wife, Linda Giesen, when she was out jogging. They later married and she eventually joined his law firm.

Sherwood No. 2 also served as a judge in the Federal Bank ruptcy Court for Northern Illinois after his service in the state capitol, and remained a partner in the family law firm until his death in 1973.

Sherwood’s service in state politics led to other attorneys joining the firm’s operating name, including John Devine — a former state representative and Illinois House speaker — Luke Morin and George Ray. “They were good mentors and were good men,” Dixon said. Rolfe Ehrmann and Gary Gehlbach started their legal careers in town in Dixon’s firm in 1979 before starting their own in 1982. Fless ner joined Dixon’s firm in 2017.

Perhaps Henry’s most cherished partners are his life partner, Linda, a former warden at the Dixon Correctional Center who became part of the firm in 1996; and son Henry S. “Buck” Dixon, who became the fifth generation of the family to practice law in town. Buck later moved to Chicago to practice concurrently with a career as a military officer.

DIXON cont’d to page 8

Sherwood Dixon, fourth from left, was Henry S. Dixon’s fa ther and ran for the governor ship of Illinois on the Demo cratic ticket in 1952. Sherwood Dixon served as Lt. Gov. under Adlai Stevenson II from 1949 to 1953. Young Henry was a fresh man at the University of Notre Dame when his father ran for the state’s highest office. Sherwood eventually lost the election to William G. Stratton.

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“I met her not very long after she came to town,” Dixon recalled of meeting Gieson. “She was out jogging one after noon, and we met. Things developed from there, and we got married.”

Eyewitness to history

Henry was a teenager when his father was elected lieutenant governor. Stevenson was chosen by the state Democrats to run against incumbent Dwight H. Green, and he sought a running mate who was influential in party politics throughout the state. Sherwood was indeed that, and Stevenson, along with senate candidate Paul Douglas, visited the Dixons to make their pitch.

Henry remembers that visit well, which also led to a job chauffeuring Douglas — who lost an arm in World War II — around the state.

“One day, Mom and Dad said, ‘We’re having company today,’” Dixon said. “It was a Sunday. We were thinking Adlai Stevenson is going to want Dad to run on his ticket for public office, which was a surprise. I had not fully grasped the extent of that. Paul Douglas and Adlai Stevenson came to our house, and Douglas brought a watermelon with him. Of course, he couldn’t carry it because he had one arm, so Stevenson carried it. We went out to the back yard and cut the watermelon and ate it. It was exciting.”

Then-president Harry Truman’s re-election bid to a second full term didn’t survive the primary season, and Stevenson wound up being the Democratic nominee. Stevenson would lose his bid for President, but would go on to serve as Ambas sador to the United Nations during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, from 1961-65. It was during his stint there that his actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis would secure his

place in history when he confronted Russia’s UN representative over the nation’s missiles in Cuba, defiantly telling him that he was prepared to wait for an answer until “Hell freezes over.”

With Stevenson carrying his party’s banner as the presiden tial nominee, that left Sherwood to vie for the governorship against Stratton. Dealing with defeat was tough, Henry re called, but Stratton would later become another influence on the future lawyer’s life.

“Stratton beat Dad, and therefore Dad had a lot of acrimo ny and hard feelings toward Stratton — and consequently, I did too,” Dixon said. “One day when I was in law school some years later, I was walking down LaSalle Street heading from my part-time job in the Attorney General’s office to class, and the Governor’s car pulled around the corner at this intersection where I was at, a governor’s Cadillac, and I knew who it was. So I banged on the side of it, just smart-ass me, and feigned that I had been injured. Gov. Stratton got out of the car, and was so kind and so nice. He said, ‘Where are you going?’ and he gave me a ride. I got in the car and visited with him, and I got to know him.”

An election of his own

Henry and Stratton enjoyed a common interest in skiing, and tried to steer clear of telling Sherwood of any time togeth er. All of this happened while Henry studied law at Notre Dame and the John Marshall Law School in Chicago before joining the family firm. He still remembers the first client he worked with. The case, and the person’s name, is somewhere in old files, but his appearance was something Dixon never forgot, even 59 years later.

DIXON

“He came to see me in our law office, and he didn’t ask for me by name — just wanted to talk to a lawyer,” Dixon said. “The [secretary] turned him over to me. He came in and he’s wearing bib overalls, and he had a big package of papers in the front flap of his bib overalls. He started pulling them out, and it was up to me to sort it out and figure out what was going on. It was silly, but that’s the way it was.”

Life became interesting soon after that first client: The Lee County State’s Attorney at the time, James E. Bales, planned to run for a fourth term, and was confident he would win. However, he knew that young Henry needed to get his name out there somehow. The answer? Run for his office.

“We were very friendly,” Dixon said. “When I got back [home], he came to visit and said, ‘You got to get involved and get your name out there in public.’ He said, ‘Why don’t you run for state’s attorney?’ State’s attorney was what he was! Why would I do that? He said, ‘You’re going to get beat, but you’ll be out there, get your name known’ and all that. With that, I thought, ‘Oh, okay.’”

handle any one or few specific fields like many attorneys today. He was a member of the trial bar for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and personally tried 267 jury trials. He also was a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Asso ciation, where he served 6 years on its Board of Managers.

Dixon’s impressive number of jury trials is one that not many lawyers rack up, but in a 50-year legal career as a “coun try lawyer” who worked in a little of everything, he was always busy. In fact, he once had four jury trials in 1 week.

Dixon is hard-pressed to name his most memorable case, but one that stands out was one that happened in 2012, just before he left office: the role he played in the county’s prosecution of former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell, who embezzled tens of millions of dollars from the city.

“At any one time or two, I could think of a case that stuck out,” Dix on said. “Sometimes if we’re talking about major criminal cases, I had a reputation as a trial lawyer and did a lot of criminal law.”

CODY CUTTER/CCUTTER@SAUKVALLEY.COM

Henry S. Dixon amassed more than a thousand law books over his 50-plus year career as an attorney in Dixon. He recently donated them to Sauk Valley Community College for use in its Founder's Room.

Like Lyndon Johnson in Wash ington, D.C., and Otto Kerner in Springfield, Dixon also was victo rious on the Democratic ticket in 1964, having defeated Bales to take office as the county’s top prosecutor. Not expecting to be in this position a year prior, the win became a “Now what?” moment, but a challenge he was determined to take on in his early 30s. County voters, however, voted for a change in 1968 and Henry returned to his practice after 4 years away.

Years later, his wife would follow in her husband’s footsteps to the state’s attorney office, winning the 2000 election for the position. She served one term before losing her re-election bid to Dixon attorney Paul Whitcombe. Dixon had an itch to get back into office in 2008, and the long-time native defeated Whitcombe to reclaim a position 40 years after he left it.

Much had changed between those two terms.

“The composition of the office had doubled,” Dixon said. “There was greater volume because more and more people were getting litigious. On a Saturday night, some husband and wife would get into it and someone from the police department would call and say you got to come over. You’d be home on Sat urday night, go to bed, and think, ‘Another good night of sleep,’ and — Boom! — 2 in the morning you get the call that there had been a homicide.”

Dixon lost re-election to Anna Sacco-Miller in 2012.

Through the years

In practice, Dixon concentrated in general and civil litiga tion, primarily civil, as well as criminal defense — not one to

Retirement had to come at some time for Dixon, who had been gradually lightening his case load in the past decade. His vast library of law books have been donated to Sauk Valley Community College, but some habits of the job linger even in retirement. Never the one to pick up a novel and read it, Dixon now finds himself reading works of fiction a lot these days — and at his own leisure, at that.

Dixon and Giesen have three children: “Buck,” an Army brig adier general serving at U.S. Central Command in Florida; Rob ert S. “Bob” Dixon, a retired Army colonel; and daughter Kerry Dixon-Fox, an administrator at Iowa State University. Like his father and son, Henry also served in the Army and retired as a colonel after 30 years.

In 1963, Henry faced a crossroads: a career in law or a career in the military. He chose the former, and he’s enjoyed carrying on his family’s long-time legacy during a career that’s spanned more than 50 years.

“You got to have the personality to deal with the issues, multiple issues at the same time,” Dixon said. “You got to have some balls to step up and take some fire when that happens. You got to be supportive of the police, and even on the occasion where the police was wrong, you don’t front them off, you got to have the smarts to deal with it without offending your sense of net worth and balance, and giving them good guidance.”

It’s that finely tuned sense of balance, honed through dec ades in the legal profession, that’s served Henry S. Dixon well — in life, in law and in politics — a fitting legacy for a man who made a career out of balancing truth and fairness in the scales of justice. n

The power plant peering over the Rock River has been a part of downtown Dixon’s landscape for nearly 100 years, turning turbines that turn out energy that’s green and clean — and sparking a fair share interest among people who pass it by

By Cody Cutter | Sauk Valley Media

Thousands of people drive over the Galena Avenue Bridge every day and nearly as many flow along River Drive, and no doubt they’ve seen the stately brick building that juts off the riverfront, surrounded by the Rock River and chain link fence topped with barbed wire.

Maybe you’ve tried to peer into the windows that loom large on the building as you zip by, but more than likely you’ve just given it a passing glance, wondering what’s behind three stories of steel and glass.

The Dixon Dam has been part of the city for nearly a century, tapping in to the river to provide power to the city, but few have been behind those brick walls to see the heartbeat of the hydroelectric plant.

Doug Mossholder is one of those people. For 9 years, he’s has been in charge of Dixon’s often-looked-atbut-rarely-visited place. A job on the water isn’t new to the dam’s full-time operator. Mossholder is a former Navy veteran, and he said he enjoys being at the helm of the facility. The helm in this case is an office that looks out to the water near the bottom of the dam.

So what does go on inside the building? Amid all that chugging and churning of water and machinery are all sorts of meters and pumps that most people would be hard-pressed to understand — but none of it is Greek to Mossholder, its full-time operator. He makes sure all of the levels are in check, keeps an eye on the water flow via weather reports, and makes sure the dam is prepared for emergencies.

DAM cont’d to page 13

If you’ve passed through downtown Dixon, you’ve no doubt seen the brick building just off River Drive, but it’s unlikely that you’ve seen the inside, where a quintet of turbines (photo on the previous page) turn and churn out power, courtesy of the Rock River.

PHOTOS: ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

“I was a machinists mate in the Navy, and if this was a Navy ship, everything would be in this room,” Mossholder said from his office, which doubles as the dam’s bus room of many switches. “It’s amazing how something from 40 years ago would have helped me land a job here.”

The dam property consists of a powerhouse, which is the brick building; a spillway, which is where most of the water runs over and bubbles up at the bottom; and a trapezoid-shaped intake pond that readies the water to do its job, pow ering the turbines inside to generate electricity. Water that goes into the intake pond goes out underneath the powerhouse structure.

Eagle Creek Renewable Energy owns the dam, having purchased it in 2017. The Bethesda, Maryland-based company owns and operates 85 hydroelectric dams throughout the country, all of which total about 682,000 kilowatts of capaci ty and produce over 2.6 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy each year, according to its website. The company’s other Illinois dams are in Dayton (on the Fox River near Ottawa), and Rockton, which is also along the Rock River.

Doug Mossholder has been the Dixon dam’s full-time operator for several years, and it’s not his first time working around water — he’s also a Navy veteran. “It’s amazing how something from 40 years ago would have helped me land a job here,” he said.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

DAM cont’d to pages 14 & 15

Mossholder may be in charge of the pumping out power inside, but the power of nature runs the show outside, and if a person forgets, it may be the last lesson they’ll learn. The risk from the rush of water down the spillway is easy to see, but the nearby intake pond isn’t without risks too, even though it appears calm. Sometimes, he said, boaters who find them selves getting too close to the spillway “have a tendency to think that it's safer to come [toward the intake] than toward the spillway. That is not true. On a kayak, you'd very well get sucked underneath."

Mossholder also has a part-time operator in Dan Helfrich to help him out, and he’s in the process of rounding up at least one more person to help. Under their watchful eyes, the dam is working so well that it recently was given a 40year renewal of its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license (“Ferc,” in hydro speak), which will take effect in 2024. Unlike other dams along the Rock River, such as the Government Dam downstream between Sterling and Rock Falls, much of Dixon’s own dam has remained the same since it was completed in 1925.

“We got the best laid brick in town, that’s for sure,” Mossholder said. “If you look outside, those guys sure did a real good job. It’s a work of art.”

Though Mossholder is the operator, Mother Nature truly is the boss of the whole operation, sending rain down to the Rock River water shed from its origins in eastern Wisconsin and points between it and Dixon. It’s up to the dam keepers to monitor the weather and river levels upstream to do what’s best for the apparatus in Dixon — and, in turn, help make it easier for maintaining downstream dams in Sterling, Rock Falls, Milan and Rock Island.

DAM cont’d to page 16

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The spinning numbers atop the turbines do more than just identify the ma chines, they act as a visual indicator of how fast each one is spinning.

If these brick walls could talk, they’d have nearly 100 years of stories to tell. Some of the dam’s history is on display inside the power sta tion, including vintage tools, which are still used today, and histor ical photos.

Dixon’s dam has a National Weather Service gauge to mon itor the level of Rock River to forecast flooding, and you can see the readings on the NWS’s Quad Cities Forecast Office website (water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=DVN).

Flowing into Illinois from Wisconsin, the Rock picks up several tributary lines, such as the Pecatonica, Kishwaukee and Leaf rivers, that swells it to more than 600 feet wide. “A lot of this job is to go with the flow of the river,” Mossholder said. “You have to try to see what is coming and to go with that flow. I’m continually checking to see what’s coming from Byron, see what’s happening in the Kishwaukee, see what’s happening in the Pecatoni ca to try to predict what’s coming our way.”

As you walk through the dam’s front door just off of River Drive, you’re greeted with a sort of white noise of power, a constant high-pitched, grinding-like hum ming of turbines that dominates, along with a lower hum of electricity. Looking down the length of the building, you’ll see a line of five giant bluish-gray Al lis-Chalmers turbines — made specifically for the dam — with an office and control rooms of two stories and a basement closer to the front. The bus room — which controls the electricity sent to nearby transformers — is off to the left of the front door, and narrow stairways leading both up and down are nearby.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

DAM cont’d

Keeping an eye on the river is no problem, thanks to windows that reach almost to the roof of the power station — 14 on each side and one an each end. “I was a machinist’s mate in the Navy, and if this was a Navy ship, everything would be in this room,” Mossholder said of his office (below), which overlooks the Rock River. His grandfather, Bob Shippert, used to wash the power plant’s windows during the latter days of the Great Depression.

The top floor — accessible by a stairwell — is the control room, the hub of the operation where meters, switches and green and red lights let Mossholder monitor what’s going on. That’s about 30 or 40 different readings, “to make sure everything isn’t red-lighting,” Mossholder said. The facility is manned daily, and either Mossholder or Helfrich is on-call around the clock in case of emergencies.

Dams have long played a role in electricity, as far back as the late 1800s when the two men feuded over which was better: AC (alternating current) or DC (direct current). The latter came first, developed by Thomas Edison — whose name would later be scattered throughout Dixon’s dam on pieces of equipment during ComEd’s period of ownership from the 1950s to the 1980s. Direct current doesn’t convert to high or low voltages very easily, however. Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse both had a solu tion to Edison’s method with alternating current, which converts easily. Edison competed with Tesla and Westinghouse on which source was better, but Tesla’s successful project of electrifying the dam at Niagara Falls effectively ended the debate, with AC current becoming the backbone of our modern power system.

Westinghouse would go on to start an electric company of his own, and his name can still be found at the Dixon Dam, where the familiar Westinghouse crowned W logo can still be found on the original meters, which still work.

Direct current still has its place, though. DC power is used in the dam’s operation, helping keep the turbines’ speed in check.

“We’re producing AC power, but we use DC power as our break, our control of the turbine,” Mossholder said. “If we didn’t have the DC power and the river is just flowing that turbine, it would just spin out of control. The DC field is slowing it down.”

Those old Westinghouse meters aren’t the only things at the dam with a few years on them. Several old record books with worn binding, dating back to the dam’s beginning days, collect dust in a metal cabinet, but they still tell a story of the dam’s history and the river that flows through the middle of town. Pages are packed with historical records and maintenance notes that would be referred to when needed.

“We can go back and find out when we did the maintenance, or figure out: ‘How come you didn’t do this when you did that?’” Mossholder said.

Outside, a concrete walkway on the eastern exterior of the powerhouse leads to the front of the spillway and the fender wall that makes up the bridge-like path separating the river and intake pond. The water enters the intake pond under the path through a 1-foot opening below water, which helps prevent floating buildup from entering. That opening creates a vacu um-like effect that’s just as dangerous for people on the water to be near as it is to be approaching the spillway.

Mossholder has had to rescue several stranded boaters along the fender wall. Smaller vessels are particularly at risk. Assum ing that the wall is a safe place is a bad assumption: It can just as dangerous as going over the spillway.

DAM cont’d to

“The river has become more and more popular with kayakers,” Mossholder said. “That’s a good thing –more recreation. But for whatever reason you find yourself getting too close to the spillway, you may have a tendency to think that it’s safer to come [toward the intake] than toward the spillway. That is not true. On a kayak, you’d very well get sucked underneath.”

Plenty of surface debris clutter up by the spillway and wall, and when the operators are not checking meters and recording information, they’re spending time cleaning up the junk that comes their way. Along the spillway, iron stakes are placed about a few feet apart from one another right where the water is about to pass through; they keep larger pieces of debris, such as tree branches, from rolling over, and also help break up ice during the winter months. The stake locations can be seen where there appears to be white ripples. Wood boards, replaced from time to time, also help keep the spillway intact.

On a typical day, about 7,000 cubic feet per second (CFS) of water goes through the spillway. One CFS represents 7.48 gallons per second, meaning around 54,000 gallons of water goes over the top of the spillway every second. Heavy rain and water flow in mid-September pushed that number to at least 15,000 CFS. On minor or major flood stage days, there will be a small bend in the water before it goes through the spillway, and that is about 30,000 CFS going through.

On the north side of the river, a wall marks the other end of the spillway. This used to be the location of a fishing pier at Howell Park until the 1970s.

The powerhouse has 14 tall windows on each side. From the Galena Avenue Bridge, there isn’t much movement to witness through the window, except for small spinning signs at the tops of the turbines. The signs tell the operators how fast each turbine is spinning.

But inside, the dam is quite a powerful visual spectacle to behold. Mementos of its past are displayed and framed near the front entrance, in meter rooms and in Mossholder’s office. Old pictures are among many of them, and charts from the past still are hung up yellowed with age through the years. Perhaps the most interesting piece of history, according to Mossholder, is a ribbon attached to one of the pictures from a 1941 Christmas Lighting contest from the Dixon Lions Club.

If you’re driving by at night, you’ll probably see the peace sign atop the powerhouse. Mossholder made one a few years with PVC piping, and that inspired fellow resident Mark Stach to construct one of his own — with larger framework from an old trampoline — to replace Mossholder’s.

On rare occasion, the entire inside of the powerhouse will be lit up at night by a row of globe lights along the windows inside. The eastern row of globes is original to the building; those on the western row have been replaced with plastic over the years.

“This place is really awesome when I get it lighted up,” Mossholder said.

Damming the Rock River in Dixon has been done since the 1850s, and done by hydroelectric means since the 1890s. Several dams have come and gone, but the one standing now is approaching a century of service. Construction began in 1924 and was completed the following year. It was originally jointly owned: Dixon Power and Lighting Co. and Reynolds Wire Co. were the two largest shareholders. Commonwealth Edison became the sole owner in 1962 before ownership stints by North American Hydro and STS Hydro power before Eagle Creek took over.

Mossholder even has a family connection to the powerhouse: Toward the top are long rails once used to move window-washing cabs. Mossholder’s grandfather, Bob Shippert, washed these windows during the latter days of the Great Depression.

“My grandpa probably told me about that when I was 18, and I got this job when I was around 50,” Moss holder said. “I never would have dreamed when I was 18 that I’d be here.”

While the pros and cons of the various types of renewable energy is a topic of much debate in America these days, Mossholder likes his hydro power.

“In my opinion, hydro power is the best,” he said. “With all of these other guys with the solar panels and the wind turbines, they wouldn’t even exist if they weren’t subsidized by the government, and they wouldn’t be able to turn a profit. It’s too costly. It’s only there because of the subsidy, and the green energy is the driv er behind that subsidy. Here, we are even more green. We’ve been here 100 years, and they (other energy producers) are not even dreaming that they’ll even last beyond 30 years with no way to dispose of the stuff.”

The dam gets subsidized nothing, but it’s still turning turbines and still turning a profit, even after 100 years — and that, Mossholder says, is a pretty powerful testament to the benefits of hydroelectricity: “I think that’s pretty incredible.” n

Tours of the dam aren't offered, but you can go to eaglecreekre.com/ facilities/operat ing-facilities to learn more about Eagle Creek Re newable Energy's 85 hydroelectric facilities throughout the nation, includ ing Dixon's. Click on the “facilities” dropdown menu at the top of the page for a list of all facilities. Informa tion on Dixon’s dam is at eaglecreekre. com/facilities/op erating-facilities/ rock-river-hydro-fa cilities

Story By Cody Cutter Sauk Valley Media

ll the world’s a canvas for Joyce and Rick Moser.

When it comes to creating artwork, they not only think outside the box, the couple may wind up using one in their pieces. The pair has an eye for seeing the potential is everything, giving everyday objects a renewed lease on life as pieces of art.

The Mosers own Renew Me Gallery in downtown Dixon, which opened in late July, a “destination for inspiration” where customers will find art, plants, jewelry, vintage gifts, and more. The shop is the latest addition to the city’s growing

fine arts and culture scene.

Through their work, they show how art can be created out of just about anything — old watches, worn out belts, rusted toys or even jewelry that hasn’t seen the light of day in years. What some consider trash they consider a treasure, fodder for pieces that each creates separately, or sometimes together.

A pile of cast-offs can be like Christmas morning to Joyce, who loves to unwrap the potential for pieces of this, that and the other, turning them into one-of-a-kind, eye-catching creations.

RENEW ME cont’d to page 22

Joyce and Rick Moser’s dedication to inspiration is on display at their shop, Renew Me Gallery in downtown Dixon, where you can find upcycled and recycled pieces of original art, music, plants, vintage decor, gifts and more. Joyce said she loves turning something old into some thing new ... “just whatever I see that inspires me and then break it up and make something new out of it, and hopefully inspire joy for anybody who has it.”

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Joyce said.

that inspires

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something old into something new, and for the past 35 years, she’s shared that joy with the man who’s been her partner in life, and recently, her partner in business.

She and Rick have been married for more than 35 years, and he’s enjoyed lending his time and talent to Joyce’s projects as well as his own.

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other

by Dixon artist Nora Kate Balayti.

“We’ve had collections of our own through out our life,” Rick said. “We enjoy music-relat ed things, fashion-related things, and plants, and we’ve done all sorts of things on and off to utilize them in other ways throughout our life. This is our first time having our own full-fledged gallery and store.”

The Mosers are new to Dixon, having moved to town a year ago from the western Chicago suburbs. In getting to know their new commu nity, they discovered that their love for art and music and penchant for creativity blended well with fellow art lovers in town. They have gotten to know people involved with The Next Picture Show art gallery, Rosbrook Studio and Dixon Stage Left, and it’s made them feel welcome.

While Joyce and Rick’s aren’t new to selling their work — having done it previously through internet sales and social media — they felt now was the right time to set up a brick-and-mortar shop and Dixon was the right place, with its grow ing arts scene. When Dixon Chamber of Commerce and Main Street’s downtown incubator build ing was seeking a new tenant, the Mosers stepped forward and started sharing their creations.

“We were looking for a way to expand our reach with our art,” Rick said. “We were original ly online and doing a lot with e-commerce and social media. As I started to see some things here, I thought if we could combine a little storefront, or share space with someone, to have a local presence as well, and be a hub to do more things, then that would be a neat fit.”

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The gallery includes some of Joyce’s favorite works, including a piece titled “Number Nine,” which consists of a mannequin’s chest covered in watches and watch bands, topped off with a clock and dried stems, with all the time pieces set to 9 o’clock.

Another favorite piece of Joyce’s is one that was inspired by one of her nephews: “Gadgets in My Pock ets,” a square canvas covered in trinkets and random objects.

Seeing the artistic potential in objects comes natural ly to the two — “We’re kind of creative cats,” Joyce said, and there’s little out there she can’t find nine lives for: vases, old toys, scraps of cloth … “As long as I can reuse it somehow,” she said.

Rick uses his background in interior landscape and design to create pieces of plant art, turning items into plant holders, like an old toy Jeep that now hauls around a plant in the back.

Even toy instruments can play a different tune, as part of Renew Me’s guitar art collection. Paper Jamz toy guitars are decorated with old jewelry or other trinkets, fabric scraps, and other items. The couple’s love of music can be seen elsewhere in the shop, too: custom spiral drawings of popular musicians such as Prince, Madonna and John Lennon affixed to LPs, as well as a display of colorful sheet music books.

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Time, time, time, see what’s be come of it ...

Among the pieces she’s created, one of Joyce’s favorites is “Number Nine.”

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The Mosers encourage people to stop by often, as their labor of love is a work in progress. What you see today maybe gone tomorrow. Pieces at the gallery will come and go, displays change, and the cou ple plans to expand their inventory to include some vintage musical instruments, as well as greeting cards, buttons and magnets made by artists they have come to know.

They also plan to make customers part of the creative process, allowing them to bring things in that the Mosers can make something out of, whether it’s the customer’s brainchild or the Mosers’.

“Art is subjective,” Joyce said. “Every single thing isn’t going to turn everyone on, but for somebody it will. They’ll come in and go, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that!’ I have the stories on how I made them.”

Looking for a plant? Rick’s green thumb can point you in the right direction. His specialty is horticulture, and many of his flora can be found at the gallery.

The Mosers operate their shop with a philosophy of “reclaim, repur pose, rejoice,” to project a positive message of peace, love, beauty, inclusion, honor, compassion, kindness and joy.

“We want to make sure our shop is inclusive,” Joyce said. “That’s im portant to us. To us, people are lovely. It’s nice to be in the community, talk to people and get to know everybody’s vibe. It’s a cool thing.”

“Our message is peace and love,” Joyce said. “I’m a peace and love lady, I always say goodbye that way. It’s important. We just want to pass along kindness.”

They also want to share the love with fellow artists, offering the gallery space as a place where artists, both aspiring and experienced, can display their work for show or sale and make headway in the local arts scene.

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From Sept. 7 to Oct. 1, an exhibit titled “Colors of Joy” featured multi-colored works from other artists that promoted the same kind of positive vibes that the Mosers em brace. Artists included Karen Tucker, David Bingaman, Nora Kate Balayti, Hilary Guerrero and Zack Martin, along with Joyce herself.

October’s exhibit is a timely theme, to go along with Halloween: “Creative Creatures” showcases works of spooky and quirky life forms.

The Mosers are also big believers in the power of music and its ability to inspire and connect people, and visitors to the gallery can hear, and see, that message come to life in music videos played a the gallery. The songs are part of “Playing for Change,” a worldwide music project that features street musicians and singers from around the globe who play music of all kinds: rhythm and blues, reggae, soul, gospel, rock, country, and more.

“It’s neat and satisfying to know that some one can get pleasure out of what we do,” Rick said. “That’s what we’re about, helping people experience joy through seeing things and interacting with them.”

Even the gallery itself is a piece of history renewed. The 60-by-30-foot, one-story build ing was originally built in 1900 and housed an array of businesses until 1993. The building then became the Chamber and Main Street’s offices up until a few years ago; it still owns the building and uses it as an incubator for aspir ing businesses until they’re ready to have a place of their own. The incubator program pro vides discounted rent and developmental and promotional support, helping businesses build up a customer base while keeping operating costs low. Recent tenants include J Boutique, who moved into space elsewhere downtown, and Willy Floral Co., which now continues as a home-based and pop-up business in town.

The Mosers have enjoyed being a part of the Dixon community, and plan to make the best out of their downtown gallery.

“It’s really great. I like talking with people that have come in, and with the other business people in town,” Rick said. “As people find out about us, and get to know about us, we hope they’re like: ‘This is really cool! We’re going to tell our friend,’ or sister, or whoever. There’s been momentum growing about us being here and what we do, and that’s been a lot of fun.” n

More info

Renew Me Gallery, 115 S. Hennepin Ave., is open from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday, noon to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and by appointment Sunday through Tuesday. Find it on Facebook or Instagram (@renewmegallery), go to renewmegallery.com or call 815-200-4885 for more information.

Surgeries

By Cody Cutter Sauk Valley Media

ike their fellow Petunia City friends and neighbors, Dixon Park District’s Executive Direc tor Duane Long and Recreation Director Seth Nicklaus remember times when Mother Nature put a damper on shooting hoops or getting in some batting practice. Well, they can forget about those days when fun and games were called because of rain.

That’s because the Dixon Park District has brought some of the best parts of their parks inside, and Long and Nicklaus couldn’t be happier.

The Facility, an indoor recre ation center, is giving people a place where they can pick up a pickleball paddle, bounce a bas ketball, nail a ball over the net, bat around a baseball, and a lot more — any time of year, and all under one roof.

The multi-million dollar facility was made possible with support from the city, the com munity, the Park District’s staff, local businesses — and last but not least, Long and Nicklaus.

FACILITY

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The Facility was designed to maximize space and for ease of use. The net result of that planning? Convenience and cost-savings for the community, like the nets that operate with the push of button. Want to play volleyball? Push a button and lower the net. Want to shoot hoops? Push a button. It made sense to spend the money on the equip ment, said Duane Long. “Everything’s done with technology so we don’t have to have that maintenance guy here all day, and that helps put our cost at just $3 to get in here.”

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The Dixon natives were a key part of making The Facility a reality, and it started when they decided to stop thinking, “If only there were a place to have fun year round,” and started thinking about a way to make it hap pen.

“Me and Seth just sat down one day about 3 years ago and said we got to do something,” Long said. “We got to do something and find a way. Seth just said to me, ‘Find a way, D. You build it and I’ll run it.’ I spent the next 2 to 2-and-a-half years researching it and talking to our financial advisors.”

Opened Aug. 19, The Facility boasts two full-size basketball courts, two au tomated volleyball nets, two automated batting cages, a community room, and an outdoor patio. It’s also home to the Park District’s administrative offices. Since it opened, both young and old alike have enjoyed The Facility’s facil ities, from shooting hoops to playing ping pong to getting in a game of bags.

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Kitchen Open For Dine-In And Takeout Service.

There’s a world at your feet at The Facility, where a game system, shown here being demonstrated by Park District marketing manager Lucas Pauley, offers more than 100 options to keep you on your toes.

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Folks can drop in and enjoy the com munity complex for $3 a day (for ages 5 and over), and monthly single and family passes are also available.

The basketball courts are full-length and side-by-side from one another, and there are four more hoops along the two side walls for shooting practice or half-court games. Sometimes the place will have one basket ball court and one volleyball court, with the net being lowered from the ceiling — at the push of a button.

Nicklaus has seen people alternate from basketball and volleyball during a day inside, giving them a way to have fun, get in some exercise, and enjoy some friendly competition.

“A lot of kids who usually wouldn’t play volleyball, or play on their own, they’ll get involved in a game, and they’ve been having a blast with it,” Nicklaus said. “To have the two courts is a huge deal to be able to have a volleyball court on one side, and the kids can have atmospheres on each side.”

People of all ages have come to The Facility to get their game on, and that includes the youngest of the young who may find it difficult to heave a basketball up at a standard-height rim. No prob lem: The rims are adjustable — again, with the push of a button — so that players of all ages and skill levels can have a shot at making a basket.

Want to swing at some baseballs or softballs? Again, all it takes is a push of a button, and the netting areas (“batting cages”) descend from the ceiling.

Being able to quickly and easily switch from one sport to another has been a favorite feature of users, park district marketing director Lucas Pauley said.

“To be able to adjust all these hoops is awesome,” Pauley said. “To switch from volleyball to basketball in a matter of a minute, without having to tear everything down our put everything up, it’s pretty awe some.”

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The Facility’s patio offers people a comfy place to kick back and relax, play a game of bags, or even fire up the grill.

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There’s little chance of fun slipping through the net at The Facility. Volleyball, tennis, pickleball, badminton … they can all be played thanks to the adjustable nets — higher or lower, depending on the game. The possibilities are practically endless.

Variety is the name of the game with the hoops, too. There’s basketball, of course, but there’s also H-O-R-S-E, Knock-Out, Around the World, Firing Squad, Sharks and Minnows, and more — all it takes is a ball and a net, and someone who wants to have some fun.

Two of the key players in mak ing The Facility a reality were Dixon Park District’s Executive Director Duane Long (left) and Recreation Director Seth Nicklaus, shown here during the complex’s ribbon cutting. “Me and Seth just sat down one day about 3 years ago and said, ‘We got to do something,’” Long said. “Seth just said to me, ‘Find a way, D. You build it and I’ll run it.’”

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The ease of switching the complex’s set-up is a big plus not only for players, but it cuts down on costs, too, by not having to have staff members on hand for set-up and tear-down.

“It just made sense to spend the extra $40,000 to set up the volleyball nets to be put up there and be done with it,” Long said. “Same with the batting cages: Everything’s done with technology so we don’t have to have that maintenance guy here all day, and that helps put our cost at just $3 to get in here.”

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Another way technology plays a role is the large digital screen that can play sporting events, ad spots, or customer requests. Only a few days after it opened, a group of kids noticed the screen and requested a video montage of basketball player Kobe Bryant when they came to play on “8/24 Day” (Aug. 24) in honor of the late NBA legend. The screen can also be used for community movie nights, parties and other events.

“It opens up opportunities for us to do movie nights and advertising for income to help keep the price of $3 at the front door,” Long said.

Elsewhere, a large room can be used for setting up a ping pong table, hosting conferences, or a place for parties. The room also features a game system on the floor with more than 100 gaming options available to stimulate the body and the mind.

for the staff to keep an eye on them, Long said.

As far as The Facility’s future goes, only time can tell, but whatever it holds, the community complex is well posi tioned to accommodate it. Both its north and south walls were built so that any future expansions could be done with mini mal removal work, and money has already been donated — $1 million from an anonymous donor — to build an outdoor aquatic center nearby. Details on that are still being worked out, Long said.

More info

The Facility, 1312 Washington Ave., is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Find Dixon Park District on Facebook, call 815-284-3306, or go to dixonparkdistrict.com/the-facility for more information and forms for monthly passes and rental opportunities.

The kind of momentum it’s taken to get the ball rolling at The Facility, and keep it roll ing, hasn’t been lost on Long: Gettomg a $3.1 million project done without raising taxes, done in just a few shorts years, and done during a pandemic that threw curve balls to construction projects across the nation, is no small task — but as far as Long is concerned, it was the right time.

The Facility has an outdoor space with a permanent bags target, seating and a professional outdoor kitchen.

Though the complex is open for business, it’s still a work in progress. So far, it’s been used mostly just for open gym time, and Nicklaus is working on determining peak traffic time and users’ habits.

The public reaction to The Facility has been very positive, Nicklaus said, and many people are surprised at how big it is.

“A lot of parents have said that they wished they would have had this, or their kids could have used it,” Nicklaus said. “To be able to bring it now and see the young kids now being able to use it is pretty cool.”

While Long runs the park district, The Facility is Nicklaus’ to tend to, but its journey from idea to reality has been a team effort.

“I wouldn’t have done it if Seth wasn’t the recreational di rector,” Long said. “He promised me he could run this place. It’s a big deal. You can always get something built, but if you don’t have anyone to run it, then it’ll fail. He’s running it and doing a great job and learning as he goes, but that was the security blanket for me to pull hard and work the rest of my staff in and use their resources to get it done in time.”

The park district’s offices also are headquartered at The Facility, having moved in from its former quarters on West Palmyra Avenue. The former building soon will be sold in a sealed bid process, with the money used toward The Facili ty’s operation. Having the offices closer to some of the park district’s more popular attractions — including soccer and pickleball at Meadows Park, the Wooden Wonderland play ground and Water Wonderland splash pad — makes it easier

“We wanted to get it done, and we were tired of waiting,” Long said. “I’ve been waiting for this for 30 years. I was im patient, and sometimes that’s a good thing.” n

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