Ex-Deere exec hopes to revitalize botanical center
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TODAY: (Updated: 2:48 p.m.) A retired Deere & Co. executive who played a role in the revitalization of downtown Moline has been tapped as interim director of the struggling Quad-City Botanical Center, Rock Island, with a number one goal of increasing public awareness of the center and attendance.
Paul Knedler replaces Cheryl Carney who resigned Sept. 22 with no specific plans.
“Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is a whole new day,” Knedler said.
Clyde Schoeck, past president of the botanical center board, said the center that opened in 1998 isn’t a lot different from other Quad-City attractions that are working to draw in more people and money.
“It’s struggle -- I’d be lying to you if I said that was not the case,” he said. “Last year, we did not end up in the black, but we weren’t in the red that much.”
Other positives are that the center continues to pay down its mortgage and meet its salaries. But it “doesn’t have that large of an endowment” to draw on and efforts to raise local funds for a state-of-the-art children’s garden have been stalled by the need to “get things back in the black,” Schoeck said.
To help revitalize the center, Knedler said “we’re going to market more, advertise more.”
Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com.
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