Passenger rail to the Quad Cities is part of a larger discussion about how a community moves its people. While our transportation policy most often focuses on how to move automobiles from one place to another, alternative transportation has frequently been ignored.

That's shifting. An aging population, traffic congestion, air-travel hassles, high fuel prices, and concern about global warming have all sparked renewed interest in mass-transit options such as passenger rail (getting from city to city) and commuter rail (transportation within a city).

Here's the question: If eliminating the Davenport City Council's Thursday-afternoon standing-committee meetings is a positive change for Davenport citizens, then why all the hush and rush?

After hearing a presentation by Superintendent Jim Spelhaug at its monthly board meeting, the Bettendorf Chamber of Commerce voted to support the proposed renewal of the Pleasant Valley Community School District Physical Plant & Equipment Levy (PPEL). The vote on renewal takes place on February 13. The Bettendorf Chamber's support was based on trends showing substantial residential growth within the district over the long-term, resulting in increasing enrollment. Such trends increase the need for the PPEL fund. PPEL is used to maintain buildings and grounds; to complete remodeling projects; to purchase or lease technology, vehicles, and equipment; and to support major capital-improvement projects such as building additions or new facilities.

It took more than six months to clear out the potted plants and detritus from stray cats that choked their future gallery space. That was just the first in a long string of challenges that confronted husband and wife Ron and Sarah Jane Fellin as they infused the Peanut Gallery with life.

After almost eight and a half years, numerous art shows and happenings, and $20,000 of their own money to keep it running, a fire in an adjacent building that was being demolished forced the Peanut Gallery to end its run this past fall.