The fate of the Rock Island County Courthouse has been a hot button topic for the past year, drawing strong responses on both sides, with one side arguing that it needs to be demolished, and the other arguing that it should be saved and renovated. We at QCUNCUT always encourage vigorous public discussion of controversial issues and in the spirit of that, host Sean Leary invited representatives from both sides of the debate to appear on this show, together, to engage in a debate on the subject. Sean also offered each side the opportunity to appear separately if they did not wish to debate and merely wanted to have their side heard, in its entirety, without snippets or sound-bites. As of yet, the side in favor of demolishing the courthouse has yet to commit to appearing on the show. Two people have turned down invitations, others haven’t even responded. On the side of renovating the courthouse, three people stepped up to appear on the show, and the first of them, Bridget Ehrmann, was booked to appear. Ehrmann engaged in a very lengthy discussion on the issue in which she addressed many arguments against their position and talked about the advantages to the renovation of the courthouse, noting that there are at least two private investors who are currently interested in the project.

Please tune in for this interesting and in-depth look at the subject. And, as Sean notes many times throughout the show, the invitation is certainly still very much open to the other side of this debate to appear on our show to present their argument for demolition of the building. We look forward to hosting them in a discussion as well, so the community can get a full picture of the debate and make up their own minds based upon a wide-ranging discussion on the topic.