HERE’S TO BREW
CAP CITY
Court and Karen Conn of Springfield know business. They own and operate the Inn at 835, Conn’s Catering, and La Vita Grand Day Spa, and they may soon have a fourth business to run. The Conns are seeking permits to turn the Obed and Isaac House, formerly known as the Maisenbacher House, into a restaurant and microbrewery. The couple bought the historic house in 2006 to save it from demolition, and they had it moved seven blocks to 503 S. Seventh St. The house was built by Isaac Lindsay with $650 that he borrowed from Abraham Lincoln, and it now sits on property once owned by Court Conn’s greatgreat grandfather, Obed Lewis.
Court Conn says they need to get permission from the city to implement diagonal parking, obtain landmark status from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, and obtain a conditional use permit to use the house as a restaurant.
“If the moon is right and everything comes through, we’d like to start by the beginning of the year,” he says. “Of course, funding is still an issue because the banks are still tight (with lending). But the neighbors are supporting us, as well as the nearby church, Christ Church. Everybody is behind us, and this could be the catalyst for the development of something bigger, like a downtown arts district.”
Check out their progress at www.obedandisaacs.com.
BULLY PREVENTION
CAP CITY
Give Angela Troppa a sheet of paper and she’ll change the culture of a classroom. It’s this power of creativity that this year earned Troppa, a counselor at Fairview Elementary School, the Lions Clubs International’s first Lions Quest Educator Award.
Lions Quest is an educational program developed by Lions Clubs International that teaches skills for resisting drugs, peer pressure and violence. It also aims to build self-esteem, peer relations, decision-making and problem-solving skills.
LCI says that Troppa, addressing an uptick in bullying in one of the upper grades, was able to enhance the Lions Quest curriculum by using her creativity.
The organization cites one of her presentations in which she tried to instill the message that the damage of bullying can’t be undone. With a piece of paper representing a student’s self esteem, she crumpled it a little bit more with each example of bullying students threw at her. Uncrumpling the paper, students realized it would never return to its original state.
