Davenport OKs $1.2M Plan to Repair Lodge

The Davenport City Council has approved a $1.2 million plan to rebuild the historic Credit Island Lodge after a devastating fire last spring.

The council unanimously approved the plan Wednesday, nearly four months after a fire ripped through the 91-year-old Iowa structure, the Quad-City Times reported.

“The day it burned, I cried,” said Mary Cormier, secretary of Friends of Credit Island. “Today, these are happy tears.”

City officials expect to receive $1.2 million in insurance payments to cover damages and have already spent about $30,000 on preliminary design work.

After the May 2 fire, which was ruled accidental, some worried the public wouldn’t support rebuilding the lodge, which for decades served as a club house for a golf course on the island in the Mississippi River on Davenport’s southwest side.

As part of a 2011 renovation, workers installed new duct work and replaced window and doorway trim.

The fire destroyed the building’s roof, but engineers have said the lodge’s walls are structurally sound. Public Works Director Mike Clarke said the restoration should be finished by next summer.

“I think by the Fourth of July, we’ll have a big ol’ party out there,” he said.

The golf course was closed after 2008 flooding and now is used as a disc golf course.

The Friends of Credit Island continues to raise money for additional work on the building.