By Carol Townsend
GALVA – Fund-raising for a permanent stage at Wiley Park is no longer necessary following Monday.
Thanks for that goes largely to Jane Doss, owner of Galva-based Preferred Home Health Care. Doss presented a check for $100,000 to Mayor Rich Volkert at Monday night’s Galva City Council meeting for the stage the city will be putting in Galva’s Wiley Park.
Galva will host the music series this summer for the third year. Doss’s donation and $10,000 from another anonymous donor will be enough to fund construction of the permanent stage.
Doss gave the money as a memorial to her parents: her father, Kyle Doss of rural Cambridge who passed away in 2011, and her mother Joan who is living in a memory-care unit.
“They always went to the park to listen to music. They looked forward to that,” Doss told the Quad-City Times. “I thought it was something my parents would truly love.”
City administrator David Dyer thanked Doss for her contribution and said that he is grateful for her business in Galva.
Work will begin as soon as the weather breaks and is expected to be done by May.
The stage will have a roof and is estimated to cost $225,000 to $260,000.
Dyer said a Galesburg engineering firm has donated the design and engineering for the stage.
The concerts will be held every Sunday evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. from May 31 to Aug. 2.
Doss has also reportedly asked John H. Best and Sons to make two permanent lawn chairs that will be placed on the side of the stage as a memorial to her parents.
Galva is one of 20 American cities to win a $25,000 grant from the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation to help provide its free concert series.
