ROCK SPRINGS – Although Thanksgiving and Christmas have not made it to Rock Springs yet, it is never too early to find a Valentine’s Day date. The Rock Springs Historical Museum just might have your night planned.

At the board meeting on Tuesday, members discussed a fund raiser for the museum which will take place on Feb. 14, yes Valentine’s Day. A sub-committee, which will be chaired by Debbie Gibbs was set up to start finalizing the details.

The event will be a wine tasting and, as the museum usually does, they will put a historic spin to it. As the city of 51 nationalities, the wine tasting will feature wine from several different countries. Right now the discussion is five countries. Gibbs said she will try again to contact Boschetto’s about helping with hors d’oeuvres, but said she would like to have hors d’oeuvres that represent each specific country. Museum Coordinator Bob Nelson agreed and urged to board to really look at making the hors d’oeuvres unique to each country and wine instead of just going with cheeses.

Gibb also brought up the idea of having small local businesses sponsor a bottle of wine. The cost given at the meeting to sponsor a bottle was $500 with the sponsorship including two tickets to the event. There was also discussion about sending invitations to city and county officials but nothing was specifically set in stone.

One thing that is set is a limited number of tickets to the event. Also the theme of the night was accepted. Board member Marilyn Noble told the board her idea for the theme of the night.

“Share your history, taste your tradition and sip your heritage,” Noble said. “The best wine is the wine you drink with friends.”

The board quickly agreed that would be the theme.

The sub-committee will meet Nov. 20 at 4 p.m. to start working on the final details for the event.

Halloween Stroll

 Nelson reported the Halloween decorations have been taken down and Christmas decorations are going up. He then gave the board a report on the Halloween Stroll. Last year, the museum recorded 2,800 people who went through the museum. This year, the museum hit 4,168.

Nelson explained to the board that many other people were not counted because the museum was so busy they did not come in. In a report to the Rock Springs City Council, Councilman Chad Banks said his daughters did go in while he stayed outside, emphasizing this point.

“We do believe there were more people downtown. It was jammed,” Nelson said.

This discussion led to a discussion about the changes at the Urban Renewal Agency. Nelson said they have always tried to partner with other agencies as much as possible. With both agencies focusing so much on the downtown area, Nelson said they have worked with the URA several times, but for whatever reason have struggled to get on the same page several times.

Nelson said Chad Banks will bring a lot of enthusiasm and really a lot of excitement back to the downtown and the URA.

Nelson felt the changes would be very positive for both organizations to work together because of Chad’s experience working with groups on events and public relations and his deep knowledge and love of the downtown area.