(rshsdepot) Cleburne, TX

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Doomed depot set to fall Monday

By: Brian Wilson, Times-Review Writer January 31, 2002

Questions of fairness arise on both sides

CLEBURNE-The time line of events in the fight over the future of the old
train depot was released because city officials believed they were being
criticized by the media without all the facts being known, City Manager
Chester Nolen said.
The time line, which began with the 1972 purchase of the Texas & Brazos
Valley Railroad Depot by Dan Leach, was published in Monday's Times-Review.
The building is expected to be demolished this coming Monday morning, and
officials wanted people to realize how much the city did over the years to
give owners a chance to rebuild it. The depot burned in 1986, and according
to the city, owners have been given numerous chances to repair it.

Businessman Dan Roberts, who bought the building in 1999, still believes
there are problems with how the city has treated him. He thinks the city was
unfair to him after he agreed to make repairs within 90 days.

Roberts said he fixed all but the roof and was told by the former fire chief
it would pass muster. He assumed everything was acceptable after not hearing
from the city for months. According to Roberts, he tried to get a building
permit last October, and heard for the first time there was a condemnation
order on the building.

Roberts doesn't understand why the process has taken so long. He believes
the city should have kept him better informed.

"They gave me the impression that everything was fine, no problems," he
said. He said city officials told him they couldn't find him-something else
he doesn't understand.

"Well, Dan Roberts is not that hard to find," he said. "I'm the biggest
agitator in town, aren't I?"

City Manager Chester Nolen wouldn't say if he believes the city has been
treated unfairly by various media accounts of the depot.

"We've done what we were required to do by the Building & Standards
Commission, and we'll just leave it at that," Nolen said.

The building is expected to be demolished Monday morning. Opponents of that
demolition have planned a rally for 10 a.m. Saturday.

Roberts wants to build a railroad museum, adding on to the original
structure. He said he will rebuild the depot to its original appearance and
has not ruled out selling it to the corporation overseeing the expenditure
of the 4B sales tax. A railroad museum is one of several projects to be
built with the "quality of life" sales tax.

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