(rshsdepot) Port Jervis Depot Museum to lose its home (fwd)

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Port Jervis, NY depot info from the Times Herald-Record via the erielack list.

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- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 11:59:46 -0500
From: "TIMOTHY O. STUY" <njmidland_@_compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:erielack_@_lists.railfan.net" <erielack@lists.railfan.net>
Subject: (erielack) Port Jervis Depot Museum to lose its home

March 14, 2002 

     Railroad museum's free rent won't last 

     By Jessica Gardner 
     Times Herald-Record 
     jgardner_@_th-record.com 

     Port Jervis – The Port Jervis Erie Depot Museum, which houses
artifacts from the city's proud railroad past, will have to find a new home
in order to
     make room for a new business in the Erie Depot building on Front
Street.  Dick McKeeby and Leonard Miglionico, business partners who bought
the building in 1993,           plan to rent the 970-square-foot space to a
medical group within the next few months. 

     "We've been more than generous with them," said McKeeby of the Depot
Preservation Society, which runs the museum. "But we think the city will
     benefit more from a business in that spot than they do from the museum
right now." 
    
     The museum has been housed in the building rent- and utilities-free
for the last nine years. That savings adds up to almost $130,000 in
contributions to
     the Society, said McKeeby
. 
     The Depot, built in 1892, was saved from demise when the Society
bought it in the mid-'80s for $50,000 cash raised through thousands of
     contributions. 

     When the task of completing renovations became too daunting in 1993,
the building was sold to McKeeby and Miglionico for $160,000. They invested
     an additional $500,000 to complete the building's restoration. 

     The building now houses several shops, the museum (on the first floor)
and the city's community development agency, which occupies the entire
second
     floor of the building at a discounted rent, said McKeeby. 

     "Dick and Lenny were courageous enough to take on the building and
complete the restoration," said Deg Carroll, past chairman of the Depot
Society.
     "The building was saved and that was our goal. I have no complaints." 

     Jim Browning, chairman for the Society, wasn't so thrilled. 

     "Restoring the building and creating the museum was a labor of love
for a lot of people and here it goes down in flames," said Browning. "It's
going to
     mean the loss of a significant viable historical resource." 

     The owners said they have little choice at this point.  The tax
incentives they've received since buying the building will come to an end
next year, meaning expenses           on the building will increase, said
Miglionico. 

     "If you add that to what we already pay for mortgage and maintenance,
it's time for us to bring in more money," he said. 

     The Society's officers will meet today to talk about the next step for
the museum. 

     Past and present members of the Society said an agreement was in place
that promised the museum 10 percent of the Depot's space, but no one can
     find that in writing, said Browning. 

     The contract drawn up when the building was sold states the Depot
Society agreed to have the museum's artifacts dispersed from the waiting
room to
     locked display cases in the main building and on the walls of the
stores.  McKeeby said the businesses currently housed there are all for
that idea. 

     "We think that will make the artifacts more accessible to more
people," said McKeeby. 

     Browning said no way. 

     "Who is going to guarantee security of the items? Some of those things
are very valuable," said Browning. "How are people supposed to see the
items
     when the stores are closed?" 

=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #315
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org