(rshsdepot) Fort Madison, IA

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Fort Madison Daily Democrat.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
_http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications/_ 
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications/)  
 
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Link to photos:
_http://wolfcreek.i8.com/NLCHS/fmdepot_lg.jpg_ 
(http://wolfcreek.i8.com/NLCHS/fmdepot_lg.jpg)  (http://www.geocities.com/lfta01/ftmadisondepot053005.JPG) 
_http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ia/lee/postcards/fmsfdp.jpg_ 
(http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ia/lee/postcards/fmsfdp.jpg) 
 
If Amtrak moves in, where is the Historical Society to go? Officials begin  
exploring options

April 7, 2006

By: Gerry Baksys 
 
The question is not if people want the Amtrak station to move downtown, the  
question is what to do about the entity that already occupies the building? 
 
For the last several years, city officials, Amtrak officials, and members  of 
the North Lee County Historical Society have been kicking around the idea of  
moving the Amtrak stop from its 20th Street location to the old depot 
building  where the NLCHS is currently located. But now the city is running out of 
time to  make something happen. 
 
“Any decisions that have to be made,” said Fort Madison Mayor Steve  
Ireland, “have to be made by June. Hopefully, we will come to some sort of an  
agreement. So we can get moving on the Amtrak project. I am going to have to  find 
out exactly what Amtrak`s requests are, and once I find that out, we will  take 
that into the negotiations. I do believe and have been told by the  
Historical Society that they are willing to work with city.” 
 
How much leverage the NLCHS has remains to be seen. Fort Madison City  
Manager Bill Kelly said that the historical society has a long-term lease with  the 
City for the depot. 
 
However, the City, he said, wants to start work on the building for Amtrak  
this summer because the City received a $750,000 state grant to renovate the  
railway platform and a $250,000 Scenic Byway grant to renovate the depot. 
 
“They have a 20-year lease - with about seven years to go with extension  for 
another 20,” Kelly said. “I think we obviously need to be moving forward as  
expeditiously as possible. The money we are to receive from the state is for  
this year - construction would need to start this summer on those 
improvements.  It would be nice if we could start to work on the depot building.” 
 
Despite the NLCHS` apparent upper-hand in the negotiating process, Kelly  
added that the Historical Society board appears interested in working with the  
City. 
 
“The City is genuinely interested in seeing the rail station downtown,”  
Kelly said. “There is a consensus that it would help the economy. There are  
8,000 people that would get on or off the trains right downtown. I think there`s  
recognition among members (of the Historical Society) that this is a good  
project and that they want to work with the City. We want to move forward and  
get going on this.” 
 
The only problem, according to NLCHS president Michele Young, is that the  
City wants the Society to give up prime real estate and give them  
less-than-desirable options in return. 
 
“Right now,” Young said, “the thing that is hard for us is we have an ideal  
location. It would be a big undertaking to move, but we also want a suitable  
place to move. The big part of our exhibits involve the railroad. It is the 
main  reason why a lot of people come to the museum.” 
 
Young said that the City has offered to let them use the Cattermole  Memorial 
Library or even the former Rashid Library once the City consolidates  its 
operations to a central location. 
 
“‘Some place to go` for them means putting us in the Cattermole Library or  
the Rashid Library,” Young said. “Somebody came to the meeting and suggested  
that we move to the Everything`s A Buck store. They want to put us somewhere  
else completely. We don`t want to go somewhere else completely. We`re right 
by  the (Fort Madison) Art Center, we`re right by the (Catfish Bend) riverboat, 
 we`re right by the Old Fort, and now they want to move us away? It`s not an  
ideal situation from a tourism standpoint on our part.” 
 
The best win-win scenario, according to Young, would be for the City to  help 
fix the Railway Express building, which is attached to the depot, and allow  
the NLCHS to move there. Young pointed to the grant that the city attained to  
fix the depot, arguing that some of that money could be used to fix the 
Railway  Express building. 
 
“Why can`t some of that $250,000 be used to make those other two buildings  
presentable so we can host our museum in those other two buildings?” Young  
asked. “The City said ‘No, it can only be used for the depot.`” 
 
Kelly said that the City does want to fix both sides of the building, but  
the grant, acquired from the Scenic Byways Initiative, was written for the depot 
 building only. 
 
“That is the City`s ultimate goal,” Kelly said, “to fix up both sides. But  
because we received less money than we anticipated, we had to scale our plans  
back. There might be an additional $1.4 million in the future that would go 
for  all three buildings, but the $250,000 is just for the depot.” 
 
Ireland said that he is planning a meeting to discuss the issue and  
hopefully, broker a deal with the NLCHS board on Thursday. 

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

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