(rshsdepot) Potlatch, ID

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Lewiston Morning Tribune.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Depot Project Back on Track
 
 
POTLATCH - For those like Don Somers  and Jack Coyner who fancy anything 
connected to railroading, the latest news  about the 100-year-old Washington, 
Idaho & Montana Railway depot here is  well worth a celebration.

"As of last Friday," Somers announced, "we  received a quit-claim deed from 
Watco."

Watco is the short-line railroad  parent company that owned the depot. The 
deed, which erases a snafu over a  25-foot setback requirement, means the old 
depot won't have to be moved before  it's restored.

"Moving it would have taken it out of context," not to  mention cost a lot of 
money, said Somers, who is president of the WI&M  Railway History 
Preservation Group.

The historic context of the two-story  building, said Somers and Coyner, is 
that it was built in 1906 with lumber from  the original Potlatch white pine 
mill. It became the first commercial structure  in what became known as the 
"company town" around which Potlatch Corp. got its  start. The company's first 
business officers were located on the second floor of  the depot.

For the past several years, the depot has sat vacant with its  roof shrouded 
in protective tarps pending the start of restoration. While  securing a 
$500,000 federal grant administered through the Idaho Transportation  Enhancement 
Program, the preservation group bought the depot building and three  acres in 
2001 for $1,000.

But soon after, Somers and Coyner said, a  problem arose. The sale included a 
25-foot setback requirement from the railroad  tracks outside the depot. The 
distance, said Somers, cut into the building about  five feet along its entire 
western front. At first, the plan was to move the  depot about 300 feet to 
the north. Then the possibility of lifting it and moving  it back the required 
distance was explored.

In the meantime, the clock  was ticking on a deadline for use of the grant 
money. The amount had also been  matched by $57,000 worth of community 
contributions. Attempts to clear up the  setback requirement became stalled, Somers 
said.

"But then we really got  a lot of help from the Latah County commissioners," 
Coyner said, "in particular  Paul Kimmell.

"Paul just got on board with us and said we will be  persistent until we make 
this happen," Somers said. Many phone calls, e-mails  and discussions later, 
the setback requirement was waived and depot restoration  is back on track, 
with initial work tentatively set for late summer or early  fall.

"We're having a celebration Saturday to celebrate it all," Somers  said.

The festivities, with tours of the depot, live music from a boxcar  stage and 
rides along the tracks on old speeder cars east and west of town,  begin at 
10 a.m. and go through 5 p.m.

"We will be charging for the  speeder rides," Somers said. But the rest of 
the event is free to the public.  Cost of the rides is $5 for adults and $3 for 
children 12 and under. Longer  round-trip rides will be offered later in the 
day to Harvard and Palouse, if  there's a demand. Cost of those, Somers 
estimated, will be $20 for adults and  $10 for children.

About a dozen speeder cars, which were used for rail  maintenance in the 
past, will be provided by members of the Pacific Railcar  Operators. The cars were 
a big hit last year when the town of Potlatch  celebrated its centennial.

The music, which begins at noon, will be  bluegrass, country and fiddling 
with groups like the Potlatch Junior Jammers,  Two Dollar Bills, Steptoe, Little 
Red and the Criminals, and others  performing.

The depot, along with the newly-restored Potlatch City Hall  building, are 
both listed on the National Register of Historic  Places.

"It's a railroad building," Somers said, when asked why the depot  has become 
such a focus of attention for him. "No other reason."

Coyner  agreed. Neither worked for railroads. But both are into model 
railroad and have  been key to construction and maintenance of the permanent HO-gauge 
model  railroad setup at the Latah County Fairgrounds.

Restoration planning and  design for the depot is being done through 
Castellaw-Kom Architects of Lewiston.  Now that the depot can remain in its original 
location, money set aside for the  move can be put back into the building, said 
Coyner, who coordinated the  original grant application. But the dollars will 
fall short of a complete  restoration.

"Preserve the shell," is how Somers described the  restoration goal at this 
point. He said the money should pay for lifting the  depot onto a new 
foundation, construction of a new roof, renovation of the  exterior and perhaps new 
windows.

"Probably nothing on the interior,"  Somers said. He and Coyner, however, 
said members of the preservation group will  continue to seek the funding needed, 
not to just restore the entire depot, but  to perhaps make it available for 
office and retail space.

"What it  amounts to," said Somers, "is that as time goes on, things change." 


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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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