(rshsdepot) Brattleboro, VT

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Rutland Herald.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Union Station meeting slated for Thursday
 
August 1, 2006 
 
By DANIEL BARLOW Southern Vermont Bureau 

BRATTLEBORO — Town  officials are calling it "Union Station 101."
 
For the past several years, all public discussions concerning Brattleboro's  
long-awaited $4.2 million renovation and expansion of its historic Union 
Station  has been centered on an ongoing lawsuit and the continuing delay between  
conception and groundbreaking.
 
But, on Thursday, the Brattleboro Select Board will go back to the basics  as 
board members talk designs, finances and the construction timeline of the  
proposal, which, along with the 3-year-old Brattleboro Transportation Center,  
are part of the troubled multi-modal transportation project.
 
"We have several new members on the board who really want to get better  
acquainted with the details of the project," Chairman Steve Steidle said. "This  
will be the opportunity to find out what the project exactly is and why it's  
important."
 
Located at the south end of Main Street in Brattleboro, Union Station was  
among the last railroad stations built in the state when it was commissioned by  
Central Vermont and Boston & Maine railroads in 1916.
 
Service was first discontinued in 1966. Part of the train station was  
transformed into the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center and, in 1973, Amtrak  began 
using the bottom floor for its passenger rail service. But this renewal,  
proposed by the town in the late 1990s, promises to bring the railroad into the  21st 
century and complete an alternative transportation hub in that corner of  the 
state.
 
But, since then, attention has been on a lawsuit against the town by two  
brothers who sold off their waterfront property for the project. And now the use  
of public funds in Union Station's sister project, the Brattleboro  
Transportation Center, is under review by the Federal Transit  Administration.
 
Today the Select Board will be asked to borrow funds to purchase parcels  
owned by Merrill Gas and Canadian National Railway essential to the project and  
to pay relocation fees to the two brothers, which the lawsuit recently alleged 
 the town failed to pay.
 
Town Manager Jerry Remillard said Monday the final pieces of the project  now 
are coming together, but added that it's still too uncertain to pinpoint a  
possible construction start date. He said he is no longer certain the estimated 
 $1.6 million construction cost still is accurate now that several years have 
 passed.
 
"Over the years, some of the bits and pieces have fallen off the table,"  
Remillard said. "And the Select Board has a need to understand how we got where  
we are and what direction the project is heading in."
 
Tom Appel, project manager and owner of New England Management Co. in  
Brattleboro, said Monday the engineering designs for Union Station are being  
finalized by the firm Stevens & Associates this week.
 
Federal regulations concerning handicapped accessibility changed late in  
2005, forcing the firm to incorporate new requirements for the train's platform,  
Appel said federal grant funding, which will reimburse 80 percent of the 
town's  costs to acquire parcels, will be released once the plans are approved, he 
 said.
 
"I'm hoping to have those plans on my desk soon and maybe in the mail to  
Washington, D.C., tomorrow," Appel said.
 
Selectman Richard DeGray, a local budget hawk who has been critical of the  
handling of the finances behind the multi-modal project, said he wants to hear  
more information on the finances behind Union Station.
 
Audrey Garfield, another member new to the Select Board this year, also  said 
she wants a clearer picture of the project's accounting and new information  
concerning the disappearance of the only copies of the contract between  
Brattleboro and New England Management.
 
"I'll be especially interested in any future cost implications to the  town," 
DeGray said, noting that the project was to be covered almost entirely  
through federal funds.
 
The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Aug. 3 in the Select Board meeting  
room at the Brattleboro Municipal Center.
 
Contact Daniel Barlow at _daniel.barlow_@_rutlandherald.com_ 
(mailto:daniel.barlow_@_rutlandherald.com) .
 

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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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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1404
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org