(rshsdepot) Sturtevant, WI

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Journal Times.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Old Sturtevant station sees off its last  commuters


By Paul Sloth  
Jennifer Ostranga looked like a prospective buyer as she wandered through the 
 old Sturtevant depot Friday morning waiting for the Amtrak Hiawatha bound 
for  Chicago.  
Ostranga, 30, who is originally from Burlington, took one last look at the  
depot before Amtrak moves its passenger rail service to Sturtevant`s new $3.2  
million station in Renaissance Business Park, just south of Highway 20.  
``It looks like an antique. This is such a neat, old building,`` said  
Ostranga, who was taking a weekend trip with her husband, Jason. ``You could do  
something really awesome with this place.``  
A fine coat of white dust covered nearly every surface inside the old depot,  
which now sits empty. It turned out to be from a fire extinguisher set off by 
 vandals the night before, but it cast a ghostly pall over the building.  
The future of the building, which is nearly a century old, is still  
uncertain, but Ostranga came up with a few ideas as she looked around with a  keen 
eye.  
The last train is scheduled to roll up to the old depot tomorrow.  
Sturtevant officials will officially cut the ribbon for the village`s new  
station today during a ceremony starting at 11:30 a.m. Gov. Jim Doyle, U.S. Rep. 
 Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Racine County Executive Bill McReynolds are scheduled 
to  attend the ceremony.  
The project has been in the works since the late 1990s. The village broke  
ground in 2005 and started construction on the new station, located at 9900  
Exploration Court.  
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the completion of the new Sturtevant  
station means that all the stations on the Wisconsin side of the Hiawatha line  
will be new or completely  
renovated.  
``It`s really a model though. It shows what leadership in the village and  
state can do in improving passenger rail,`` Magliari said.  
Amtrak`s Hiawatha service has been very successful, he said, and Magliari  
said he hopes the improvements to the Sturtevant station will help the strong  
growth continue.  
In July, ridership on the Hiawatha line was up 14.9 percent, which is three  
times the average nationwide on these kinds of trains (state supported  
relatively short distance trains).  
Amtrak will officially start using the new station Monday.  
Jim Brando, an Amtrak conductor who boarded a train to Chicago Friday morning 
 was happy to see that the Sturtevant project completed, but said he had 
mixed  feelings about leaving the old depot.  
``It wouldn`t have hurt my feelings if they took the money and put it into  
this place,`` Brando said.  
Brando said he`s heard a number of rumors about what will happen to the  
building, ranging from the local fire department using it for a test burn to  
dismantling the building and reassembling it at a railroad museum in Green Bay.  
Steve Whedon, a Canadien Pacific Railway section foreman, snapped pictures of 
 some of the last passengers to board Amtrak`s Hiawatha train at the old 
depot.  He said he`s not sure what will happen to the building.  
The railroad company owns the building and the surrounding property and there 
 is talk they may renovate and move their local operations into the building. 
 
Whedon, a railroad buff, inspected the building Friday and noticed some  
people had already started taking some memorabilia from the depot, including  
bricks from the old platform that were hiding under some warped, dilapidated  
asphalt.  
Whedon`s partner, John Scott of Kenosha, got a little sentimental thinking  
about all the history around the old depot.  
``That`s why you hate to see things go if you start getting interested in  
history,`` he said. 

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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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