(rshsdepot) Jamestown, NY

["J. Henry Priebe Jr." <root_@_net.bluemoon.net>]

http://www.post-journal.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=8967

Henry

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State, Federal Obstacles Slow Station Renovations

By STEVEN M. SWEENEY



11/6/2006 - Money is there to begin renovations of Jamestown.s once-abandoned
train station, but state and federal bureaucracies are ..slow ordering.. the
process. 

Lee Harkness, Downtown Jamestown Development Corp. executive director, said
government agencies have stalled on their tracks waiting to set up contracts
and official designers for more $1.6 million to flow. Starting with the
federal Department of Transportation officials there need to select and
certify a New York agency to receive the funds which can execute contracts
with the feds and the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency, which can pass the money
to the DJDC.

The $1.6 million was money set aside in the landmark 2005 Federal
Transportation Act. U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Chuck Schumer,
D-N.Y., and Rep. Brian Higgins, D-South Buffalo, fought for Jamestown to
receive the allocation and another for the Chadakoin Riverwalk trail in the
city.

..Right now, the (Niagara Frontier Transit Authority) is the only certified
authority beside the state DOT, but (DOT) doesn.t want to touch it,.. Harkness
said. ..There are other options. What people don.t realize is that there is a
process. Once someone says, .You get money,. doesn.t mean we get it right
away...

Harkness and DJDC board members are also waiting for word on contracts from a
$325,000 grant from the state Environmental Protection Fund. Harkness was
notified sometime is September of the grant approval which is expected to pay
for rehabilitation of the former Erie Railroad Station.s exterior facade.
Though it is a reimbursement-type grant, the state Office of Parks Recreation
and Historic Preservation specifically asked Harkness not to start spending. 

..I urge you to work very closely with the (regional grants office), and not
to begin work on your project until appropriate contract conditions have been
satisfied,.. SHiPO commissioner, Bernadette Castro, wrote to Harkness on Aug.
30. 

Harkness said the state-approved workbook on applying for contracts to arrange
receiving and spending the money just arrived.

..It.s all in a kind of limbo,.. Harkness said of the federal grants.

The DJDC leader did point to several station interior volunteer cleanups which
have taken place throughout the year with help from workers at Cummins Engine
in Busti and Coldwell Banker in West Ellicott. The station also has a complete
historic structures report which defines for the DJDC what structural problems
the 1930s depot has, along with detailed blueprints and sketches of repair
possibilities. It is a necessary document when applying for preservation
grants through private foundations and SHiPO.

..Any time we get a pot of money in here, we put it into the station,..
Harkness said. ..We fixed the roof so it doesn.t leak everywhere, we bought
banners to cover the broken windows and we finally secured the building...

Teenagers have broken into the building, smashing even more windows than were
broken before, starting small fires and even shattering the porcelain clock
dial overlooking Lafayette Street this year. It was otherwise undamaged for
nearly 30 years since the station.s close in 1973.

If money gets through the various government levels before winter.s end,
Harkness said renovations could begin as soon as April 2007.


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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 #1447
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org