Despite a last ditch attempt by Lucille Frith, President of the Huntsville Train Station Society, to derail the sale of the CN Rail station to a private group for two dollars, the municipality will move forward with the divestiture.
“This train station site needs to remain in public hands and needs help from the community to do just that. Our heritage is not surplus,” insisted Frith at council’s July 24 meeting.
She reminded councillors of the hard work and thousands of dollars members of the community have put into maintaining the station as a public asset.
“Many groups and individuals have reached out to the Town on numerous occasions offering to help obtain numerous grants and tap funding sources to preserve the station, this on top of the thousands of dollars and volunteer hours put into the space by the Train Station Society but to no avail. I can speak to the fact there are many people and groups still willing to work with the Town to protect this asset,” said Frith. “The preservation of our history comes not from government but from the grassroots organizations who wish to build upon what makes us great.”
The municipality, which would be faced with upward of $150,000 in repair costs alone for the station, issued an RFP for the historical site which closed on May 19. Two proposals were submitted, one by the Huntsville and Area Historical Society and one by a private partnership made up of local community members John Pantaleo, Adam Caswell and Scott Richardson.
According to Town staff, the partnership, which won the bid, has indicated its commitment to maintaining the historical values of the site by working with the Huntsville Train Station Society to maintain and promote the station’s historical value, which is bound by its heritage designation. It has also indicated that it would take over the lease agreement between the Town and the Suzuki School of Music. Its intent is to establish a community hub for events and business incubator activities. It plans on installing a commercial grade kitchen to be used for teaching, catering as well as a rental for private events. The three partners also indicated that they will remediate issues with mould and asbestos and install a new HVAC system, according to a report submitted to the Town’s General Committee by staff on June 28.
Huntsville Councillor Nancy Alcock reminded those present at Monday’s council meeting that those with the winning bid are bound by the obligations that go with a heritage designation. “They can’t just go in and do whatever they want to that building… As I understand it, that isn’t a possibility,” she said.
Councillor Bob Stone said he is pleased to hear the station will retain its exterior historical look. “I think that we have done kind of a crappy job running it, making it vibrant and I think entrepreneurs will do a hell of a lot better job than we’ve done.”
Councillor Brian Thompson reminded those present that the Town has only owned the station for about 15 years, through the efforts of former Huntsville Mayor Hugh Mackenzie, who managed to secure the station for one dollar. Thompson said the fact that the building has a heritage designation means it is protected. He also said he is comforted by the individuals who are taking it over. “I respect the proponents that are looking to take over this building and I’m feeling very confident that they will live up to the spirit of the law and the spirit of the heritage aspect of the building and so on and so forth. That was as much a deciding factor for me as anything else, quite frankly. I’m not too concerned about the change of the ownership,” he said.
Councillor Dan Armour, who has been wary about handing the station over to private interests, turned to the proponents who were sitting in the audience, along with members of the Huntsville Train Station Society and the Huntsville and Area Heritage Foundation, and said they need to work with them.
The expertise in the heritage aspect of it [the building]comes from these people in the audience tonight who know it inside and out and can really work with you to preserve and save this train station and keep it as a heritage building.
Councillor Dan Armour
Councillor Det Schumacher commended all of those who sent emails concerned about the future of the train station for their passion and investment into the station. “I spent almost 40 years in public service and one of the toughest [decisions]always has been Heritage Place. There’s a silent majority out there that you hear from time to time when you go for coffee. [They say] ‘Why are you putting money in there. Why are you putting my tax dollars into that place.’ They are out there and they’re footing a bill and they don’t see the value in what’s being done. And there’s that side that is passionate and sees the value and wants to be part of something,” he said. He said in looking at the proposal again, it is being emphasized that what people are passionate about will not be lost. He too said he’d like to see the proponents involve those who have been working to maintain the station in the public domain. Schumacher spoke about arriving in that station as a nine-year-old boy. “For a lot of people there is history and passion, but going forward there’s one area where maybe that silent majority will think, ‘Oh goodness, thank goodness we’re not footing the bill on this one’. My thoughts,” he added.
Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison noted the disappointment council’s decision has caused and said that hopefully in time people will come to realize it is a good decision.
“The Province has told us that we have to fully fund our capital assets and that’s an expensive thing to do and those assets range from the chair I’m sitting on to the microphone I’m talking into, the bridge over Centre street.” He said if the Town were to fully fund its capital asset management plan it would have to raise taxes by 100 per cent, which is not sustainable.
At the end of the day we’ve started to learn that our fundamental goal here is to provide good quality services to the people of this community and we don’t necessarily need to own the real estate to do that. If there are ways that we can partner with the private sector to protect our heritage and to use buildings in a way that doesn’t come out of the taxpayer’s pocket, but still protects that building, then we’re interested in that.
Mayor Scott Aitchison
The Mayor said he takes exception to those who would argue that the municipality is not thinking outside the box on ways to maintain sites such as the train station. “We are being creative all of the time looking for ways to keep our heritage, looking for ways to improve this community and make it more vibrant, grow this community and also at the end of the day maybe be in a position, which I think we may be coming to, where we can actually support the hospital to make sure it stays open,” he said.
Councillor Jason FitzGerald left the room for the discussions, declaring a possible conflict of interest because as a contractor he’s done work for the proponents and noted, in follow-up conversation with Doppler, that he may be asked to do work on the station as well.
See related train station story at this link.
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Ruby Truax says
In addition to all the volunteer hours and fundraising money that have gone into the renovation of the Railway Station, which Lucille Frith pointed out have been given away for $2, there’s also the question of all the photographs and artifacts that have been donated. What is to become of them?
But for me personally, the biggest concern is preserving the historical value of the site. Mr. Pantaleo, Mr. Caswell and Mr. Richardson say they are committed to doing just that, and I don’t doubt their commitment. But what about future owners? The Rainway Station is now in private hands. Councillor Alcock and Councillor Thompson both maintain that because the station is a Designated Heritage property, the owners are bound by the obligations of the designation, that its historical integrity will be protected. But our Town doesn’t have a good track record of protecting our Designated Heritage properties, does it? Hart House comes to mind. It seems that for influential property owners, bylaws are just “guidelines”.
But there’s no point in beating a dead horse. The deal is done. All we can hope for now is that the Town will stand firm if and when issues arise with the Railway Station, that the Town will enforce its bylaws to preserve this important historical site.
As we “embrace the future”, let’s not lose “touch” with the past.