‘The depot will be saved’

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Historic Preservation Commission welcomed the news it heard at Tuesday’s meeting.

“The depot will be saved.”

Those were the words of Charles City Community Development Director Mark Wicks, who informed the commission that the Save the Depot Initiative had essentially reached its fundraising goals.

“A year ago, I didn’t think we were even going to come close,” Wicks said. “Kudos to all the people involved in that. It’s been a great effort on the part of the group that’s been working to save the depot.”

Mike Bauer informed the commission that Save the Depot has raised $343,000, and is still hoping to bring in about $20,000 more for utility connections and other contingencies.

Charles City’s historic Milwaukee Road railroad depot was built in 1912 to serve passenger trains traveling between Rapid City and Sioux Falls in South Dakota, through Charles City to Chicago.

It was in danger of being demolished by owner Canadian Pacific Railroad, which has wanted the building removed from its property for years, citing liability concerns.

People working with the local American Passenger Train History Museum have come up with a plan to move the depot to a new location nearby, where it can be renovated and utilized again. The cost of the move has been estimated at $350,000.

The building would be used as the entrance to the passenger train museum, and would also offer public meeting space, according to plans envisioned by the Save the Depot Initiative. The new location is at the corner of North Grand Avenue and 11th Avenue, next to the restored Charles City Western Railroad depot.

Bauer said “Save the Depot” has been working with an architectural firm and expects a foundation to be dug at the site in June, with the building to be moved in late September.

Wicks said that a Main Street Iowa business specialist has recently walked through and looked at the depot, and he was “hoping to grease the wheels for future grant requests.”

“Once the building and the title is moved, it will open up grant opportunities that we don’t have right now,” Wicks said.

In March, the railroad lifted its March 31 deadline to raise the funds to relocate, but said the depot still must be moved as soon as possible.

To help in that effort, the railroad company pledged $33,750 to the initiative, representing the estimated cost the railroad would have spent to demolish the building and clean up the site.

Fundraising has been helped in large part by challenge gifts from David McCartney and Judy (Sebern) Beachy, both of whom are former residents of Charles City. Earlier this month, local artist Janiece Bergland made prints of one of her paintings available to anyone who donates $1000 or more to the “Save the Depot” drive.

Last month, a group of friends of Ron Turner — who taught history, sociology and psychology and coached basketball and golf at Charles City High School for 33 years and passed away in November 2014 — urged people who knew Turner to make a donation in his memory to the Save the Depot fundraiser

“A year ago, it seemed like it had kind of stalled out,” said commission chairman Carol Frye. “It’s been wonderful to see the fundraising pick up.”

Frye said that a $100,000 challenge grant from Jim Smith, who grew up in Charles City at a time when passenger trains regularly served the town, gave the drive a big boost. That challenge grant has been met.

“There are a lot of people who believe in preserving our history, so that’s just great,” Frye said.