(rshsdepot) Windsor Locks, CT

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From the Hartford Courant.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
GRANT SOUGHT FOR OLD STATION; 
STATE HAS MONEY FOR LOCAL  PROJECTS 

LARRY SMITH; Courant Staff  Writer 

Selectmen decided Tuesday to apply for state grants to  help fund planning 
for renovations to the old downtown train station and to  purchase a new 
generator for the senior center.
 
Economic development consultant Patrick McMahon was instructed to write  
applications for $225,000 for planning the train station renovation and $53,600  
for the generator.
 
Through its Small Town Economic Assistance Program, the state is making  
available about $20 million to about 40 qualifying towns. The state's Office of  
Policy and Management is accepting applications. 
 
The Windsor Locks Preservation Association, formed about a year ago, has  
been working to renovate the 130-year-old, boarded-up station, which has been in  
disrepair since the 1970s. It hasn't been decided how a renovated structure  
would be used.
 
Selectman Joseph Calsetta said the generator is needed because the senior  
center is designated as a shelter in the town's emergency preparedness  plans.
 
McMahon said renovating the train station could be a precursor to  
revitalizing Main Street but is a big project. The planning phase of the  renovation 
would include spending on things such as legal costs, permit fees,  insurance, an 
appraisal, design, stabilization of the building and a market  study. An 
early estimate of those costs is $225,000.
 
The association has raised about $16,000 for the effort, but without  
significant public funding it will be hard to attract large private grants,  McMahon 
said. ``Unless we get some state grant funds, you could easily spend  another 
few years looking at an empty building,'' he said.
 
First Selectman Jeffrey Ives said the Windsor Locks Preservation  
Association's efforts would receive a boost in dealing with Amtrak if state  money and 
town support were evident. Amtrak owns the site.
 
``At this point it's been a grass-roots effort, a very good one,'' Ives  
said. ``This puts official backing to it.''
 
The board had discussed applying for the program at its Sept. 20 meeting.  
Ives had asked that the selectmen come back with suggestions for projects that  
might be considered for the grants.
 
Calsetta said it was difficult for people he spoke with to suggest projects  
because they didn't have enough information about what they would be or the  
cost.
 
Selectwoman Denise Balboni said there are many projects in town that might  
qualify for the grant program but advocates of those projects don't have the  
information necessary for the state agency.
 
``These projects are probably very viable but they're not ready,'' Balboni  
said. ``The preservation association, they've got numbers  ready.''

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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 #1223
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org