By Pepper Parr
June 27, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
We are unabashed fans of the Freeman Station project. Partly because we are history buffs, but more importantly, because this project showed how a group of citizens was able to save the city from itself.
The city screwed up this project from the get go. They couldn’t find a home for the structure, even though they had a bag of money from the federal government to restore the building.
They couldn’t agree on a place for the structure.
The best they were able to do was agree to run an advertisement and see if anyone would buy it for kindling.
Jane Irwin and Les Armstrong – two of the strongest advocates for recognizing and saving the history of Burlington. Both passed away.
It was the late Jane Irwin, the late Les Armstrong, the founding president of the Friends of Freeman Station, that pulled together a bunch of people and, after almost pleading with city council, they got some breathing room – and that saved the building.
Councillors Marianne Meed Ward and Blair Lancaster also got behind the project, and refused to let the rest of council kill the idea.
Mayor Goldring is reported to have said he didn’t want any city staff time spent on this project. Just as well – few in the city engineering department had much love for this idea.
Should all the people in this picture be in this picture. Were they all true believers in the idea of saving and restoring the Freeman Station?
The day the Freeman station is officially opened expect the politicians to be there with their faces ready for the cameras – they do that all the time. Those who know the true history of the effort to save the structure, will know that while Les and Jane will not be in the picture – they will be with them.
Meanwhile John Mellow, the Restoration Chairman is looking for volunteers to help with the restoration. John will need carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and painters. He can also use volunteers, who would like to help clean up the building, do minor repair work, pick up smaller building supplies, (a pick up or van would be useful), plus other small jobs that need to be done.
Straw boss on the site is John Mellow. You can reach him at donstn63@gmail.com to volunteer your services.
Pepper I was asked to volunteer to help push the Freeman Station out of the mud due to the spinning of wheels by one or two City staff(not the politicians) This was not easy but we did get it approved with the help of certain City staff. However we still had the challenge of now we have the approvals how do we begin. A few of us reached out to the development & building industry and we received the much needed help. As you can see the station is now out of the ground and on a permanent foundation. This was a similiar situation that we had when we built the Carpenter Hospice, donations in kind and material were donated by the development industry. People like Mike Bryan who worked tirelessly to donate and also to work along with us Directors sweeping floors at 1 am so that the drywall, carpentry etc could continue the next day. I raise this as the parallel between Les Strong and Mike Bryan are simliar both working for the community good, and both dying of cancer well before their time.
People such as Brian Assgard and John Mellow are the silent hero’s on this restoration, donating many hours. I agree it is now time for the community at large to help.
As stated previously I wasn’t in favour of restoring the old girl but photographs of my father and I and his grandchildren playing with the Lionel & Tyco trains made me re-think my role.
Let’s git er dun !!!