By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON April 29, 2012 After more than an hour in a Closed Session of Council Committee, James Smith came out to the members of his Friends of Freeman Station looking a little bedraggled while the media people walked back into the Council Chamber.
Other than a very curt comment from Councillor Lancaster we knew nothing more than that Council and Staff were going to “pursue the information” they had been given and the matter would come up again at a Council meeting the evening of Monday April 30th.
Staff has since worked on the file discussing with the owner of the property the FoF want to move the structure and “to clarify the proposed business terms and explore other options discussed in closed session”
What has been clarified is just how much is available in the way of funds for the renovation of the building. The FoF have raised about $30,000 of which $21,432 is being held in trust by the city for the FoF.
There is an amount of $20,000 available from a city Capital Account to assist with future relocation/movement/disposition of the Freeman Station. Many expected those funds to be used to scrap the station at a time when Council wasn’t prepared to put any heart or soul into saving the structure. At that time the community appeared before Council pleading for additional time and were given about six months to come back with a solution.
The city had a significant sum from a Stimulus Funding Grant that consisted of federal, provincial and municipal funding. With the cash in hand, the city wasn’t able to find a location for the structure and at that time there was no one on Council prepared to fight for the building. It was only after the 2010 election that put Marianne Meed Ward and Blair Lancaster to Council that we saw any passion given to keeping the station. Meed Ward explained at the time that she was not going to save the station herself but she along with Lancaster would “facilitate” saving the structure. An example of political fudging at its very best.
The Stimulus funding was lost because agreement on just where to put the station could not be reached and so the city asked the other funding partners to let them use it to pave a road somewhere else in the city. Not one of those great moments in the history of the city.
The Burlington Art Centre didn’t want it on their property, the idea of placing it on the south side of Lakeshore overlooking Spencer Smith Park didn’t get any traction. One group thought it would be a great location for a low voltage radio station but that didn’t take off either.
Community stalwarts like Les Armstrong have kept the Freeman Station flame alive. Council will decide Monday evening if their efforts and zeal are going to allow the station to be renovated.
The members of the community who felt strongly about the station just weren’t prepared to quit and they have done a remarkable job of putting together a committee that has raised $30,000, gotten themselves charitable status and are now at the point where they believe they have a location to which the station can be moved and renovated and then put on public display.
There is an additional $1900 in a fund from the Save our Station group that was created some time ago.
Councillor Meed Ward showed real chutzpah when she suggested that the Section 37 money that the Molinaro development people paid into the city could be applied to the renovation of the station. A memo from the city’s Development and Infrastructure people set out what they felt that $25,000 could be used for – expect that definition to be challenged by the FoF people.
The city document says
Funding of $25,000 has been received from the Molinaro Group, as a result of a Section 37 agreement, the expenditure of the funds is restricted to assist with the renovation/relocation of Freeman Station ONLY if it is located into the Brock Street area of the downtown otherwise the funds are to be directed to the Public Art Fund. This has been confirmed by the Planning and Building Department.
The use of capitalization for the word ONLY was interesting.
There are those in the city who argue that the Freeman Station is Public Art and would qualify for the Section 37 money under that definition.
What the memo suggests is that the Development and Infrastructure people aren’t prepared to do whatever it takes to save the station. But they bent a lot of rules when they got the Performing Arts Centre built. It would appear that city hall is not yet fully behind saving the station.
Does the Freeman Station go from here to a dump where it gets cut up for fire wood or does it go to a location where it can be renovated and restored and become a part of Burlington's history that will be seen and appreciated for years into the future? Council decides on Monday.
When it has been renovated and sits out there close to the rail line it was once a part of, the city will use pictures of the structure in much of its tourism literature and will, in all likelihood, add that saving the station is what makes Burlington the #2 best city in Canada.
The FoF have access to close to $70,000; they have gotten charitable status and can now issue tax receipts for funds raised. They have solid leadership with sound people on their committee. We would truly be the #2 city in the country if all our citizen committees were this well led. It is the people like Les Armstrong, Jane Irwin and James Smith who make Burlington the second best city in the country and it is the kind of leadership that Councillors Meed Ward and Lancaster showed in this file that makes the city what it is.
There is still time for this Council to do the right thing and work with the Friends of Freeman Station to save the structure and retain at least one piece of the city’s history that tells of the way we transported our young men off to war and let the public see something of the rail system that shipped box car after box car of fruit from Burlington when it was a farming community.
The previous administration failed the city when it didn’t show the leadership it should have. There is an opportunity to correct that short coming and do the right thing this time.
The citizens behind this initiative have been responsible and innovative, far more so than Council on this file, and they deserve the city’s support. It is certainly something Mayor Goldring can now agree deserves the full support of his Council and get behind the project personally. Time to buy a “Save the Freeman Station’ T-shirt Your Worship and wear it frequently.
Saving Freeman Station at a location near the old rail line is a worthy project if funded by private donations. I recall the cost to move and renovate the Station was something like $700k to $1 million and at the time 2/3 of the funding was coming from other levels of Government.(still taxpayers pocket). Your article doesn’t seem to mention that to my recollection the majority of taxpayers were against this type of expenditure with the use of tax dollars.Mayor Goldring did not support the project at the time and suggested that the station be moved out of town to a rail museum. It will be interesting to see if he and others on Council have changed their minds.The key question here has to be “Where is the rest of the money coming from?”
I truly hope that council does the right thing! A lot of people have worked hard to get this done!! Good work FoFS!!
The Freeman Station should be saved and there is an excellent site across from the Joseph Brant Museum (previously rejected but could be re-considered).
This article speaks of “bending rules” and suggests that they (City Hall or City Council) “bent a lot of rules when they got the Performing Arts Centre built”. I would be interested in knowing what rules were “bent”. To my knowledge no rules were bent to achieve the Performing Arts Centre.
I AGREE WITH WALTER MULKEWICH THE SITE ACROSS FROM THE JO BRANT MUSEUM IS PERFECT. IT WOULD BE A GREAT ATTRACTION NOTICED BY ALL WHO PASSED AND COULD SERVE AS AN INFO CENTER AND SOUVENEIRS OF THE FREEMAN TRAIN STATION AND ANYTHING OF BURLINGTON’S RICH HISTORY COULD BE SOLD. I AM SURE MANY TOURISTS WOULD FLOCK TO THE SITE TO BUY THEM AND LEARN OF OUR CITY’S RICH HISTORY..INCLUDING MAPLE SYRUP WHICH TOURISTS LOVE. ONCE THE BEACH FRONT AND PARKS ARE COMPLETE I ENVISION DINING & DANCING ALONG THE BEACH AND PARK FRONTS AND ON SIGHT SEEING BOATS AND HYDROFOILS COMING FROM TORONTO WITH SHOPPERS AND TOURISTS AND EVEN FROM THE U.S. PLEASE RECONSIDER THIS SITE.