Thought this would be of interest to both of these groups...
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [StLouisRailfans] Railroad Hall of Fame planned for Galesburg,
IL.......
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 03:07:30 GMT
From: bgeep40@juno.com <bgeep40@juno.com>
Reply-To: StLouisRailfans@yahoogroups.com
To: illinoiscentral@yahoogroups.com, GMOHS@yahoogroups.com,
StLouisRailfans@yahoogroups.com
Railroad Hall of Fame planned by Galesburg, Ill.
GALESBURG, Ill. - Imagine an 84,500-square-foot building, a $60 million project
with a central architectural feature rising six stories above an atrium, asks a
story in the Galesburg Register-Mail. Now, picture all this in Kiwanis Park in
Galesburg, visible from nearby Interstate 74. The National Railroad Hall of
Fame, the newspaper said, is about to make the move from vision toward reality.
Jay Matson, chairman of the Hall of Fame board, and Steve Gerstenberger, board
member, are confident the hall will become "a national icon."
Peter S. LaPaglia, president of LaPaglia and Associates, Inc., has been hired
as a consultant to help develop the master plan for the Hall of Fame. Work on
the plan began in January 2005 and is expected to be completed this August.
"We actually started fund-raising for the master plan in October," Matson said.
Pledges for $250,000 are in hand for the local portion of the fundraising.
"The community campaign will have a goal of a half-a-million [dollars]," Matson
said. That will be officially announced at a press conference at 10 a.m.
Tuesday in Galesburg City Hall. Galesburg, a city of 35,000 about 165 miles
southwest of Chicago, and midway between Rock Island/Davenport and Peoria on
I-74, is a hub for BNSF Railway, which has seven routes radiating from a large
yard south of the city. Union Pacific operates through Galesburg on BNSF
trackage rights, and the Toledo, Peoria & Western also serves it. Amtrak has
three trains a day stopping at Galesburg in each direction: the California
Zephyr, Southwest Chief, and Illinois Zephyr.
The money raised locally would be used to pay for the master plan, hire an
executive director to lead the national fund-raising campaign, and to pay
expenses associated with the ambitious goal.
Matson said the idea is to show the community's commitment, to demonstrate to
foundations and the railroad industry this is a project worthy of their
support. While state and local grants will be pursued in what is planned as a
two-year fund-raising effort, the railroads hold the key.
"It's definitely a boom time for all railroads," Matson said. "In that sense,
our timing couldn't be better."
What if only $40 million is raised? Will the project go forward? "Sure, we
might have one theater instead of two," Matson said. However, Matson said
organizers are optimistic.
"I think the likelihood is we'll raise more than [$60 million] rather than
less," he said.
Matson points to the need to dream when it comes to the museum itself, but the
high hopes for fund-raising, he says, are grounded firmly on logic. Matson says
the largest six railroads —BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, Canadian
National, and Canadian Pacific Railway — have annual revenues in the area of
$50 billion.
He said for the Hall of Fame to reach its goal, it only needs ".01 of 1 percent
of their revenue." In addition, there are many other railroads, including more
than 400 short-line operations.
"If everything went as fast as we could have it and if some major donors step
forward, we could have a spring 2009 opening," Matson said.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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