(The following story by Tim Landis appeared on the State Journal-Register website on May 7, 2009,)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A plan is in the works to spend $571,500 in downtown tax increment funds to pay most of the cost of restoring Springfield’s Amtrak station.
The proposal, scheduled to come before the city council May 19, would represent the first significant renovation in about 20 years for the station, which is along the Third Street tracks between Jefferson and Washington streets, city economic development director Mike Farmer said Thursday.
“This is about making the overall Amtrak station a better gateway to Springfield and to freshen it up a bit,” said Farmer.
The project also comes as Amtrak prepares for $80 million worth of improvements to the Illinois system from federal economic stimulus money, including station upgrades and paving the way for high-speed rail.
Farmer said city officials believe the station upgrade is justified even though long-term plans are to relocate Third Street rail traffic to a central transportation hub along the 10th Street rail line.
“This particular station has historic significance, and we could use it for other tourism purposes or perhaps a farmers’ market,” said Farmer.
City tourism officials often hear from visitors about the station’s condition.
“They were getting comments … when gas prices were high and people were taking the train that the station could use a facelift. We’re trying to get ahead of that curve,” said Farmer.
The city funds would cover about 80 percent of the cost of the renovation.
Two downtown TIF projects — $2.5 million for converting the former YWCA to condos and nearly $280,000 for relocation of the Lincoln-era Maisenbacher House — ran into opposition last fall.
Some city council members questioned whether there were higher priorities for the money or whether the projects were in the spirit of restoring blighted areas. The Maisenbacher money eventually was approved.
Ward 3 Ald. Frank Kunz, who voted against both the Maisenbacher and YWCA money, said he doesn’t oppose the Amtrak station work, especially because he doesn’t think the central transportation hub will ever be built.
“They might as well (go ahead). I don’t think we’ll see in my lifetime them moving the railroad tracks,” said Kunz.
“The problem I have with TIFs is that there’s never a bad idea. Sometimes, it’s just not cost-effective,” said Kunz.
Ward 4 Ald. Frank Lesko is chairman of the council’s public affairs and safety committee, which is scheduled to get a first look at the proposal May 18.
Lesko said he agreed to present the ordinance at the request of local tourism officials, but he wants more details.
“We’ll have to see the parameters of what they’re trying to do,” said Lesko.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said it has not yet been determined whether federal stimulus money would be used to cover Amtrak’s share of the cost.
“This has been a project we’ve wanted to do for quite a few years. It pre-dates the stimulus funding,” said Magliari.
About $50 million is scheduled to be spent on improvements at Union Station in Chicago, which anchors the three major Amtrak routes through Illinois. But money also is in the plan for upgrades needed to start high-speed rail service between St. Louis and Chicago and to improve other stations on the Illinois system.
Curtis Mann, director of the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library, said the downtown Springfield site is historically significant. For one thing, the location – though not the current building — was the final stop of the Abraham Lincoln funeral train after a nearly two-week trip from Washington, D.C.
“There’s a picture of the engine on a side track when they brought him down. He came from Chicago, and people knew that’s where it would be,” said Mann.
The May 4, 1865, Illinois State Journal (a forerunner of The State Journal-Register) reported that thousands of people gathered at the downtown Springfield station to greet the train carrying Lincoln’s body.
“Every class was represented in the throng of humans beings who filled the city,” the paper reported.