Town board takes preliminary legal step to acquire train station

by Dan McClelland

Following a brief executive session with their attorney, Kirk Gagnier, at their monthly meeting Thursday, members of the Tupper Lake Town Board unanimously adopted a memorandum of understanding to pursue the acquisition of the Tupper Lake train station from the Next Stop! Tupper Lake organization.

The resolution of the memorandum of understanding, read by Councilwoman Mary Fontana, was as follows:

“The town resolves to acquire any interests Next Stop! Tupper Lake has in the train depot building, pursuant to any necessary approvals and pursuant to the town’s conditions of the transfer.”

The resolution was fashioned by Mr. Gagnier and reviewed in that evening’s short executive session and presented when the board returned to regular session before the close of that evening’s meeting.

“Basically what this is saying is that this has to go to the supreme court” in Malone “and it may come back with stipulations on the dissolution of Next Stop! Tupper Lake organization and the interest it has in the depot building, Councilman John Gillis explained that evening

“If we don’t like those stipulations, we can back out of the deal!” He said the court determination was necessary to protect the town and its taxpayers.

Supervisor Rickey Dattola, who during months of talks with the leaders of the train station organization has been very supportive of the transfer of the station into town ownership, noted that if the supreme court approves of the transfer, “then we are a go!”

“If the supreme court has issues, then we have to come back and resolve it,” he added.

Next Stop! Tupper Lake Chairman Dan McClelland, who presented many reasons why the train station should be owned by the town in his editorial last week, explained the smooth dissolution of his train station-building group and the transfer of ownership of the station have to do with whether the group’s mission of bringing new tourists here via the train is the same as the town’s going forward. “I think the court will find it is the same!”

There are two ways that the not-for-profit organization can dissolve and transfer its major asset, in this case the train depot building. One is through an application to the state attorney general’s office and the second is through a state supreme court order.

Town Attorney Kirk Gagnier told town officials he prefers the latter, as it can be less cumbersome than awaiting action by the state attorney general, which could take years.

In May town leaders heard a lengthy presentation by the board’s new economic development group about the many reasons the train station, in town ownership, could economically benefit the town and its residents.

The town committee members include Tim LaBarge, Mark Moeller, Rob Gillis, Matt Ellis, Dan McClelland, Chris Keniston and Caroline Sass.

Mr. LaBarge handled the presentation to the board that evening, after presenting leaders with a 12-page summary of their findings.

He said one of its missions, when it was chartered by the supervisor at the start of his term, is to develop a strategic plan for the town and its economy- both short-term and long-term.

“Our role is to provide advice and counsel and recommendations for your consideration in the months and years ahead. We have no advocacy role- but just to share with you regularly what we’ve found in our research about things we think will help our town.”

“If we are going to talk about recreational tourism as an economic driver for the Town of Tupper Lake, we feel that a gateway hub (comprised in part by the train station) will greatly advance our economic opportunities.

He said his committee members believe that a major town presence is very important at the point in The Junction where the railroad and the new rail/trail converge.

“We think it advances our town to its economic agenda of developing economic opportunities through regional recreational tourism!” he told town leaders.

He said that evening that the train station is just one example of things created here in the spirit of “if you build it, they will come,” the message of the Kevin Costner film “Field of Dreams.”

Others are the Rotary Track and Field, the Wild Center, the Adirondack Public Observatory, the civic center, recent developments in the municipal park and Raquette River Brewing.

“So that’s our philosophy for the Gateway Hub...if we build it, they will come,” he said of the train passengers and the hikers, bikers and snowmobilers who will come for the rail/trail.

He noted that the Gateway Hub and the train station building are at the geographic center of many of Tupper Lake’s current tourism amenities- with public trails and local travel corridors leading to all of them.

One future use of part of the train station could be a tourist information center. Another, he said, could be as headquarters of the new town recreation department.

Mr. LaBarge said that the first impression of a community can be a lasting one for visitors. “If you want to create that hearty first handshake where people come to town and say ‘boy this town does it right,’ we want to do it right.

He said the committee believes the good condition of the train station and its historic design “are not only favorable ones, but things that are unique to Tupper Lake. It speaks volumes of the railroad legacy that led to Tupper’s formation.

“People will walk into the station and will immediately get the impression its a nice facility. They may think to themselves: ‘this is the way they do things in Tupper Lake; maybe this is a place for me to start a business or buy a vacation place?’”

He cited some data- albeit a little dated- that recently predicted that rail/trail users arriving here at the depot site there could be as many as 240,000 per year. Their spending could result in an economic impact of $19 million.

Even if a fraction of that prediction materialized, that would be an impressive gain for the community, he noted.

As a proposed welcome center/information center for just these visitors along, to say nothing of snowmobilers and train travelers the station could prove immensely valuable to the community’s economy in the years ahead, he added.

The train station too is near several local restaurants, bars and convenience stores and only a shuttle ride away from other tourist amenities here, according to the speaker that evening.

Another of his slides provided some answers to why the town should own this new tourism hub.

The main one was that in town ownership, the project would qualify for many state and federal grants that a private owner like Next Stop! wouldn’t. That comes on the advice of the town’s new community developer, Melissa McManus.

Those monies would not only improve the building itself, but bring many needed amenities to the site that tourists are looking for like bike racks, picnic tables and more restrooms.

Ms. McManus said that this year’s state budget carried a line item of $300,000 to prepare the Lake Placid train station for the new rail/trail visitors, so there was no reason to believe the Town of Tupper Lake couldn’t qualify for similar funds to improve its new Gateway Hub area.

A new rail/trail revitalization group is already at work here under the direction of Ms. McManus to win funds to develop the station site. A grant “ask” list is being compiled by the volunteers for this fall for grant-writing over the winter and spring.

“So what’s our vision?” he told the town board members. “If you are inclined to purchase the train station, then we recommend converting it into a four-season center for rail, biking, hiking and snowmobiling. It also be our welcome center for transient visitors driving through.” It could become a transportation hub for every person traveling through here by whatever modal means or for people starting and finishing their vacations here, Mr. LaBarge conjectured.

It could offer travelers wi-fi connections as well as a distribution center for traditional brochures, maps and other promotional materials.

“The 800-pound elephant in the room is: are there any unanticipated or recurring maintenance costs that would be a heavy lift for the Town of Tupper Lake in the years ahead?”

“We had Contractor Chris Keniston take a look at the building and we had a building inspector also look at its condition.”

In their reports, both gave the building a thumb’s up in terms of its good condition.

“From everything are committee members have seen, the bones of the station are very good- the roof is good, the plumbing’s good, the 200-amp service is good. Some painting of the siding and soffits is needed- but that’s about all.

He reasoned that if the town does not take advantage of controlling this important tourism site and using it to the community’s full advantage, it’s like what he called “entering a death spiral.”

“If we stand still with respect to economic development, we are actually going backwards at a significant clip!”

“Not pursuing economic development” through this and other moves, “is actually a risk!”

If Tupper doesn’t seize this economic opportunity, others along the corridor may. “Those lost economic development costs could be very heavy,” he stressed to the town leaders.

On the revenue side of the building acquisition, there are a number of possible funding opportunities for the town: railroad operator rentals, funds generated from events held at the site, office space rentals, and others.

The Next Stop! Tupper Lake board has offered the building to the town for $1- based on the premise that the building was built using hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from hundreds of year round and seasonal residents in the years between 2002 and 2008. So the organization’s leaders don’t believe Tupper Lake town taxpayers should have to pay twice for the station.

The economic development committee’s recommendation to the board at the conclusion of the report was as follows: “relatively low acquisition risks- we’re talking a dollar. -And if the acquisition costs are that low, and even if there are some maintenance costs for the town, you still have a very low cash outlay to acquire this building!”

“There’s a tremendous amount of upside in terms in economic development. So low risk, high reward. We would recommend acquisition, if we were asked to make a recommendation to our supervisor and all of you,” Mr. LaBarge concluded.

Mr. McClelland spoke briefly at the end of the committee’s presentation, saying that Next Stop! Tupper Lake volunteers have several conditions that they would hope the new town owners- both present and future would abide by. One is that part of the 29 foot wide by 120 foot long building will always remain Tupper Lake’s train station, as long as trains are running here. Another is that the current tenant, the CSEA local, be given plenty of time and certainly over a year or two to find alternative quarters. In the meantime its rent will continue to support the building as it has for the past 15 years.

The third request from the NSTL board is that town officials consider an annual contribution for the new Tupper Lake Museum in the years going forward, similar to the way it supports a number of local and regional groups in its budget each year.

Councilwoman Mary Fontana commented briefly at the end of the May presentation, saying she liked the economic committee’s plan for the site, but wanted complete research over the summer to make sure any acquisition of the building by the town was done correctly and legally to prevent any future headaches for the town.