Hasso Hering Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Monday, June 16, 2003 10:00 pm
Albany will go ahead with its $14 million project to turn the old railroad depot into a transit center starting this fall.
The City Council Monday reviewed the plans and then voted 5-1 to go ahead, with the understanding that changes may be made before construction starts.
Councilman Dick Olsen voted no. He supports the project but objects to details, such as plans to spend more than a quarter-million dollars to remove asbestos-containing window putty and lead paint from the depot and a nearby former Railway Express Agency building.
The council acted even as some of the planned uses of the station are in jeopardy because of budget problems at the state and local levels.
The Cascades passenger trains, which make four daily stops at the station, may be canceled by the Legislature. Local bus service also is being cut back or has a less than secure future, said City Manager Steve Bryant.
Still, Bryant said, this is a major project for the future of Albany and the council is going ahead despite the current problems.
About $10 million of the overall cost is being paid by a congressional grant. The rest comes in the form of contributions from Amtrak and the city.
Olsen objected to removing the window putty and lead paint. He worried that this may damage the old glass, which would be a setback in making the station look like when it was built in 1908.
The council left open the possibility of changing that part of the project later.
The plans call for remodeling the station to include waiting rooms for bus and train passengers. There also will be parking lots, seven shelters on the train platform, more shelters where buses load, turn-arounds at Lyon Street and 12th Avenue, and a traffic signal on Pacific Boulevard at 12th.
City engineers Guy Mayes and Ron Irish said median islands on Pacific would extend only 150 feet from 12th Avenue in each direction, rather than all the way to Queen Avenue as state highway officials had wanted at first.
The council also saw drawings for a rock and water feature at the 12th Avenue entrance, estimated to cost $150,000. The feature, a kind of rock garden with flowing water and a bronze statue, is supposed to convey a "sense of arrival" and was based on input at several public forums, Mayes said.
At 5:15 p.m. Monday the project has a public hearing before the city planning commission. Then, after approval of the final plans by the Oregon Department of Transportation, the city will call for bids in August. A contract has to be let before the federal grant expires Oct. 1.