Tag Archives: North America Railway Hall of Fame

06.11.11
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No financial accountability? Then no public funding

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Members of city council will don their referee shirts Monday as the Downtown Development Board and North America Railway Hall of Fame escalate their funding feud.

The jousting dates back to last summer when the DDB, under chairman Mark Cosens, “loaned” NARHF the sum of $10,000.

Now, the DDB wants the sum repaid, however it is being stymied at every turn by NARHF.

Dan Muscat, current DDB chairman, is attempting to obtain records from NARHF to determine the status of the loan.

“This situation is a city council issue as it is the past DDB board (under the leadership of Cosens) that sanctioned the loan,” asserts Muscat, in a letter to council.
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05.21.11
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SummerBlast legacy explodes in a nasty war of words

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We signed off last Saturday with a promise to dig deeper into the escalating war of words between the Downtown Development Board and the North America Railway Hall of Fame.

In a nutshell, the two sides can’t reach a consensus on whether a sum of $10,000 given by the DDB to NARHF in 2010 was a loan or the former’s commitment as a promotional partner in the ill-fated SummerBlast.

Before we proceed further, there is a third player — city council , represented by then alderman Heather Jackson-Chapman and Ald. Lori Baldwin-Sands, who sat on the DDB board of directors in 2009/10.

And, the three sides in this nasty dispute are all pointing a finger in the same direction — the previous edition of the DDB, under the chairmanship of Mark Cosens.
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05.14.11
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Leaving town lock, stock and black walnut trees

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Nearly a year ago, Marie Turvey, chairman of the CASO-St. Thomas Trans Canada Trail committee, warned the trail may have to be moved outside the city if council doesn’t “grab the bull by the horns” and do something to save it.

Turvey had been in discussion with TBR Developments, which purchased the CASO lands after CN Rail formally abandoned them.

The St. Thomas leg of the Trans Canada Trail first opened in 2001 and was constructed mainly on the CASO railway lands (as far west as Stanley Street).
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09.04.10
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MPP Steve Peters to be first tenant in restored CASO station

CASO station, St. Thomas

ST. THOMAS – A change of scenery is about to happen for constituents who visit their member of provincial parliament.

Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Steve Peters will become the first tenant of the restored Canada Southern Railway (CASO) Station on November 1, 2010. Peters’ constituency office will move from its current location at 542 Talbot Street in St. Thomas to 750 Talbot Street, Suite 201 (second floor) in St. Thomas. The refurbished CASO Station will be fully accessible with an elevator. All of the rest of the constituency office’s contact information (telephone number, fax number, TTY service, e-mail address and website) will remain the same.

“I am extremely excited about calling the CASO Station the new home of my local constituency office,” Peters said. “A big thank you must go to the North America Railway Hall of Fame for providing this opportunity and for their continued efforts to restore this historic and majestic building.”

“The North America Railway Hall of Fame is very happy to have found our first tenant and we are even happier that it turned out to be our member of provincial parliament, Steve Peters,” North America Railway Hall of Fame President Paul Corriveau said. “Not only has Steve been very supportive of all of our efforts to date to restore the CASO Station, he is now showing real leadership by moving his office to our location and giving us a solid anchor tenant.”

Known for his love of local history, Peters was first elected to represent Elgin-Middlesex-London at Queen’s Park in June 1999 and he assumed the constituency office of the member of provincial parliament he replaced. Peters was also a founding member of the North America Railway Hall of Fame.

The CASO Station was built in 1871 and served as the hub of railway activity in the region, continuously utilized until the 1980s. The CASO Station continues to serve as a prime symbol of St. Thomas being known as the Railway Capital of Canada. A number of studies have identified the continued restoration of the CASO Station as one of the key components to the revitalization of downtown St. Thomas.

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For more information contact: Craig Bradford, Communications Assistant, (519) 631-0666.