BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – The Town of Rockingham is progressing towards finalizing the purchase of the Bellows Falls train station, after the Rockingham Selectboard recently made a down payment on the $250,000 purchase and renovation of the historic building.
Currently owned by the Vermont Rail System, a shortline railroad based in Burlington and running throughout Vermont and eastern New York, the purchase of the Bellows Falls station is a unique and tricky proposition, because the town is only purchasing the station itself and not the land under the station – largely because of the fear of contamination and the potential clean-up costs.
At the recent selectboard meeting, Rockingham made a $10,000 payment that, according to town manager Scott Pickup, was the first step towards finalizing the purchase of the building in June. “The town board authorized the manager to sign a $10,000 option agreement, which opens a six-month window to closing [the final sale],” Pickup said in a recent interview.
Built in the early 1920s, the train station was once a two-story building that was lost in a fire. Currently unoccupied, the Town of Rockingham voted to purchase the train station building in 2002. The original plan was to have the sale and purchase complete by the end of 2023, but the time frame has been pushed up to June as more details revolving around the future renovations get worked out with the current station owners. The estimated $250,00 cost of the building will come from a combination of a $75,000 town appropriation (approved in 2002), along with federal grant funding from multiple sources.
The Town of Rockingham’s economic development director Gary Fox has played a major role in developing the grant funds for the project. Fox is also the executive director of the Bellows Falls Area Development Corporation.
“Gary Fox has been very diligent in tracking down multiple grant options,” Pickup added. “We are currently completing NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] compliance, which will unlock a $350,000 Northern Borders Regional Commission grant, as well as a $200,000 Downtown Transportation Fund grant.
“The Windham Regional Commission has also committed funds for the required environmental remediation inside the building. Therefore, we are making progress and getting very close to finally seeing updates to the structure.”
The ultimate plan is for the town to invest in and renovate the building, then make it an available commercial space that a business owner or entrepreneur can take over.