By Pepper Pa
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BURLINGTON, ON March 10, 2010 It is on the move – again. This time to a better place where it will get the care and feeding it has deserved for such a long time.
Is there another ride in store for the Freeman Station? Is it finally going to be given the home it deserves? Details are sparse but there is something afoot.
Details are sparse but the committee that devoted itself to saving the Freeman Railway station from the wrecking ball appear to have pulled it off. Despite the city failing to find a decent home for the station even though they had more than enough money to move and refurbish the station it nevertheless failed to find a place they could located the building.
After a more than valiant effort by Councillors Marianne Meed Ward and Blair Lancaster they were given some time to see what they could do – and do they did.
The sold prints, they held benefits and they scrounged for donations. They got themselves charitable status and they found someone who would take the building in, renovate it and have it ready for installation somewhere on the Beachway.
There are more questions than answers at this point but it appears that the Save the Station committee found someone, who may be getting a tax receipt for the renovation work they are doing.
There were no dates or time lines available – just that the station would be moved and repaired and then located on the Beachway.
At some point this has to go to Council for approval which will not be before March 28th.
Conservation Halton will have something to say about putting anything on the actual Beachway, that is the land to the south of where the railway line used to run. Currently there is the Pump Station and and a small concession stand with washrooms that looks like it is need of an upgrade.
The station was the major route in and out of the city until the province developed a system of major highways. There are those in the community who want to preserve the railway station and there are those that blew the several chances we had to save some of our history.
The Conservation Authority has been holding public meetings as it works its way towards what it feels should be a Master plan for the Beachway. That plan has to tackle the matter of the 28 + homes that exist north of the old railway line that is now a walking path.
The community that used to exist along the edge of the water is no more and the city has to decide if it wants people living in the area and if they decide yes – then what are they going to do in terms of sewage treatment facilities for those homes that are currently on septic tank systems. Declaring that the Freeman station is going to be located on the Beachway of course doesn’t mean it is actually going to get there.
Right now the group that has been fighting to save the freeman Station appears to have found someone to move it from beside the fire station on Plans Road and get it into a facility where it can be renovated.
There is obviously much more to this story than we have at this point in time. More details to follow.
