Monon board approves Salem lease

[Cecil Smith]

The board of directors of the Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society voted unanimously Saturday, May 19, to the terms of a 21-year lease agreement with the Washington County Historical Society. The local historical group approved the lease at a meeting May 14.
The action of the two boards clears the way for construction of a $250,000 addition to The Depot railroad museum at the John Hay Center. A portion of the basement level of the addition will be occupied by the Monon group which will bring to Salem its extensive archives of Monon Railroad engineering drawings, documents and a collection of more than 7,000 photographs.
Monon Society members were among those who donated funds to help The Depot meet the terms of a challenge grant awarded by the Paul Ogle Foundation.
The Foundation awarded The Depot $200,000 for the expansion project, but the challenge was The Depot had to raise the other $50,000 before it could collect the $200,000.
Cecil J. Smith, volunteer stationmaster at The Depot who was in charge of the fund raising, said, “thanks to the generosity of members of the Washington County Historical Society, the Monon Society and members of the Washington County community, we met the challenge in five months, well ahead of the December 1, 2012, deadline set by the Ogle Foundation.”
Smith said work on the addition should get underway in early summer with a May 2013 completion date.

[David Longest]

Congratulations, Cecil, Board, and Membership!!!

[Tim T Swan]

Great job, Cecil, as always!

I visited Jack Frame in NC last week, and he was telling me his issue of the May THL included an insert relating some unresolved issues between MRHTS and the Depot group over lease terms (having left home May first, I had not yet received my THL with inserts).  Sure relieved to hear that whatever the issues were have been resolved!

[Pete Pedigo]

Tim and all,

The lease has not been signed yet.  I recieved the final written lease May the 26th.  At that time I questioned one item I felt was in error, and a new page had been added for my signature that had not been put before our board for discussion. Thus the lease presented was not exactly as had been voted upon.   My instrutions by our Board of Directors was to proceed in accepting the lease as written, but with the admitted mistake by the WCHS attorney, then the refutal of such, and the added page, the directive was no longer valid.

The attorney for the Washington County Historical Society admitted "The last line you mention is an oversight in my editing".  So I thought a corrected lease was forth coming.  It did not arrive.  When I emailed him that I had not received a correct lease, he said it was not an editing error, and was the way he wanted it.

So I did not sign the lease and did not attend the ground breaking, nor did any other officers of the MRHTS because we have not agreed to the terms of the lease yet.  Cecil was present as a representative of the Depot.

Hopefully the attorney for the WCHS will contact me and we can continue negotiations, but on a more level playing ground.  Maybe with a new attorney on their behalf.

New possibiliies of places to relocate have now surfaced and Salem is not looking as good as it once was because of the strict terms of the lease the attorney for the WCHS has insisted on.

The ball is in the WCHS attorney's court.  If he can repair the damage in trust he has created the past two days then we may be able to salvage the lease.  If not, we will take another vote on the lease as presented for signatures and it will probably not pass.

Pete

[Robert Gibson]

May I ask what changes were inserted at the last minute?

[Pete Pedigo]

On June the 28th The Honorable David Bower Mayor of Salem hosted a luncheon for representatives of both the Monon Railroad Historical - Technical Society and the Washington County Historical Society.  The purpose of the luncheon was to openly discuss the remaining issues to be resolved between the two organizations before a signing of the lease could be accomplished.   Directors Ron Marquardt and Bill Lesburg accompanied me to that meeting.

     One issue that I asked about more than once during the negotiations was that there was no mention of our members contributions towards the challenge portion of the grant.  I felt that was necessary so that no one forgets that we participated monetarily in the process of making this Depot Expansion a reality.  So now a paragraph has been added to the lease for all to see that we participated in getting the building grant.   The final stumbling block was that I was insisting the we be given monetary credit, against the established going rate for our space in the Depot.  Our members donated a total of $26,000 toward the challenge portion of the grant and I felt a credit against the rent spread out over the 20 years of paying rent was only fair.  I also wanted the actual lease to be recorded with the Washington County Recorder's Office, 20 years is a long time for people to remember the details. 
       I am happy to report that we have come to an agreement and I have signed the lease and as of tonight, so has the Washington County Historical Society.
It is now official, we are moving to Salem in the late spring or summer of 2013.

Pete Pedigo
President, MRHTS

[Robert Gibson]

Pete,  Thanks for the update and good news.

Bob Gibson