115-year-old Moline train depot slated for demolition

MOLINE, Ill. (AP) - The Illinois Department of Transportation says a 115-year-old train depot in Moline will be demolished next summer.

The department said in a letter this month to Moline Historic Preservation commissioner Barb Sandberg that it wouldn't pay to move the depot because of budget cuts and added costs tied to the Interstate 74 bridge and corridor project. The depot must make way for new on- and off-ramps.

Sandberg told The (Moline) Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1M8FCRL ) that officials aren't giving up on saving the depot. She said conversations with someone interested in the building are ongoing.

Western Illinois University offered in 2012 to take the train depot, but said last year it couldn't take it as planned with renovation costs much higher than anticipated. The Department of Transportation had agreed to pay $1.35 million for its move, but preservation officials learned in July the state no longer planned to pay for moving it.

The Historic Preservation Commission believed the state would have to mitigate any impact of the highway project on the depot, Sandberg said. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency gave the state's initial plan to tear down the depot its approval in 2008, and Sandberg said the state is moving ahead within that approval.

Sandberg said officials are looking into how they can save architectural items from the depot. She's working with Mayor Scott Raes and city administrator Lew Steinbrecher to see if the clock on the front of the depot can be installed at the new passenger train station.

"I am very concerned with the thought of throwing it all in a dumpster," she said.

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Information from: The Dispatch, http://www.qconline.com