APPROVED: GRANT TO RESTORE #18

After years of delays, piles of paperwork, and countless hours of meetings, the California Transportation Commission has given final approval to our project and authrorized the expenditure of funds for the first part of the first phase of the project.

The Project Plan includes building a larger display area for the locomotive, erecting the newly acquired Restoration building, erecting an exhibit area with public restrooms and a gift shop, parking, and fenced storage areas for construction materials and railroad equipment.

The major funding for the project comes out of a portion of Federal Highway funds set aside for Transportation Enhancemnet (TE). One of the allowable activities under the TE program is the establishment of transportation museums or adding a transportation wing to an existing facility. To meet the eligibility requirements for being a museum, our nw display facility will funciton under the auspices of the Eastern California (ECM), but will be operated by the CCRW organization. It will be known as the Eastern California Railroad History Center.

TE projects are basically organized the same way that the federal highway building projects are organized. They begin with various types of environmental studies of the proposed project site and the preparation of the documents that report the findings and recommedations from those studies. When those documents have been approved by Caltrans, funding becomes available to develop the engineering plans and specifications for the project. Next, contracts for construction are developed. Then, the Right-of-Way work that provides access to the project site through purchase, lease or condemnation begins. When the construction contracts and the right-of-way documents are approved by Caltrans, funding is authorized for construction and the contracts are put out for bid.

TE projects must be completed by July 1 of the fifth year after the federal fiscal year (October 1 and ends on September 30) in which the California Transportation Commission (CTC( authorized funding to begin the project. That means that all reimbursable construction work on our project to restore #18 has to be completed on or before June 30, 2012. It is legal to ask for an extension of the deadline, but the response from CTC to extension requests is basically "No", "No", and "No".

Good news is often trampled by surrounding events, and this project will be no exception to that generality. After a big sigh of relief that the project in finally funded, we'll have to take a dep breath and get busy because this project is not going to be easy. It's going to be difficult to make this project work well with the amount of money that was awarded to the project and with the time that we have available. It's going to take a lot of work, and a lot of help, from a lot of people, stretched out over a fairly long time.

By the time we open our doors to the public, we may have brought new meaning to the slogan "The Little Engine That Could!"

Our many thank go out to Bob Ennis for his tireless work on obtaining this Grant. Our succsss is due to both his ability and tenacity. Thank you, Bob!