http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b4_3pburgjun09,0,3319357.story?coll=all-newslocal-hedInteresting story about the team trying to build a railroad museum in Phillipsburg. Rob

I was at the meeting Tuesday night. Phillipsburg has long been a Democratic town, but has had a Republic mayor for a while now. Essentially the mayor backs the museum and the town council (Democratic controlled) favors the housing project. I think Phillipsburg has given up on the museum and is looking for a gracious way out.The issue of potential attendence was interesting. Mention was made of Steamtown's declining attendence. More interesting was that the National Canal Museum, located in the same building as the Crayola "Factory" Museum across the bridge in Easton, gets less than 10% of the attendence of Crayola. One Council argued that if families won't go down a flight of stairs to the Canal Museum, why would they walk or drive 2 miles to this museum. Indeed, claims by the Friends that 200,000 people will visit just don't seem reasonable.I think the final chapter of the long running New Jersey Railroad Museum saga is being written as we speak.

Support (or lack there of) for heritage projects cuts across party lines - with notable figures on both sides variously lauding the benefits of heritage spending for tourist purposes or targeting it as government pork. The only thing any organization can do is to make friends with everyone and to focus on building the educational value of the endeavor and show how it provides multiple benefits to the area.Tom Cornillie