The Waterville City Council meeting was held as scheduled with 6 counselors and Mayor LePage present. It was attended by a Morning Sentinel Reporter, and broadcast on local cable access. The room rapidly filled with about 25 attendees.


Prior to my introduction, the Mayor and several Counselors held up a file folder which was easily 1" thick, with hard copies of letters of support for preserving the 470, from all over North America. Besides me, Stephen Hussar and Brian Hebert, from Massachusetts's and New Hampshire were in attendance. Stephen provided some excellent graphics of well preserved locomotives from around the nation, including the recent housing of B&M 494 in Vermont, and the Nashville 4-8-4. I made my presentation regarding the 470 and the three possible courses of positive action developed for review. Everyone listened attentively while Stephen's photos were distributed. When the floor opened for discussion, 16 local people identified themselves as being present to lend support for putting the locomotive under cover and giving it a proper restoration. Speakers included several men who rode behind it 50 years ago, widows and adult grandchildren of retired railroad men, and two young boys, one about 14 years of age, who had already gathered and donated over $300 to the city, and a third grader who had taken it upon himself to write to the Mayor to request action, long before our proposal! It was firmly asserted that restoration would have to be done by qualified, locomotive restoration personnel, and not city personnel or local people meaning well. All restoration would be monitored by appointed individuals who represented the City and concerned railroad preservationists.

In conclusion, it was concurred that the City would form a Committee including city designees and members of the concerned public, to review the options and make a recommendation to the Council. Once the recommendation was decided upon, the Council would determine the best manner in which to access funding to carryout the plans. No disassembly or actions would be taken until funding resources were secured from outside the city budget. Not one negative comment was made from the community or the Council.

As the meeting broke up, one Counselor told me that the presentation left her tearful and ashamed of how their predecessor had allowed the locomotive to fall on hard times. Another pledged to secure grants in any way available to get this job done.

A short list of volunteers with railroad employment or preservation interest from the gallery amounted to about 12 individuals. The City Counselors will convene a meeting of these individuals in the near future, and we'll go forward from that time.

I came away feeling assured that we can expect action towards meeting the goal of preserving the locomotive. I will continue to be part of the ongoing discussions.

I cannot offer enough praise to those individuals who took the time to write a letter and make the City of Waterville aware of the treasure in their front yard. Emails made a huge impact on the governing body. We will try to live up to your good wishes and good will.

I invite other comments on the context of the meeting from other attendees.

Congratulations, Richard. This is a tremendous story and when we finally meet trakside, you'll get a well deserved hand shake. I wrote the Mayor yesterday, simply to make the points that Waterville should be commended for their interest, you should be commended for your action, and that I'll happily join the list of out of state contributors when the fund raising portion kicks in.

All the best,

Rob

Rob, taht part, the actual acquisition of funds will follow after we identify a plan of action. Up front, I want to thank you for offering a donation at the start. I'll let people know when they can be contributors on a financial basis.

I'll go out on a limb and say, anyone wishing to send a contribution to the project can do so by addressing donations to:

470 Restoration Fund
C/O City Council
City Hall
Waterville, Maine 04901

Indicate that your contribution is to be applied soley to restoration and sheltering, and refurbishment of the locomotive.

To all; Richard did a fantastic job at this meeting. As preservationists we could not ask for a finer representative!

In addition to CSRR's Brian Hebert, Leverett Fernald, from the Belfast & Moosehead Lake RR was also in attendance and offered his support.

One shining moment came at the conclusion of Richard's comments. He asked for a show of hands to see how many attendees had come to the meeting because of the 470. Brian and I were amazed when we raised our hands and turned around to see nearly everyone else in the hall with their hands raised too.

Roxanne Eflin, from Maine Preservation also came through with a very strong letter of support, which she sent to the mayor.

And a big thanks to everyone who supplied photos toward this effort, it helped!

Nice job last night Richard. Now we just have to keep the ball rolling.
I'm looking foreward to returning to Waterville and help construct 470s bright future.
Thanks also to EVERYONE who e-mailed the mayor of Waterville and the city councel. It made a huge impact on the evenings agenda.

Brian