Looks like Belleville’s historic old train station may become a city museum in the future.
Mayor Mitch Panciuk and Director of Culture and Recreation Mark Fluhrer met with Via Rail officials in Belleville in December.
In the past few weeks, the city has begun the process toward possibly making a proposal to Via Rail, to take over the building on Station Street as a museum, on a lease arrangement.
Belleville Mayor Mitch Panciuk spoke to Quinte News Wednesday.
He said, “We want to see how much it would cost to fund it over a number of years, so we’ll look at it. We had a happy response from Via. They don’t want to see the building deteriorate.”
It would be a long term lease with Via, which Panciuk indicated would be “a small monetary token” and the city would do the renovations, look after operation, and maintenance.
Via is looking at a number of historic, unused train stations across the country with the idea of having them used as museum-type sites.
The city of St. Catharines has begun looking into the process for its old train station as well.
Panciuk envisions a City of Belleville museum with some overflow items from Glanmore National Museum.
He tells Quinte News that in the past week he has written a formal letter to Via Rail in Montreal to get the process underway.
Last summer when he was still a councillor, Panciuk told Quinte News, “It (the historic station) should not be allowed to deteriorate since it shares the history of the city and served at least two Prime Ministers of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald who worked at one time in Picton, and Belleville native Sir Mackenzie Bowell.”
