Grants set renovation of rail station on track

By D.a. Wilkinson

The county has old bricks that may be recycled to match bricks at the station.

LISBON — The renovation of the former Pittsburgh, Marion & Chicago Railroad Station here is a go.

Columbiana County Engineer Bert Dawson said Thursday that bids will be opened on Feb. 11 and work could begin in March.

“We want to get going right away,” Dawson said. Work could be completed in six to nine months, he added.

For several years, the engineer has been searching for grant funds to renovate the former train station located on South Market Street.

He eventually obtained $778,961 in grants.

His plan was and is to turn the station into a starting point for the Little Beaver Creek Greenway Trail.

The paved trail runs north from Lisbon to Mahoning County. The trail, like the rail line, does not go south of the village.

The official ending of the trail in Lisbon now consists of a few parking spaces and portable restrooms. It’s a short distance from the station.

But Dawson said he has been told as many as 600 people use the trail on weekends in warmer weather. Many people park in the nearby engineer’s office parking lots on the weekends, he added.

The project also will include creation of more parking space at the site.

The station will get the works when it comes to modernization. A storage area behind the station will be rebuilt. Dawson said work would create restrooms and covered picnic tables. Rooms in the station also could be used for various purposes.

Dawson said he expects to get good bid prices since few contractors have jobs during the economic downturn.

“No one is building anything,” he said.

The project also may help recycle part of the county’s fabric. Dawson said that should workmen need extra red bricks to repair the structure, there is a local supply. The engineer said there are bricks at the abandoned and crumbling buildings at the closed county home west of Lisbon that match the bricks at the station.

Commissioner Jim Hoppel stressed that all the funds involved are from grants and no county money is involved. The project, he noted, had been on the back shelf for quite some time.

Dawson said there will likely be some sort of ceremony when the project is completed.

wilkinson@vindy.com