[October 28, 2016]      

Mayor Marty Neitzel, right, and Alderwoman Michelle Bauer hold up the new banner that will be placed on the construction site at the Lincoln Depot. The suggestion to put up a banner explaining that the depot is being renovated rather than torn down came to the city council several weeks ago.

Bauer said a constituent who rides the train on a regular basis had made the suggestion. He had told Bauer that for folks passing through town on the train it looks as though the depot is being torn down. He wanted those travelers to have the opportunity to know that the depot is being restored to its former beauty, so perhaps they will want to come back to Lincoln and see the finished work.

In the meantime, work is well underway this week, as roofers were on top of the building, ripping off the old shingles and putting on new ones. The windows are all out of the building right now, but they will return.

The bill for the restoration project is being footed by the Illinois High-Speed Rail program with the expected completion date to be mid-2017.

The building will belong to the city, and it will be at city discretion to determine what will go inside once the work is completed. One section of the building will be utilized as a waiting area by Amtrack, and the current little glass building will be taken down.

Included in the project are new parking areas on both sides of the track, a longer platform for taking passengers, and new landscaping that will preserve some of the items that already exist on the property, such as the watermelon statue and the circle bench around the tree on the south end of the property.

Pictures by Nila Smith & Karen Hargis