What a Waste

When Lisa and I went grocery shopping tonight, one of the local weekly newspapers, the Leader-Courier, caught our eye and we bought it, because one of the front page stories was that the Fernley Preservation Society, which was formed to help save and restore the Fernley & Lassen Railroad Depot, was disbanding. The FPS helped save the depot (which was originally across the street from our house) and moved it to a new location away from the railroad on US-50A/95A. Large sums of money and vast amounts of volunteer hours were expended to restore the depot, and it looks beautiful. However, apparently the FPS and the City of Fernley (which owns the depot and the land under it) were never able to reach an agreement on operating the depot as a museum. The depot has never been open since we moved here. The City has asked the FPS to remove the artifacts, including rolling stock, on display at the site. The newspaper article had nothing about what the future holds for the F&L Depot, other than a note at the end saying city officials would like to partner with the Nevada State Railroad Museum to operate the depot.

We're very disappointed that it appears any chance of the F&L Depot being open to the public is far away. Lisa had wanted to volunteer and get involved, but now there's nothing with which to get involved.

Incidentally, this was also in effect the final issue of the Leader-Courier, which next week merges with another county weekly, the Mason Valley News. Such is the way of newspapers, particularly these small local (circulation ~4000) weeklies. On the other hand, these papers give us local news that we aren't likely to get any other way.