LARGO – One of the city’s most popular attractions
is facing financial problems and a city commissioner wants the city
to come to its rescue.
Warren Jamison, president of the
small-gauge railroad in Largo Central Park, wrote to commissioners
Jan. 15 and said that “It is getting increasingly difficult for us
(to) maintain our operation on donations and birthdays alone ... The
birthday and public run days only brought an income of $28,000 (last
year).”
The railroad entertains from 2,000 to 3,000
passengers each time it is open to the public, one weekend a-month,
according to its records. Hundreds more are carried at the private
parties it runs for $100 an hour.
The railroad was created in
1991 with an engine donated by Jack Eckerd, founder of Eckerd Drug
Store, and steel track bought by three members of the Florida Live
Steamers, a club for aficionados. It has grown to three miles of
track, yards and switches. The club members have built a bridge and
tunnel for the train to traverse.
Jamison said the tunnel
alone cost the club $35,000.
“The city helped us with some of
the cost of the tunnel, provided funds to turn a shelter into a
station and recently provided $2,000 toward our insurance,” Jamison
said.
The railroad now has five engines, two more of them
also donated by Eckerd and the club bought a $7,000 locomotive in
2001. Last year the club bought another one for $14,300.
The
rolling stock is all “long-since past their life expectancy”
according to Jamison, and is constantly under repair or rebuilding
to continue operating. At this time, he said, only one of the club’s
engines is available for use as the others are under
repair.
“We are finding it difficult to maintain the level of
public service that we have in the past,” Jamison wrote.
Some
of the rising expenses have been caused by the city, he added,
requiring the club to install new “grade crossings” where the city
had installed new sidewalks.
“Of immediate concern to me is
that the members of Largo Central Railroad, themselves, have made up
the funding difference in expenses and revenue,” Commissioner Mary
Gray Black said. “As there is no charge to the public for the
weekend runs, it is my recommendation that LCR (Largo Central
Railroad) be reimbursed for its service to the extent of the
difference in expense and revenue.”
Black has further
suggested that the city budget some operating expenses for this “all
time extremely popular, good, clean, family fun activity at Largo
Central Park.”
She has asked that the club be invited to a
city commission meeting to formally request city money.
