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DOT clears path to acquire Spaulding factory

Reprinted courtesy of The Grinnell-Herald Register March 10, 2003

With approval from the Department of Transportation, the board of the Iowa Transportation Museum cleared its final hurdle to proceed with the acquisition of the site for the proposed attraction-the former Spaulding buggy works, located at Fourth Ave. and Spring St. in Grinnell.

The project has attracted over three-quarters of a million dollars to date – funds which will pay for acquisition and stabilization of the historic property and for board development.

The full cost of the project said Gerry Schnepf, president of the museum board, in an appearance Monday, March 3, before the city council, will be “millions of dollars – not all at once, but spread over time.”

Schnepf and two other members of the ITM board – who received ceremonial keys to the city at the council meeting – were in town to announce clearance of the final regulatory hu8rdle on the property.

Mark Hudson, executive director of Imagine Grinnell – the local foundation which wrote the initial grant proposals for ITM funding, and which now shares its director with the project – said the acquisition would trigger a series of events that will make the museum a realty.

“The next step,” Hudson said last week, “will be discussing with local lending institutions the potential to find bridge funding…All our grants is reimbursement grants, so we need to set up credit in order to buy the properties. Then the city will apply to the DOT for reimbursement. There won’t be any financial responsibility for the city. The ITM will be responsible for all the initial funding and will be acquiring up-front funding and paying for the properties, and the city as a partner will be applying for reimbursement through the DOT…This is a big step for the ITM, primarily because it opens doors to a bunch of other big steps.”

Or, as Schnepf joked after saying that the acquisition would go forward last Monday, “That’s the good news. The bad new is, now we’re ready to proceed with the acquisition.”

“Get that facility tight and dry”

First and foremost among the steps cascading form the purchase, said Schnepf last Monday, will be the naming of the design, engineering and museum consultant that will work with the board on the project. “When the transfer takes place,” Hudson said, “that allows us to reach a contractual agreement with that consultant.” The selection of the firm has already been made, Hudson said.

After that, there are two simultaneous priorities. One is to stabilize the structures at the site – or, as Schnepf said, “get that facility tight and dry.”

The second said Hudson, would be bringing the ITM‘s board up to speed on issues of museum design and layout. The consultants, he said, “will establish a series of workshops for our board of directors, designed to educate them…When you think about it, how many people on the planet have built a museum from the ground up?”

Hudson praised the Iowa DOT’s work on the project. “They’ve been remarkable,” he said. “The last few processes we’ve been through, I received a day and a half turnaround on one request, and the other request…was four days. If you understand the amount of work the DOT has to do, that’s a remarkable turnaround time. We can’t thank them enough. They’ve done a wonderful job.”

The Dot is also helping the ITM reach agreements with the current tenants of the building. “A lot of folks don’t realize it, but those buildings are all being used for something.” Hudson said. “(The DOT) said they’d give us assistance in completing the tenant agreement process, which is another important step for us – and, if we did have to hire an independent consultant, it saves us a great deal of money as well. The department head in the relocation department thought, in this instance, this is something that’s not a common occurrence for the DOT – acquiring buildings for rehabilitation – and he thought it would be a very good exercise to get experience for people in his department as they branch out into more and more acquisitions. So he agreed to assist us in the process, and that will be an enormous amount of assistance, time-wise alone, saving several months in the process.”

“Weeks rather than months”

Of course, the ITM will have to go through all the processes – abstract, title opinions, and the like – that anyone would when acquiring property. “But we’ve drawn to the point where we can see it as being weeks rather than months,” Hudson said. “We’ve been waiting for nearly two years. It will be a lot more comforting to walk in and discuss the museum with people when you're talking about more that just a concept. Enhanced public perception is, I guess, the best way to put it.”

Earlier in Monday’s meeting, Schnepf waxed rhapsodic on the topic of locating the ITM on a site as historic as the Spaulding Carriage Works. He said the ITM board’s decision to locate in Grinnell was “fun for us and easy for us to make.”

“How could it not be the carriage works,” he added, “It’s already on the National Register (of Historic Places).”

Schnepf also lauded the partnership with the city, which he called “absolutely crucial for us,” and included Grinnell College as another “key partner.”

Schnepf told the council that 2003 marks the 90th anniversary of the Spaulding “Automobile Race Across Iowa” in 193, when Hal Wells climbed into a Spaulding roadster and “set out to race the Rock Island mail train across the state,” east to west. It took Wells 9 hours and 20 minutes to travel boarder to border.

“When he did that,” said Schnepf, “he beat the train by about 30 minutes,” Wells had to fix a broken spring and a flat tire along the way, but across one segment he was clocked at 84 mps, “He had to be a nut!” said Schnepf, reminding the council that there were no highways, and the roads available were largely graded by farmers.

“What a quality product to come out of Grinnell,” Schnepf said of the Spaulding roadster.

Schnepf told the council that the idea for the Iowa Transportation Museum originated in Ames and Iowa City, focused mainly on engineering interests.

As the project developed, it expanded to encompass the transportation heritage of the state and its contributions to the nation as well as the concept of moving not just people and commerce, but o moving ideas – “and here you are: an idea town.”

“People like (local pioneer aviator) Billy Robinson,” he said, “moved Iowa’s ideas across the nation. How did they moved? They got moved by transportation networks. That is the key to what we’re doing: from the “get-out-of-the-mud” concept to the speed of sound.”

He told representatives of the city that the project would need public involvement both locally and statewide, and that revenue-raising remains the challenge.

“There are two traits we’re going to need fro you. One is patience, and you’ve been good about that,” Schnepf said. “The other is enthusiasm, which is key.”

“We don’t want our focus to be only history as it was in the past, in essence looking out the rearview mirror,” he concluded. “Look ahead and join with us on this journey. Look ahead out the windshield to see what it can be, to see the vision of the future.”