I walked into a lively discussion the other day regarding the community I once called home... Chillicothe, Ohio. I follow the goings on there primarily because my mother and two of my siblings still live there. In one sense I feel as if I am qualified to make comments regarding some of the goings on, in another, I wonder if by living a thousand miles away I am becoming a buttinski.
At issue in this particular discussion is the disposition of Chillicothe's railroad station. One of my regular Facebook friends has wondered why something hasn't been done to restore the station, perhaps making it into a neat restaurant of some sort.
Sounds like a good idea, until one realizes that the promise of restoration on a grand scale has been tried before in several locations with sometimes less than promising results. The finger of blame need not be pointed at any one person or any one group. There have been valiant effort made by people like Bob Etling and David Moore to do work on the Warner Hotel and the Majestic Theater, respectively. From what I have observed on both of those places is that while some of the basic needs of the buildings were met, there ended up being more to the restoration process than was initially anticipated, meaning that some projects tend to get pushed off to the side while more money is generated to push the projects ahead.
There in a nutshell is what is probably going on with the railroad station. The owner needs to generate money with which to move ahead with the restoration of the building in order to attract a tennant who will give the owner a decent return on his investment. Buttinskis like me can sit in our suburban Dallas homes and suggest solutions to a group of interested people who will camp out on the internet and make even more suggestions as to how to solve the problem.
In the meantime, there are a couple of other "grand" projects which need attention... the Carlisle Building in Downtown and the former High School/Junior High School over on Arch Street. Where should the investment be made, or more importantly, how should the investment be made?
Let me shift some attention to a couple of places I have visited in the past couple of months here in the State of Texas. Last Saturday (July 30th) the wife and I met with a lovely couple in a neat little English Pub called Churchill's in Downtown McKinney, Texas. Downtown McKinney is a bustling place with several blocks of shops and restaurants which seem to attract a lively crowd. Now, when I arrived here in North Texas thirteen years ago, McKinney wasn't quite as bustling. It took a number of years and a number of people willing to make an investment to make downtown become an attraction in and of itself. Despite the flood of McRestaurants a few miles to the west along the freeway, the downtown establishments were doing quite well for themselves despite the drought and despite triple digit temperatures. Two weeks earlier, the lovely Miss Carol and I went to Fredricksburg, Texas... a good hour's drive out of San Antonio. Smaller than Chillicothe and doing a land-office business, again, despite a drought and a heat wave.
Both Fredricksburg and McKinney came alive in part because of cooperation and a concerted effort by the people investing in those towns to build something which would attract tourists. Those are only two examples of building a successful downtown here in Texas. There are other examples I have seen or have heard of where people have banded together to make a difference.
It was all done in little baby steps.
Sure, there were focal points - The Nimitz museum in Fredricksburg and the old courthouse in McKinney - and the focal points helped. Chillicothe has one heck of a focal point in Tecumseh, thanks in large part to the vision and hard work of the late "Rusty" Mundell. What is needed now is for more visionaries to come forward and take advantage of that focal point, to take some baby steps and to start inviting that couple from Dayton to come down and stay for another day or two, or to convince the family in Pittsburgh that there is life here in Southern Ohio.
Yes, there are people who are going to feel left out because a particular pet project of theirs might be getting the short end of the stick for a while or who won't participate in an effort unless the effort massages their egos. Yes, some of the people who decide to come in and make an investment will lose their asses. But if there is a concerted effort, if a viable master plan can be made and the plan is followed through, there will be brighter days ahead for Ohio's first capital.
At least that's what this buttinski thinks.
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