Española Mayor Joseph Maestas has been pushing for a railroad museum for many years. He finally has the initial funding ($400,000) to design and begin construction on the museum and he’s faced with a bevy of nay-sayers. It’s just never easy to get a project accomplished in this town.
Española is a railroad town. It’s here because of the railroad. The entire northern part of the state focused on Española in the first half of the last century because of the railroad. It is fitting that we erect a museum to celebrate and recognize the railroad’s contribution.
But it won’t be easy. And that’s what some councilors and administrators past and present are saying. Former manager Gus Cordova knew there would be the problem of upkeep and additional payroll and suggested some plaques and a non-staffed “museum.” That’s easy and cheap but not the right thing to do.
If we’re going to do this, we need to do it right. That’s not what we do here. The Bond House, Misíon y Convento and Oñate Center are good examples. They began with great intentions and they’re all underfunded, poorly managed, unmarketed and continual political footballs.
A letter from Pedro Urdemalas last week took some swipes at the buildings, their operations, contents and management and while some feelings were hurt, he has a point. Politicians tend to get buildings built or remodeled and don’t think about the future.
So if we’re going to build a railroad museum, what’s it going to cost to build? What will go into it? How much will the heating bill be and how many people will staff it? We can’t depend on a throng of tourists to pay enough to cover our expenses. The money has to come from somewhere else and as city councilor Danielle Duran pointed out to the mayor: “If you can’t find the money, then give it up because it’s not coming out of any other part of the budget.”
Rio Arriba County should have done that years ago with Emilio Naranjo’s Oñate Center. Emilio said more people would come visit it than visit Carlsbad Caverns. He was off by a few hundred thousand. The only people who visit the Center are those politically connected enough to be allowed to use it. Its costs are astronomical and its use is limited.
The budget for this year is $353,000, most of it payroll. Last year it cost taxpayers $332,000. Surely taxpayers don’t feel this is money well-spent. A railroad museum need not follow the same doomed business model.
The railroad museum has great potential to bring tourists here, tell part of Española’s history and be a center piece to the “historic plaza.” But it has to be done correctly and that means lots of money and the right people (not politicians) heading a board dedicated to filling the museum with proper period pieces, hiring a proper director (not a primo), maintaining regular hours and marketing it properly.
The right way to do that is take it out of the city’s hands and put it into a foundation. That eliminates the problems the Bond House, Convento and Oñate Center have suffered. To do that, the problem again becomes one of money. And Española is not the little engine that could when it comes to properly raising and spending money on projects. Look at our fountains, light sign and gazebo as evidence.
But a railroad museum can be built and operated correctly with the right engineer at the switches.