- Items 38 and 39 on the agenda provide a choice on how to move the historic train station near the CSX tracks at Martin Luther King Boulevard about two blocks north to Maple Avenue. Will they pay a company to dig below the two 19th century buildings, place steel beams beneath them, lift them up, and slowly transport them to the new location and set them on a concrete foundation? Or will they instead pay to place holes through the buildings’ walls no higher than four feet above the ground, and lift the buildings to transport them to the new site? Item 38 is a motion to dig out the building to lift it. Item 39 is a motion to put holes through the bricks. The decision will be preceded by a presentation by the city’s director of engineering, Rich Engle.
- Item 40, the last numbered item on the agenda, is a literal fill-in-the-blank motion, which is identified this way on the agenda: “Motion — To appoint __________ as a member of the City Council of Hamilton, Ohio for the remainder of the former Council Member Robert Brown’s term ending December 31, 2021.”
Mayor Pat Moeller and members of council have not revealed whom they are considering to fill the vacancy left by Brown’s retirement, but Moeller has said they likely will appoint someone very familiar with the council and ongoing city projects.
Brown recently retired from his company, Robert Brown Construction and told his council colleagues he wanted to spend more time with his wife, children, and grandchildren.
The train station was built by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad and a local history expert said it hosted visits by presidents Abraham Lincoln, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover.
Council this summer voted 5-2 to move both the station’s buildings.
Lincoln gave a speech near the station 162 years ago this Sept. 17. A historical marker in front of Hamilton’s city government tower at 345 High St. commemorates that event.
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