Commissioners get Cheney depot update

Cheney residents might notice something different in a couple weeks at the corner of 1st and I streets just south of downtown. Something will be missing — but its removal shouldn’t go unnoticed.

Historic Preservation Commission administrative assistant Sue Beeman told commissioners at their Feb. 7 meeting that a house located on property purchased by the Cheney Depot Society is scheduled to be demolished in a practice burn by Cheney’s fire department on Sunday, Feb. 17. The removal of the house signals the first sign of progress clearing the property and adjacent property next door formerly the home of Dow Landscaping, since the Society erected a sign on it in October 2017.

“Things seem to be moving,” Preservation Commission chair Dr. Charles Mutschler said. “Look for changes to be happening down there on the property.”

Beeman said the burn is contingent upon weather conditions. In a Feb. 12 email, Beeman said that the burn scheduled for Feb. 17 had been canceled until further notice.

“They (fire department) had concerns about the snow load on the roof, and about the extra hazards for firefighters due to water on frozen ground,” she said in the email.

Beeman told the commission that the process to get to this point has been “long and difficult,” involving multiple state agencies.

Not only did the depot, originally built by the Northern Pacific Railroad and currently owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, have to go through the state’s Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) historical significance process but so did the five-bedroom house built in 1908 on I Street and the former Union Oil Company property located next door at 1st and Union streets.

Union Oil operated the bulk fuel oil storage facility from 1929 –1997, after which it served as the location for Dow Landscaping until 2016 when the company moved to its current location further southwest on 1st Street. The Depot Society has been working with the owner, Sunshine Investments, on a donation of the 26,800-square-foot property.

Beeman said the state has determined there is no historical significance to the I Street house or the buildings on the Union Street property.

“We’re OK to demolish them all,” she said, adding that a completed environmental impact study on the Union Street property determined there were no underground storage tanks or contamination, but that the property should be sealed with a layer of clay and topped with soil before proceeding with any construction or installation of the depot.

The depot is currently located near BNSF tracks just east of 1st Street and College Avenue, and will have to be moved to the location on 1st Street.

“Things are moving and they’re about to become visible,” Mutschler added.

In other business, the commission gave its approval to a recommendation to include the Cossalman House on the Cheney Register of Historic Places. The home is located at 228 W. 5th St., and was the subject of a public hearing and nomination discussion at the commission’s meeting in July.

The home, in what is referred to as “The Big Pine Design,” was built in 1950 by James Cossalman, son of Cheney pioneers William Wallace and Mary Rebecca Cossalmn. William Cossalman established a dairy near Cheney and helped provide funding in 1898 to keep the State Normal School — now Eastern Washington University — operating after the Legislature failed to provide funding.

James Cossalman was a member of Cheney High School’s first graduating class in 1909 and operated the dairy until retirement.

The commission also agreed to look at some local projects that could be funded by the Certified Local Government Program grant. The program was established by the National Historic Preservation Act and is administered by the DAHP.

The program has granted an average of $100,000 during each of the past five years, with average distribution totaling $7,500. Beeman said Cheney hasn’t applied for a grant for several years, but that 2019 might be a good time to look at possible projects and apply since no matching funds are required.

Commissioner Scott Wilbanks asked if the city’s Sterling-Moorman House would be a possible project for funding, but Beeman said the grant is intended more for historic education.

“Sterling-Moorman wouldn’t fit, it’s (the grant) not for signage or bricks and mortar projects,” Beeman added.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].