Petaluma's historic riverfront trestle continues to deteriorate at an alarming pace. Despite the undisputable fact that urgent rehabilitation of this vital riverfront feature is unanimously supported, community-wide, the City's year-old, final submission action plan seems to have more of less dropped off the trestle's edge and out of public view.
In an effort to salvage dwindling efforts for grant fundraising advocacy, an energetic; new grassroots effort is currently mounting to save the rotting trestle from crumbling into obscurity.
Motivation for this grassroots campaign stems from a sense of growing frustration within the community with regard to stalled progress in fundraising following an initial half a million dollars of Coastal Conservancy grant money that was designated to kick-start the campaign in 2010.
Christopher Stevick, impassioned preservationist, Managing Director of the Petaluma Trolley Living History Museum (and one of the city's celebrated 'Good Eggs'), is reaching out for public support to save the one spot in historic downtown that tells the story of Petaluma.
Chris hopes to rally enthusiasm from: "The people who understand that the trestle as a symbol of Petaluma's history is not only savable but worth saving." He believes, that given a potential nationwide spotlight, monumental rehabilitation of The Petaluma Trestle could well be completed within the next two years. "What would in effect, be salvaged and transformed into an outstanding 12 to 15,000 square foot riverfront park, would show the country that Petaluma knows how to take care of itself," he said.
Look out along the river's edge in coming days and weeks for a lively and colorful, visually motivational, Petaluma-centric 'This Place Matters Campaign', bolstered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (a high profile, dynamic, privately funded nonprofit organization that works to save America's historic places). Better yet, pitch in to help human-power this non-political grassroots campaign, designed to reclaim, in part, dwindling civic fundraising efforts for a beloved public space.
Volunteers from all walks of Petaluma life are invited to gather at The Living History Railway Museum's Yellow Barn at 110 Bayless Street at 10 am on Saturday, March 1st to help in the construction of red and white banners depicting This Place Matters. A show of support for the campaign will take place along the riverfront on Sunday, March 9th.
"So many in the community want to see this project come to fruition," commented Historian Katherine Rinehart, whose extensive knowledge on the riverfront district was utilized by the City in its early development of an educational installation to be featured in the proposed $5 million rehabilitation/reconstruction of the area.
Katherine recognizes the City's struggle to find substantial funding in one of the most dismal economic periods in the city's history. "The project is at a bit of a standstill right now," she said. Funding, however, she does believe: "Could come from people who support recreation, historic preservation, transportation, birding, and more."
The rehabilitation design does account for the fact that a trolley may return to run on the historic trestle at some point in the future, though the trolley project (spearheaded by Stevick's Petaluma Trolley and Living History Museum) is separate from the trestle project.
Petaluma's Guiding Principals in its General Plan call for the enhancement of the Petaluma River Corridor, while providing access, recreational and entertainment opportunities. It's policies to maintain landmarks and aspects of Petaluma's heritage, fostering its unique identity might have been written for the Trestle. Guidelines to reinforce the industrial character of the city by adaptively reusing and preserving landmarks such as this, to establish an interconnected system of public spaces along the river and a pedestrian orientated promenade around the Turning Basin, are a part of the City's Historical and Cultural Preservation Committee's mantra. But how many years it will take to implement this aquatic vision, remains a bit of a mystery.
In a brief statement (at short notice) by Diane Ramirez, Project Manager for The Petaluma Trestle Rehabilitation, The City's Public Works and Utilities Department officer agreed that the project is stalled: "The engineer's construction estimate provided as part of the design project was approximately five million. To my knowledge we do not have that amount of money available to allocate to the rehabilitation project," she said. She suggested that community involvement could take many forms, coverage, hopefully, for a follow up post.
In the meantime, a This Place Matters campaign could be just the ticket to put this urgent, gaping hole of a problem in the heart of Petaluma, back on top of the podium. For more information call 707 778 7878.
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