Colfax Railroad Museum receives AnnMarie Foundation grant for train shows
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax Railroad Museum has received a grant from the AnnMarie Foundation for over $3,000 to buy 30 tables for displays at model train shows.
The Martin Anderson Gymnasium at Colfax High School would be a good place for a model train show during the FFA Alumni’s Farm Toy Show in February, said Herb Sakalaucks Jr., curator of the railroad museum, at the Colfax Village Board’s July 25 meeting.
Sakalaucks said he has had conversations with FFA Alumni members about adding the train show in the Martin Anderson gym during the farm toy show.
The model trains and the farm toys are similar in size, and there are people who would be interested in both, he said.
The Rassbach Museum in Menomonie also is considering hosting a train show, Sakalaucks said.
The Colfax Railroad Museum is thinking about doing a flea market as well for the larger ride-on trains, he said.
“There is nothing like it in the Midwest,” Sakalaucks said.
ARPA
The Colfax Railroad Museum applied for a grant administered by the state of Wisconsin using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act for tourism infrastructure to build a roof over all of the rolling stock, Sakalaucks said.
The project would have kept the rolling stock covered and would have provided shelter from the elements for people touring the museum and would have made the rolling stock handicapped accessible, he said.
The museum was turned down for the grant, but in reviewing the grant scoring process, “things did not seem quite kosher,” Sakalaucks said.
The Wisconsin Department of Administration was not forthright on the evaluations of the grant applications, and many inconsistencies were discovered, Sakalaucks said.
A festival in Prairie du Chien, for example, wanted the money for payroll and to install picnic tables for $3,000 to $6,000 each, he said.
Shovel ready
The grant application also wanted “shovel ready” projects.
Sakalaucks said a contractor was lined up and ready to go just as soon as the Colfax Railroad Museum received the funds while other grant applications would not be ready for construction until six or nine months out, Sakalaucks said.
The railroad museum received half-credit for being shovel ready with a contractor ready to start work right away while the other projects that were six to nine months out on construction received full credit for being shovel ready, he said.
The roof over the rolling stock would save considerable time and money on maintenance of the museum’s displays because of the shelter from the elements, but the railroad museum’s grant application only received half-credit for the effort at cost savings for the museum’s operational costs, Sakalaucks said.
The Department of Administration sent a letter stating that there had been no errors in scoring the grant applications, he said.
The grant money also was only supposed to benefit non-profit organizations, but the DOA did not ask for proof of non-profit status on the grant applications, Sakalaucks noted.
Sakalaucks said he has been in contact with the governor’s office about the errors in the scoring of grant applications, and the railroad museum may yet be eligible for some of the grant funding.
Interns
Work has been going well on cataloging the railroad museum’s library and archives, Sakalaucks said.
The Colfax Railroad Museum has been working with interns from UW-Eau Claire, and the seventh or eighth intern will be starting September 1, he said.
The UW-Eau Claire history degree requires an internship in a real-word application for history, and the Colfax Railroad Museum is the closest and most-flexible opportunity for history interns, Sakalaucks said.
The museum is able to give actual job training for students working toward a degree in history, he said.