By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com

A petition bearing the names of 103 donors who contributed to the planned renovations to the historic Depot building in downtown Sanford was presented to the city council Tuesday, with the petitioners asking the city to honor the agreement it made with those who made monetary contributions five years ago to restore the building to its original appearance and convert into a Welcome Center and offices for Downtown Sanford Inc.

At least a dozen of those who had given for the restorations were on hand, some expressing feelings of betrayal by the city’s apparent unwillingness to reaffirm a commitment made as far back as 2019 when the city’s nonprofit arm solicited funding for the restorations with an understanding that the refurbished structure would again be returned for use by DSI and Visit Sanford, with the aim of the latter housing a Welcome Center within the building.

The item was not on the council’s agenda Tuesday but came up during the public comment period. Faye Cress, one of the original private donors for the project, was the first of three to speak to the council.

Cress said she donated to the project “with excitement and anticipation.” When she inquired last year about the status of the renovations, she said was told it would be looked into.

“So, imagine my concern,” she said, “when I heard a rumor that a decision was made to place the Welcome Center in an old building on Carthage Street.”

The petition says that use of the structure, after restoration work, was what they had agreed to when they chose to financially support the project, and that “this use, and only this use, is what was presented to them and contributors would be falsely represented if the City decides to use the building for anything other that a Welcome Center, their offices, and the offices of Downtown Sanford.”

Cress came with more than a signed petition having a list of names. She also provided the council with copies of newspaper articles from October of 2019 and April of 2021 that document dinner and picnicking events held in Depot Park for the purpose of raising money for the restorations.

Those articles indicate the sponsoring organization for the events was The Friends of Sanford, a 501c3 nonprofit set up by the city “to allow the public to have a voice in Sanford’s growth.” In the Rant’s coverage of the Depot fundraiser from 2019, prospective donors were directed to the Friends of Sanford website, which still describes the renovations as being for the purpose of “a state-of-the-art welcome center.” It’s unclear when that website was last updated.

Also speaking was retired physician Dr. Dean Kesler, who told the council he gave money for the community-based effort in 2019 and that he used funds from his 401-K retirement account for the contribution. Kesler spoke about the historical significance of the entire site that is home, in addition to the Depot, to the restored railroad trail and Depot Park that is the center of so many community gatherings. He said that for him, it’s the only place where the Welcome Center should be.

Dargan Moore spoke as a resident who lives outside the city limits but also as one who helped to raise the private money designated for the project. Holding one of the original solicitation brochures used when the campaign began in 2019, Moore said it was the council’s interest in keeping the building to its current uses that got him involved, and he spoke of a similar effort with broad community support, the overhaul of Chatham Street frontage near the Depot almost 20 years ago, that succeeded by keeping its focus on the shared vision and goals.

The city council reserved $703,000 from its total allocation of $9.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to renovate the building in November of 2022. Federal regulations that spelled out the fine details on how those dollars could be expended were broadly drawn up so cities and counties would have broad latitude in using them to address issues within their own communities that had been impacted by COVID-19, and it could take federal auditors years to examine every transaction of the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package to see whether each expenditure matches up with the intent of the legislation.

Another potential issue is the $500,000 in State Capital Infrastructure Funds that were approved by the state legislature for the project through the work of Republican state Rep. John Sauls of Sanford. SCIF funds are supported from the state’s general fund, allowing for “pay as you go” funding for projects directed through the legislative process. If those funds were to be repurposed by the city for something besides the Visit Sanford and DSI relocations, state-level approvals would have to be sought.

The Depot had been closed by early fall of 2023 so the process of readying the structure for the restorations could get started. Visit Sanford moved out in April and DSI was gone before July 1.

The city had been working with an architect, Traub Architecture and Design of Henderson, since 2022 to draw up plans for how the restoration might look. On January 24, 2023, owner Jerry Traub met with the council during a workshop session for an interactive discussion on what the best look for the city might be. A preliminary review found that the building had significant issues that had to be addressed if it was to be rehabilitated, particularly with water damage beneath the flooring.

The minutes of that meeting reflect that a discussion broke out about other possible uses of the building instead of the relocations of DSI and Visit Sanford. There was talk of using the space so school children “could review local history firsthand,” either separately or in conjunction with the Railroad Museum a few yards away. Another suggested those educational purposes could include museum-type artifacts.

What the minutes do not reflect, though, is any discussion of the agreement made with the contributors who had given to support the restoration with the caveat that the building would revert back to DSI and Visit Sanford usage.

City council workshops are not usually well-attended by the public because they are typically discussions on a handful of topics that the council will be faced with in the near future, and so it is possible that word of the discussion about other possible uses for the space didn’t filter outside of the room for weeks or even months. Few people go online after the minutes of a meeting or workshop are approved to see what their municipal government is doing.

But word eventually did get out. And that’s what has left the 103 people who signed the petition that was presented to the city council on Tuesday, along with undoubtedly many others who contributed in some fashion, with a bad taste in their mouths.

For many of those who made significant contributions based on what they thought the city had agreed to, the sight of a nondescript brick building on Carthage Street building as the new location for Visit Sanford and DSI, at least temporarily, is hard to take. Cress used the imagery of isolation from the heart of the city’s downtown jewels as a lament for the way the donors feel they are getting a stiff arm from the city council.

“And there it is today,” she said. “No parking, no visibility, nothing to draw a visitor in to garner information about Sanford and Lee County. Is this the first step in trying to get the public to forget the commitment made in 2019?”