Current conditions unavailable
Washington state Department of Commerce officials have awarded a $150,000 grant to fund the replacement of the roof on the old Chehalis Train Depot, which for over half a century now has housed the Lewis County Historical Museum and the Lewis County Historical Society.
The building, located at 599 NW Front Way in downtown Chehalis, was originally constructed by the Northern Pacific Railway in 1912.
Lewis County officials in attendance at the Lewis County Historical Society Board of Directors meeting at the museum on Tuesday, Sept. 1, announced the approval of the grant.
County officials in attendance included Budget and Risk Administrator Becky Butler, Capital Infrastructure Specialist Matt Patana and Commissioner Lindsey Pollock.
However, grant approval wasn’t all that was announced, as the grant approval had a stipulation. That stipulation is whoever the leaseholder is of the building with the replaced roof must enter into a new 10-year lease.
At Tuesday’s meeting, county officials proposed the historical society enter into a new 10-year lease with the museum’s property owner, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway.
County officials asked the Lewis County Historical Society Board of Directors to consider their proposal and come back with a decision within the next 30 days.
“We currently have a year-by-year lease since, it was 1975, I believe,” Butler said. “If that was an opportunity for the historical society to be in a direct lease with Burlington Northern — they did not want to entertain that originally in the 70s — but now that you’re established, they are willing. They confirmed that they would be willing to do direct lease with the historical society. We’ve confirmed with Commerce, who’s the grantor, that they would also turn the grant over to the historical society and the county would stay on as the fiscal agent of the grant. So, there was no risk of losing those funds.”
Butler added the county currently supports operations and maintenance at the museum through tourism funds to the tune of around $54,000 annually, which includes insuring the museum through the county’s insurance risk pool, costing $7,746 a year.
Patana stated that, with recent changes in laws, the county is now paying higher insurance rates. Additionally, since the county leases the building and it's not a government building, they are paying property taxes on it, totalling an estimated $6,100 in 2026.
Should the Lewis County Historical Society become the direct lessee with BNSF, it will then be responsible for insuring the building and paying property taxes.
Butler, Patana and Pollock all stressed that this was simply a proposal, and if the historical society decided against it, the county would continue operating as the lessee with BNSF and supporting the museum.
“The agreement is already in place through the end of this year under the county for those costs, the insurance, the taxes, facilities … But we’re kind of at this breaking point with proceeding with the grant. Either the county goes with the lease, or the historical society goes with the lease and we manage the grant on your behalf,” Butler said.
Lewis County Historical Society Board President Peter Lahmann stated he understood how both Commerce and BNSF would prefer a 10-year lease, but felt like it was an attempt by the county at “stepping away” from their partnership with the historical society.
“And somewhere in our archives, we’ve got the original agreement that says if something happens to the historical society, all this stuff belongs to the county,” Lahmann added. “... And I’m thankful for the county, I’m thankful for the City of Chehalis. The City of Centralia, I could be more thankful, but if it wasn’t for you guys, this place wouldn’t exist. It almost sounds like, from this discussion, ‘do we really want to go forward?'"
The county officials maintained that was not the case.
“It’s a surprise there’s the perception of ‘walking away.’ My perspective is, generally, most everybody’s capable of operating on a much faster timeline than the county,” Pollock said. “... You guys contracting with the railroad would be a much faster process. You’d probably be into the roof repair before the rainy season. Just the way we operate, it takes that much longer.”
While the historical society board members did express the desire to be self-sustaining in running the Lewis County Historical Museum, the general prevailing stance was opposition to the county’s proposal, as they believed they were not currently in a good enough financial position to do so.
One of the factors giving the historical society pause is that it is still recovering from former museum Executive Director Debbie Knapp’s embezzlement of $460,000 from the museum’s endowment fund in 2011. During that time, county officials approved additional funding on top of their existing support to help the museum start the recovery process, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
“Our goal is to become self-susustaining,” Lewis County Historical Society Board Member Van Wedam said. “That goal seems impossible right now, but we might get there.”
Lewis County Historical Society Board member John Six, also currently serving on the Chehalis City Council, stated his reservations about the proposal stemmed from the historical society having trouble applying for grant funding in the future.
“Because the county is the largest contributor — and it’s via LTAC (Lodging Tax Advisory Committee), I understand. The problem I see is if we disassociate from each other, and we now just come in and are applying on our own, we are more in the running with everybody else,” Six said.
Another board member, Chris Brewer, Centralia’s mayor, stated he could understand where county officials were coming from. He also admitted he wished Centralia could offer more financial support to the museum at the moment, but couldn’t — given the city’s own LTAC fund shortages after three local hotels were converted into mixed apartment complexes starting in 2023, reducing the amount of lodging taxes being collected.
On top of losing a drastic amount of hotel room rental tax revenue, he added Centralia is currently strapped for LTAC funds as it is paying off bonded debt on both the Fort Borst Park Sports Complex and the Centralia Historic Fox Theatre.
“Everybody feels the crunch. The cost of insurance goes up, the cost of personnel goes up everywhere. Government feels it, and citizens are the ones who ultimately feel it,” Brewer said.
As for the Commerce grant itself, county officials stated they have until June 2027 to use the money to pay for a contractor to replace the roof. Lahmann stated the Lewis County Historical Society Board of Directors would consider the county’s proposal.
“I don’t think there are any museums that turn a profit. This is about the county’s history, and there’s a price to pay to keep that, and I think everybody in this county needs to be aware of that,” Lewis County Historical Society Board Vice President Doug Peterson said.
“I’m sure this will be a hot topic at our next meeting,” Lahmann added.
The Lewis County Historical Society Board of Directors’ next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 15.
