By JOHN EBY
Dowagiac Daily News

Ron Leatz has warned city officials for months that keeping Amtrak trains stopping in the depot is endangered, but there was new urgency Monday night.

Especially after he advised City Council that Dowagiac will be at the end of the line across Michigan for a wheelchair lift since it owns the lowest ridership of 17 stations.

Niles already has such a lift.

“The station’s been closed for eight weeks. It’s open from 8:30 to 5, Monday-Friday, and it serves 10 trains a week. We have 28 trains a week. That means we cover approximately one third of the trains that come into town. I’ve been told not to open it up on weekends and holidays. Friday night we had 12 people get off the train from Chicago. We should be handing out Chamber of Commerce brochures, which say Sister Lakes on Dowagiac’s. They’re not staying in Dowagiac, but if we could get them to have lunch or dinner here before they go to Sister Lakes … we’re missing a great big boat by doing nothing about it.”

Next year, Leatz added, “We’re going to ticketless travel. It’s only 14 miles to Niles. There is no contract with the City of Dowagiac to have an Amtrak station here. Whoever was in charge in 1975 didn’t cross the t’s and dot the i’s.

“If the city doesn’t want the station and doesn’t want to open it up to Amtrak passengers, this train will go through town at 95 mph, and after the fiber optics and positive train controls, at 110 mph.

“And everyone from this community will go to Niles to get on the train. It’s up to you people if you want an Amtrak depot here.”

Leatz also reminded the council that only a third of the depot is dedicated to train service, with the rest occupied by the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Development Authority and Dial-A-Ride Transit.

“We have worked free of charge to the city to clean it, to paint both restrooms. We got the city to find some old flower pots out at the sewage treatment plant and Town and Country Garden Club planted them. There’s a metal bench out there.

“I helped turn the view from this side of the depot to the 100 to 500 to 800 people on the train. That’s their impression of Dowagiac if they do not get off the train, what they see. Judd Lumber cleaned up along the fence and it doesn’t look bad all the way down past Ameriwood to Division. It looks very respectable compared to a lot of towns.”

However, Leatz cautioned, the Michigan Department of Transportation July 1 started the wheelchair lift program.

“Unfortunately, we will be the last station in Michigan. Why? Mainly because we have the lowest ridership of any of the 17 stations. By the end of this month (MDOT) should be done going to the stations that already have lifts,” including Bangor and Kalamazoo.

“Then they’ll start new installations. We could be next summer getting a lift, so we cannot have handicapped people get on or off the train.”

Leatz launched a project called “Light Up the Depot” which, ironically given the tremendous popularity of the Christmas parade, proved so far to be a “flop” except for the garden club’s $200 donation Wednesday night.

“My idea was to put Christmas lights on the depot,” he said.

Wolverine Mutual Insurance Co. paid $250 to print donation envelopes, of which 2,500 have been distributed around town.

“We haven’t even collected enough money to put up two lightbulbs,” Leatz said.
“It’s up to the community if they want to make this be something now that the fire station’s gone and you can see the depot better. I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not.”