San Bernardino City Councilwoman Virginia Marquez was getting many phone calls from residents in her district, concerned about the painting of the depot. She arranged for a public meeting with Duane Baker, Director of Management Services at SANBAG. The public meeting was for the Alessandro Neighborhood Assn. [www.wix.com] and interested citizens. The San Bernardino History & RR Museum hosted the meeting Friday night inside the Santa Fe San Bernardino Depot. SANBAG is the San Bernardino Associated Governments [www.sanbag.ca.gov] SANBAG and the City of San Bernardino jointly own the Santa Fe San Bernardino Depot.

Mr. Baker stated that SANBAG had been dealing with the State Office of Historic Preservation, and was in full compliance with Section 106, of the National Historic Preservation Act. Mr. Baker stated that the funding for the work was from a grant made by the Federal Transit Administration. However, it was learned that the work being done is to add pigment coloring to a coating, to be applied to the shotcrete exterior, of the Santa Fe San Bernardino Depot. Mr. Baker stated that laboratory tests of sample shotcrete, removed from the depot, indicated that long ago there was a tan coloring mixed with the original shotcrete, when it was applied during construction in 1918. A sample of the colored coating has been sprayed, on an inward facing exterior wall, of one portico area as a test. This is inside the patio/garden area on the northeast end of the depot, where the Fred Harvey Restaurant and dorm rooms are. The sample was sprayed onto the inside, south facing wall and arch. Mr. Baker stated that sample light tan/cement grey color was determined to be the correct original color for the depot's shotcrete exterior walls.

Mr. Baker explained that the material being sprayed on is a protective coating, in compliance with the historic nature of the building. He stressed that the coating is not paint, as many of us had previously believed. Mr. Baker stated that the contractor was cleaning the shotcrete by power washing, and will be patching cracks in the shotcrete, before the protective coating will be applied.

The contractor is Spectra Company [www.spectracompany.com] The Spectra Company was hired for $477,000.00 to do the job. The Spectra Company was the next lowest bidder, of three bidders. The Spectra Company was chosen because of more experience with historic preservation, than the lowest bidder.

However, the contract does not include the necessary repairs to the depot's Spanish tile roof, nor repairs to the rain gutters, downspouts, drainage, nor quality repairs to the metal and woodwork on the exterior of the depot. In my opinion not fixing these problems will allow water and dirt to discolor and damage the $477,000.00 coating. In addition, when asked if these repairs were coming, the answer was that SANBAG was "...looking into grants for funding." SANBAG has no immediate plans to make these necessary repairs to the roof, rain gutters, downspouts and drainage.

It is no secret that within one year after the Santa Fe San Bernardino Depot was dedicated, in June of 2004, that the supposedly restored roof began leaking badly. A large portion of the walls and roof on the east end of the depot, had to be covered in plastic tarps, for many months. SANBAG employees have stated that whenever it rains, there are numerous buckets throughout their second floor office space. (SANBAG offices occupy the entire second floor of the depot.) Water even works it way down into the Women's lounge area on the ground floor. When asked if the original contractor would be held accountable for not doing a good job, Mr. Baker stated that he doubted that would happen. It is because of that poor job, (2003 to 2004), that the roof, rain gutters, downspouts, and drainage currently continue to damage the exterior walls, being coated. During recent rains a civil engineer was sent into the attics of the depot, to determine where the worst of the leaks were coming from. However there no immediate plans to make the necessary repairs.

When asked about the exterior woodwork, currently being painted, and barely prepared for painting, Mr. Baker said that it was not part of the current contract for Spectra to repair the water, rot and sun damage to the old wood, nor replace wood. The contractor did approach SANBAG about caulking some of the damaged wood, but that would have cost extra beyond the contract. Retired Conductor Don Sheets asked Mr. Baker about cost overruns, and apparently there is no provision for cost overruns in the contract with Spectra. However Mr. Baker did state the project is currently on time and under budget. The current contract is expected to be done in mid February.

The woodwork such as door and window frames, eaves and trim are being painted the proper color of light green. However, in my opinion some of the wood needs to be replaced, or at least planed or sanded down where it is warping and splitting. If not replaced, this wood needs to be sanded down to bare wood, and have linseed oil or other proper preservative applied to the cracked, warped, rotted wood. The preparation for the green trim paint, currently consists of a very light sanding. There are several layers of old paint. On some portions of the wood work the new paint is being applied directly to old, weathered wood, where the old paint peeled off. The old paint gets a very light sanding, which looks like it was done with a worn out brillow pad, but likely has been power sanded, barely roughing up the old paint.

When asked if it would be possible for SANBAG to have a press release, or posting to their website, informing the community about the work being done, to the Santa Fe San Bernardino Depot, Mr. Baker stated that would be a good idea. Mr. Baker was going to contact the necessary SANBAG staff people to make that happen.

Mr. Baker is also a supporter of our San Bernardino History & RR Museum. He has agreed to look into taking care of some concerns, such as long burned out exterior lighting, that the building maintenance contractor, CitiCom has ignored fixing. CitiCom contracts with SANBAG and the City of San Bernardino for the depot's building maintenance. [www.city-commercial.com]

Glen Icanberry
Director San Bernardino History & RR Museum
[www.sbdepotmuseum.com]