GILROY
– City Council is inviting Rod Diridon – the “father” of Silicon
Valley mass transit – back to Gilroy so he can re-pitch his idea
for an antique train museum, this time to the full city dais.
Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ask Diridon to a special Sept.
22 meeting, at 6 p.m., to dis
cuss his project’s timeline, scope of work and funding sources.
If successful, the session could lay a foundation between Diridon
and Gilroy that is necessary to bring the museum here instead of
competing cities San Jose and Santa Clara.
GILROY – City Council is inviting Rod Diridon – the “father” of Silicon Valley mass transit – back to Gilroy so he can re-pitch his idea for an antique train museum, this time to the full city dais.
Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ask Diridon to a special Sept. 22 meeting, at 6 p.m., to discuss his project’s timeline, scope of work and funding sources. If successful, the session could lay a foundation between Diridon and Gilroy that is necessary to bring the museum here instead of competing cities San Jose and Santa Clara.
“I don’t know if I can say ‘move forwards’ or ‘stop with this,’ but I certainly am excited about this and the potential it has for the downtown,” Councilman Al Pinheiro said. “I’d like Mr. Diridon to be here so he could answer some of our questions and concerns.”
Councilmembers want to encourage the train and trolley aficionado to take the lead on what could be the wild card of the project – convincing Union Pacific railroad to donate a downtown Gilroy parcel Diridon himself called “ideal.”
“It’s a chore working with them,” City Administrator Jay Baksa said of Union Pacific. “We had experiences with them with small pieces of property, and it took three to four years just to buy the property, let alone trying to get them to donate this one.”
City Council showed a combination of get-the-ball-rolling interest and one-step-at-a-time caution over a plan that would bring a traditional train museum and working antique rail car system to Gilroy at an infant stage of local downtown revitalization efforts.
Councilman Roland Velasco, a policy adviser to Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, warned fellow council members that Diridon is making his museum plans based on funding grants that have not yet been won and volunteer contractors who rarely stick to firm work schedules.
Velasco produced county documents that describe the fairgrounds as being in a blighted condition since the train artifacts, roughly 3,000 rusting tons of them, are being stored there.
