Scouts Help Renovate Train Station

Three Boy Scouts and the local Rotary Club are sprucing up the , which now belongs to the Bridgeville Area Historical Society.

The society took control of the old building and caboose Thursday afternoon three months after the moved out and into its new digs on McMillen Street.

Tyler Chabalie, Casey Jackson and Roy Rothenberger, the three Boy Scouts from Troop 2 working towards Eagle Scout, have varying roles while working closely with several members of Bridgeville-South Fayette Rotary Club. Chabalie is in charge of removing carpeting and paint, Jackson is working to build a large and intricate wooden cupboard to store materials and Rothenberger is helping move the old bookshelves out and the historical artifacts in.

Scoutmaster Norman Miller Jr. said Rothenberger’s duties expanded when they decided to find new homes for the 50 bookshelves rather than just place them in the garbage.

“All of the historical documents will also be transferred by Roy,” Miller said.

Eight members of the Bridgeville-South Fayette Rotary helped last Saturday and expect to do more work, member Glenn Schillo said. The whole caboose is prepped and painted, he said, and the rest of the train station needs just one more coat.

That has members of the Bridgeville Area Historical Society getting excited as it moves from to the quaint train station. Mary Weise, a borough councilwoman and member of the Historical Society, said it’s hard to imagine stacks of books being situated around the station.

“It does have a completely different feel,” Weise said.

She’s not sure when they will move in, but thinks they will have a better idea next month as they make more progress. Until then, the Historical Society now is concentrating on the nitty-gritty details of owning a property.

“Well I’m suddenly starting to worry about the light bill, the sewage bill, the water bill. It’s just like the daily maintenance of a house,” Weise said. “But so far we’re coping very well. It’s taken us 10 years to get to this point. It’s going to be a exciting.”