Royston Depot Renovation Hits Snag

Plans to renovate Royston’s historic train depot are temporarily stopped.

The City is gearing up to do the first phase of a multi-phase renovation on the depot.

City Manager Ed Andrews says the City is still waiting to receive bids on labor.

“We’re waiting on bids for labor,” he said. “The City and the USDA have come to terms as to the ARC grant that we had gotten several years back. We finally got the USDA to come up and sit with us to discuss how we should approach this project.”

Under the first phase of the renovation project, the city will first concentrate on renovating the interior of the building.

“This is an inside renovation. We will have to do a couple of phases to address the exterior of the depot,” Andrews said. “This will be different layout, lighting, exposed ceilings, revamping the kitchen area and making it handicap accessible.”

Andrews says city employees have already started on some of the work, which he says will reduce some of the total cost of the project.

“We have done a lot of the demolition and inside cleaning out to cut some of the overhead costs. We have the means and the manpower to do it,” Andrews said.

The project is being funded by a $93,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission with a local share that the City will have to match.