LITTLE VALLEY — After nearly four years, the fight to save the Cattaraugus County Civil War Memorial and Historic Building from the wrecker’s ball is over.
County lawmakers accepted the sole bid Wednesday for the former County Museum and Board of Elections buildings at Court and Seventh streets across from the County Center in Little Valley.
Citizens Advocating Memorial Preservation, or C.A.M.P., was the sole bidder with a $1,079 offer. Members of C.A.M.P. were in the audience.
County Legislator James J. Snyder, R-Olean, rose to congratulate C.A.M.P. after lawmakers accepted the bid.
“It’s been going on three to four years,” Snyder said. “We commend you folks for hanging in there. This project was dead two years ago.
“I want to wish you well with what you are doing. Good luck to you.”
Afterward, C.A.M.P. president Tom Stetz of Allegany said, “We know what we are up against. The first step is signing the agreement with the county. We’re putting a program together including fundraising. Our annual meeting is next month.”
The Memorial and Historic Building was dedicated in 1914 and was intended as a memorial to the county’s Civil War dead and its veterans.
Since the County Museum moved to Machias, the building has been vacant with little maintenance.
Stetz said the adjoining former Board of Elections buildings will be retained. “We hope it can be supportive of the Memorial. I would like to see it connected to veterans in some way. The hope is that we can keep it focused on veterans.”
C.A.M.P. treasurer Jim Ried said the group “has been coming here for three years. There was a lot of good feelings and a lot of bad feelings. I’m proud of C.A.M.P. for never wavering and doing everything in our power to save it.”
Ried added: “We saved the county $150,000 by not having to demolish it. Now is the time for our grantwriters to come together and get busy.”
Stetz acknowledged the estimates of Clinton Brown Company Architecture, Buffalo that it would take $700,000 to restore the building.
“We have some contractors who have agreed to look at it,” Stetz said. Initially, C.A.M.P. wanted to help the county preserve the memorial, not own it.
Ried said C.A.M.P.’s website can now accept tax deductible donations through its affiliation with the Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation.
The C.A.M.P. website is at www.cattcomemorial.com.
County Legislature Chairman Paula Stockman said the turning point in C.A.M.P.’s fight to preserve the memorial came when a preservationist attorney suggested the county could sell the Memorial.
When a state Supreme Court judge agreed last December the county could sell the property the wheels were set in motion to do just that.
“I’m glad it turned out the way it did,” Stockman told Stetz after the meeting.
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)
