Lansford Councilman Bruce Markovich wants to set the record straight on the transfer of the former Lehigh and New England train station.

Last week, Councilman Jack Soberick asked council to write to the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau and Lansford Historical Society to see if a proposal raised previously was good.

Council agreed to write to both and find out if the PMVB would reimburse the borough for its expenses and ease the transfer of the station to the historical society.

On Monday, Markovich, who is also vice president of the historical society and has worked with the PMVB, said he never made any such statement to council.

“The historical society is unaware of any offer by the PMVB to pay for the station,” he said in an email. “My last statement dealt with establishing a secondary nonprofit to run the station should the historical society obtain the station.”

On Tuesday, Markovich sent a letter to council, the borough solicitor, the visitors bureau and the historical society regarding the transfer.

First thing he addressed was that the visitors bureau had no interest in owning the train station, and did not know where that statement came from, he wrote.

“At no time did I ever state that the historical society would pay for the station and would then be reimbursed by the Pocono Mountain Visitors’ Bureau,” Markovich wrote.

“The station is a protected asset under the borough’s National Historic District Designation and as such has a protected designation by the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission,” he said.

Markovich then spelled out the terms of a transfer of the station to the historical society, which is allowed under Borough Code, he said.

The historical society would pay the borough the equivalent of all bills either paid or owed by the borough, in which taxpayers’ funds were expended. These would include water, sewer and electricity, along with any transfer fees, he wrote.

The historical society would allow the borough to use the building and grounds west of the station for a salt shed and stockpile of anti-skid material for a period of seven years.

The borough and historical society would execute an agreement regarding liability for the salt shed, and the historical society would not provide insurance for the shed, he wrote.

The borough, in turn, would allow the historical society to operate as it does with its main building, including tours, seminars, guest speakers, fundraising and other events that benefit the historical society, Markovich wrote.

If those terms were agreeable, the historical society would draw up a sales agreement upon receipt of the total amount due from the borough treasurer, he wrote.

“I, of course, will not be voting on this since it would be a clear conflict of interest, I suggest we discuss this further at our next executive session,” Markovich wrote.

Soberick said the discussion of the transfer of the train station to the historical society with the assistance of the PMVB came up last fall, when Markovich was council president.

“His memory is faulty, or his explanation to council wasn’t clear,” Soberick said Tuesday evening, adding that he wasn’t suggesting the PMVB take over the station.

“While president he implied that they were interested in helping, because things were moving too slowly,” Soberick said. “They would make the borough ‘even,’ and help with the transfer to the historical society.”

His motion last week for the borough to write to both the PMVB and historical society was to get a clear answer from them and get something in writing to move this forward, Soberick said.

Soberick said he would like to see a viable option emerge to get the train station moving but remove the financial burden from the taxpayers.

“I am innocently and earnestly just trying to figure out an option that works,’ he said.