Lansford Borough Council approved the transfer of ownership of the former Lehigh and New England Railroad station to the Lansford Historical Society on Wednesday night.

Council briefly considered adding a nonperformance clause to the transfer, which would allow the building to revert to the borough if the historical society failed to develop it in two years.

However, council decided to drop the proposed clause because it could put the historical society’s plans in jeopardy.

Councilman Bruce Markovich, who serves as the historical society’s vice president, explained that the society wouldn’t be able to apply for grants to help develop the site this year.

“The grant period for this year is gone,” he said. “The earliest you’re going to file any grants is going to be next year. You’re not even going to get an answer on those grants until the year after that.

“So, your two years are already up before we have any answers on any grants.”

The historical society also had other organizations providing funding, and they’re pulling the start-up money because of the risk of it going back to the borough with money already invested, he said.

The same is true for the historical society, Markovich said.

“Say we take $50,000 out of our savings and we invest them in the train station,” he said. “Two years from now, somebody comes by and says, ‘You know what? We don’t think you did enough work here. We want the station back.’

“Are you going to reimburse us for $50,000?” Markovich asked. “That’s the issue that we have right now.”

Councilman John Zym said he understood. Councilwoman Michele Bartek said maybe the historical society could give the borough updates every three to six months so they could share that with the public.

Markovich offered to allow council to tour the building to see the progress if they wanted.

Resident Bob Silver spoke in favor of the transfer, as not much has happened with the property under the borough’s stewardship.

“Regardless of what happens, the taxpayers of Lansford can no longer run the train station,” he said. “It needs to go somewhere like the historical society or a commission, but it cannot come back to the borough.”

Another resident, Tommy Vadyak, supported the nonperformance clause because he didn’t want to see the train station sit and deteriorate.

“I look at the Welsh Church, the condition it’s in,” he said. “It’s an eyesore.”

The agenda actually had the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau as the receiving agent of the train station, but council President Joe Genits corrected that and the PMVB’s Marlyn Kissner clarified the point.

“We definitely want to make it clear that our role it going to be supporting the historical society with their plans, with their fundraising,” she said. “We agreed to pay the $8,700 so that it’s out of the borough’s hands.

“We’ve been involved in this from day one before it was even transferred over to the borough,” Kissner said. “We’re going to be supporting the historical society once the transfer happens ... but it’s the historical society that’s taking ownership of that.”

She pointed out Jim Thorpe, which is now a tourism mecca in Carbon County, was anything but in the 1980s before a handful of visionaries developed the community’s assets.

“This is an opportunity to be able to have the historical society take ownership of this, so that this can be a potential asset in the future, just like the No. 9 Mine,” Kissner said.

Council approved the approved the transfer on 4-1 vote with Councilman Joseph Butrie voting no, and Markovich abstaining. They also set the date to sign the agreement and finalize the transfer to be within 14 days of the approval.