SPEAKERS VOICE HOPE, CONCERN OVER TERMINAL
October 5, 1992
By KAREN BRADY - News Staff Reporter
Nostalgia, concern and calls for urgent action created an often-emotional public meeting Sunday on the future of the city's deteriorating New York Central Terminal.
"This is really the beginning, " Susan McCartney, president of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County, said of mounting community interest in preserving the long-vacant national, state and local historic landmark at Memorial and Paderewski drives.
Close to 100 people attended the meeting in the Polish Community Center -- among them a past owner and two would-be owners of the massive art deco structure that once offered the full service of 200 passenger trains a day.
Fillmore Council Member David A. Franczyk lashed out at the building's current owner, Thomas Telesco, who was not present. He said Telesco was responsible for the terminal's being "a plundered shadow of its former self."
Franczyk said Telesco "must be made accountable for the multitude of violations" of the city's building code at the terminal, and for the sale of "irreplaceable objects such as art deco fixtures, brass doors, copper flashing and lamps" from the building.
"He should be shown no mercy and made to relinquish the property ," Franczyk told longtime and former residents of the terminal neighborhood as well as members of the Western New York Railway Historical Society, the Polish Community Center and the Preservation Coalition.
Telesco pleaded not guilty before City Judge Hugh Scott on Sept. 25 to charges by city inspectors that he has failed to maintain the terminal.
He is scheduled to appear before Scott again at 2 p.m. Oct. 29, according to Franczyk, author of a Common Council resolution calling for a Buffalo Central Terminal Study Group to examine, discuss and make recommendations about the future of the terminal.
Paul Mielcarck, assistant director of the city's division of housing and property inspections, assured the gathering that the city "is not even talking of demolition" and that his office "believes the building can be brought into compliance."
"It is still salvageable due to the quality of the construction and the materials used at the time," he said, adding that his department hopes "to be involved in any long-range planning" and that "a use for the building will be found."
Partners Sam and Bernie Tuchman of Central Terminal Ltd., which has a purchase option on the building, were at the meeting.
"The building, and its location, just lend itself to retail," said Bernie Tuchman, describing the brothers' vision of a major shopping center in the city, "a community within the community."
Anthony Fedele, who owned the building from 1979 until 1984 and was instrumental in its being placed on the National Register of Historic Places, claimed: "The best chances for seeing the building restored are with the Tuchman brothers."
Alex Herlovitch, a planner for the City of Niagara Falls, also showed slides -- of six former railway stations in other U.S. cities now being used, successfully, in such new ways as restaurants, hotels, museums and an exhibition hall.
Copyright (C) 1992, The Buffalo News Record Number: BFNW22790128