Tony Humphrey, from the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario, presented a 2022 Grant Request to the town of Smiths Falls during Monday night’s council meeting. He outlined the museum’s successful past year, even considering the restrictions and limits posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and requested funds for RMEO’s upkeep – particularly for the roof, which is badly in need of repair.
During the summer’s Overnight in a Caboose program, RMEO hosted 96 overnight visitors. “We could have had more,” Humphrey said, “but we couldn’t hire enough staff to maintain the cabooses and had to close two nights a week.” The museum plans to hire more staff this summer.
The busiest event of the year was the Harry Potter event, which saw more than 1850 attendees.
The museum has also been the set of three movies, and is hoping to become a possible wedding venue.
While the museum itself is an accessible space, Humphrey pointed out that due to the age of the railcars and the era in which they were constructed, they are not wheelchair accessible. In order to make this right, “a carriage on rails in the lot is being done over so they can load and unload wheelchairs,” which will make even the railcars accessible.
“Smiths Falls will feel the impact of growth at RMEO, but we need your support to meet our goals,” summarized Humphrey in his report.
Smiths Falls town council will discuss the disbursement of community grant requests in council meetings later this month.