(Radio Iowa) – The City of Ottumwa is now the owner of the train depot in downtown Ottumwa. Officials held a ribbon cutting last month to mark the purchase.

Amtrak leases the depot and in 2019 more than 10-thousand passengers either boarded or got off a train at Ottumwa’s depot. Ottumwa Mayor Rick Johnson says the site is part of a development plan for the riverfront in Ottumwa.

The historic Railroad Retirees Clubhouse has been acquired by the city, too. Tom Linehouser is president of the Wapello County Historical Society, which restored the clubhouse and opened it for tours in 2014. He says negotiations to have the city buy the depot and clubhouse lasted about a year.

The City of Ottumwa bought the depot and clubhouse for less than half a million dollars. Officials say Amtrak will be spending five million dollars to update the platform at the tracks and the depot’s waiting lobby. Ottumwa passengers board with tickets on the California Zephyr, which runs from Chicago to San Francisco. The first train station in Ottumwa was established by the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad in 1859. The current depot building opened in 1951.