“[The club maintains] that the insertion of that language creates a covenant in the deed and that it exists in perpetuity as long as the club pays $1,000 per year.”
Melbert said that his research showed that the former shack for carpenters and plumbers working on the New York Central Railroad was given to the model railroad club in 1937. The agreement and a nominal annual fee continued on an informal and undocumented basis for years as the property changed hands from one rail line to another following the merger of the New York Central with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968. The purported covenant first appears in the 1989 deed when the property, which lies on Susan Street behind the Kingston YMCA, passed into private hands. At some point though, the model railroad club began acquiescing to landlords’ requests for more money until the annual rent reached its current level of $9,800.
“Over the years it seems like the members of the railroad club were not totally aware of this protective clause in the deed,” said Melbert. “Now it’s gotten to the point where the club simply cannot afford that kind of largesse.”
In the state Supreme Court action, Melbert is asking the court to clarify the club’s rights under the deed. He is also wants to court to place a dollar value on improvements made by the club which have tripled the size of the building over the years to make way for a museum, machine shop and meeting space and for the Eleven Main Group to refund all rent paid in excess of $1,000 a year since 2002. But, Melbert said, the real goal is to keep a Kingston institution on track.
“The main thrust is that they stay in there. I’ve had so many guys my age come up to me and say, ‘My father took me there where I was 8,” said Melbert, 69. “It’s this very universal thing in Kingston and it really is a wonderful local organization.”
