Hoping to stimulate some savings, officials said Windham is now turning to federal money to pay for repair work on the community’s once bustling railroad center.

Slated to go out to bid sometime in the late summer or early fall, the stabilization project was designed to rehabilitate the Windham Depot and is one phase of a long-term plan to beautify the former railroad stop – now marking the start of Windham’s bicycle and pedestrian trail – and turn it into a park.

The $210,000 project was originally funded in part through the New Hampshire Department of Transportation enhancement program, which required a 20 percent matching contribution of $42,000 from the town. Officials have now opted to instead accept $173,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will translate into savings for the community, according to Assistant Town Administrator Dana Call.

“We have chosen to go with the ARRA funding, because that financially is the best for us. It provides full funding for the construction work,” Call said. “We’re spending the engineering money and the ARRA funding will be for the construction.”

There is no final figure for the amount of savings the town will realize, as the municipality will still have to fund additional architectural and archaeological reviews as well as pay to have an engineer on site at all times, but Call said using ARRA funds will free up part of the $42,000 already appropriated.

“It is a little convoluted, but the town will save some money,” she said. “The bottom line is we had anticipated spending $42,000 of town money and some of that will be saved.”

According to John Mangan, a member of town’s Depot Advisory Committee and the Windham Rail Trail Alliance, the money will pay for the removal of several additions put onto the buildings in the 1960s, new electrical work and a fresh coat of paint.

“It’s not a restoration, it’s a stabilization, which means to correct some things that were done to it in the past,” he said. “There were some things put on to make (the depot) usable for storage for the road department, for some equipment. Those additions would be removed and the building would be put back the way it would look as if it were a station.”

Mangan said the committee and the rail trail alliance planned to give the depot a “park effect.” He envisions public benches, picnic tables and bicycle racks for the families and residents that walk and ride along the trail.

“It is a multipurpose recreation trail used year round by people of all ages. It’s really enhanced the whole area,” he said. “It’s been very well received and it’s been done with private funding, but this stimulus money obviously will be a great help to us to complete a little more work.”