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The Community Foundation of Northwest Colorado is close to closing a deal with Union Pacific Railroad to acquire the Craig Depot.

However, the Community Foundation has not finished paying for its last acquisition, a 1,000-piece cowboy and gunfighter collection.

Craig residents have been working to purchase the Craig Depot for the past 15 years, said Patt McCaffrey, president of the Community Foundation. Union Pacific officials have told foundation members a deal could be closed within a few months.

Foundation members have not decided what to do with the depot. McCaffrey said suggestions have ranged from turning it into a restaurant, a historical museum or business offices.

Foundation member Pam Foster said that, to the best of her knowledge, Union Pacific was going to donate the depot to the foundation. Other issues need resolved, including the problem that part of the depot extends into Third Street.

The Foundation is seeking donations to go toward renovating the building, and McCaffrey said one of the group's goals is to increase this year's fund raising by 10 percent. That's a goal that could get easier once the foundation has something tangible to show for its efforts, she said.

They hope their fund-raising efforts will be aided by their recently attained enterprise designation. Donations to the foundation are now tax deductible.

But while the foundation begins raising funds to renovate the depot, the group's debt to Moffat County for the cowboy and gunfighter collection, currently housed in the Museum of Northwest Colorado, is still unpaid.

When the Community Foundation was founded it was called the Museum Foundation, and its written mission was to support the Museum of Northwest Colorado and get it off the tax roles.

They bought the cowboy and gunfighter collection from a Western U.S. artifact collector and paid for it through a $720,000 loan from Moffat County. The foundation raised money through pledges, gifts in kind and deferred giving. The deferred gifts were pledges written in to a person's will, payable on the time of the person's death, and they made up the bulk of the funds raised for the collection, Foster said.

Since the county and the foundation signed the loan contract in June of 1999, not one deferred gift giver has died. Because deferred gifts are confidential, no one knows who has pledged these gifts, Foster said.

The Foundation made its first three payments on the collection, for a total of $317,000, Foster said. The remaining balance is covered by deferred gifts.

The county has written the debt off its books, said Tinneal Gerber, county financial administrator. Because they were unable to predict when the payments would come in, the debt was skewing the books.

Since 1999, $375,610 has been donated to pay off the debt, Gerber said. That number includes all donations received, such as walk-in donations collected at the museum door. But $397,244 is still owed.

Foster said that money would be paid back when it is received.

Moffat County Commissioner Marianna Raftopoulos, who sat on the Board of Commissioner and the foundation board at the time of the decision, said she hadn't known most of the payment would come through deferred giving. Foster said she thought the commissioners never understood the deal.

When asked if she thought the money would come through, Raftopoulos said, "I kind of doubt it.

"It's something we couldn't count on. If it does come through, what a benefit that would be to the museum. But I don't know it we would have made the decision to buy the museum at the time if we had known we wouldn't get the money back," Raftopoulos said.

The foundation is responsible for making a loan payment every June 1. Because the group won't be able to make this year's payment, the commissioners will be notified of the inability and the foundation will turn over a financial statement demonstrating its lack of funds.