One sure way to show that you really believe in something is to be willing to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

That’s what members of the local Depot Redux are doing at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe depot at Seventh and New Jersey streets. The new group is working with railroad and city officials to try to save and spruce up the 1950s depot; volunteers meet once a month to work on the building.

It’s unclear how much either the city or rail officials are willing to invest in a depot that currently accommodates only two Amtrak stops a day, but, to their credit, members of Depot Redux and another volunteer group, Lawrence Modern, are willing to invest some sweat equity to get the ball rolling.

On Sunday, the job was to strip and polish the building’s terrazzo floor, which probably hadn’t seen such care in many, many years. The group also swept away mouse droppings and cobwebs around the depot and a layer of sand that had built up on the parking lot. The depot’s windows now are shining clean, and a few flowers are even blooming in pots on the platform and a flowerbed in front.

It’s still an old building in need of work, but the cleanup has made an amazing difference. As members of the group have pointed out, the depot is the first look some people get of Lawrence, and the impression they will get now should be far better than before the cleanup began.

Long-range prospects for the depot are uncertain. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway has little motivation to improve or even maintain a depot that it uses only for office space. Depot Redux has asked the city to consider purchasing the depot from the railroad for $1, but the city then would be responsible for maintaining and funding any improvements to the building. Simply to upgrade the building to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act would cost an estimated $400,000. Other repairs would add another $100,000 to the tab. As the owners, the city then would have to fund ongoing maintenance for a building.

And what would the city get for its investment? A train depot that preservationists praise as a wonderful example of Midwest modern architecture, but for which no viable use has been identified beyond serving passengers getting on and off the train in the middle of the night. Because the railroad doesn’t currently staff the building, and without an additional city investment in staffing, the depot probably would remain closed to the public most of the time.

The efforts of Depot Redux certainly are laudable. The group has done the city a wonderful service by making the local passenger depot more presentable to those who pass through it. Having volunteers clean up the depot may not be the ultimate solution for the building, but it’s a great first step by a group that clearly is committed to the project.