I don't ever remember seeing so much unallocated federal money sloshing around state and municipal systems, more, really, than anyone knows exactly what to do with.

Turns out, for some, it's the fun part of COVID.

It's an interesting new problem for municipalities, which, undaunted, have set out to figure out a way to spend it all.

Since so much of it is set aside for transportation infrastructure, I would make a case for spending a little on New London's unique contribution to Connecticut transportation, an intermodal hub linking highways, trains and interstate ferries.

At the center of that hub is Union Station, critical not only for its role in facilitating transportation but also for its prominence as an iconic landmark for the city of New London.

It's hard to find a historic picture or painting of New London that does the city justice without including architect Henry Hobson Richardson's magnificent brick train station, which presides so grandly over the city's downtown and waterfront.

New London is fortunate the station has been in such capable private hands for the last 45 years, rescued by preservationists who stepped in during urban renewal and saved it from demolition.

The station's first guardian angel generously and anonymously tended the important building for decades, paying the bills, keeping the lights on, the restrooms open and the platforms welcoming daily train passengers.

Most important, the building was beautifully preserved, including the expensive replacement of its slate roof.

The station was purchased most recently by the late Jimmy Coleman, who, as chairman of the National Coast Guard Museum Association, wanted to secure control of the building for its use in the development of the adjacent museum. He bought it not long after the "ceremonial" groundbreaking for the museum in 2014.

Coleman, and now his heirs, also have been good stewards of the landmark building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Renovations have been careful and appropriate. The lights are still on, the restrooms open and the train platforms welcoming passengers.

But things could change, and the best, most appropriate steward of this signature building of downtown New London would be the state of Connecticut. It should be a public building. Most train stations in Connecticut are.

The role of the station in regional transportation could grow if plans to expand local train service beyond New London are realized.

Coleman paid $3 million for the building. Add some more for appreciation and renovations that have been made, and the state should be able to make an attractive offer that would be just a smidgen of the billions in COVID money flowing into the state.

I don't think the Coast Guard museum association is ever going to raise the money needed to build on the complicated proposed site alongside the train station. But if the group suddenly pulls $100 million out of the hat and gets the green light for the start of construction, the state, as an owner of the train station, should be able to be every bit as accommodating to the enterprise as Coleman's heirs.

Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if Coleman's heirs wouldn't be happy to get back the money invested in the station and relieved to be free of the responsibility of maintaining it, almost certainly at a loss.

The train station owners have granted an easement for an overhead pedestrian bridge proposed to link the new museum with Water Street. That easement is dated, though, and like the property deeded by the city for the museum in 2014, could be extinguished if nothing is built on it by 2024.

That legal arrangement considers the possibility the museum will never be built there, and I'd say the state ought to be considering now what could happen then to the station. After all, we are only three years away from that deadline.

The current station owners, who are not local, may no longer wish to remain stewards of Union Station if it is no longer part of Coleman's vision for a downtown Coast Guard Museum.

Now is the time for the state, with plenty of transportation money in hand, to make sure the city of New London won't have to worry what happens next to Union Station and whether more responsible owners come forward the next time it's up for sale.

 This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com