The newly formed Underground Railroad Heritage Commission will conduct its inaugural meeting later this week to elect a chairperson and begin the process of establishing by-laws.

“It’s going to be a little emotional for me,” said North Star Project Coordinator Kevin Cottrell. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and I never thought we would get here.”

Cottrell is a liaison to the 14-member commission, which is charged with implementing a master strategy to promote cultural heritage and oversee projects. The commission will be aided by an annual allocation of $350,000 from casino funds.

The first meeting is being held between 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday at the Earl Brydges Library on Main Street and wll be chaired by J. Winthrop Aldrich, deputy commissioner for historic preservation at the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Cottrell said several housekeeping items will be conducted, including the appointment of an acting chairman and acting secretary. Debbie Conway from the National Parks Service will be a guest speaker and there will be a presentation on the North Star initiative. The public is invited to attend.

“We want to make everyone aware of what’s going on and what we are going to do,” Cottrell said.

The group will begin the process of forming sub-committees and seeking out an attorney to help establish by-laws, which could be in place by the second or third meeting.

“Once we have all of that in place, we can move on to our management plan, which is the Holy Grail of what the commission is going to do,” Cottrell said. “Then we are off and running.”

According to historians, abolitionist Harriet Tubman guided about 300 slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad in the mid-1800s from Maryland to Canada, making the last stretch over the former Suspension Bridge, now the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge in the city. Grassroots efforts to promote those ties have grown over the years and evolved into tours, re-enactments and an annual Freedom Trail Festival.

Last year, the city and Niagara Falls State Park signed an agreement to appoint Cottrell to serve as project coordinator of the North Star initiative, created to establish a heritage tourism district along North Main Street and near the Whirlpool Bridge. Cottrell is also the founder of an Underground Railroad touring company called Motherland Connextions.

“The purpose of North Star was always to marry the visitation (to the state park) with the heritage of this area,” Cottrell said.

North Star has already proposed three major projects, including transforming the first floor of the old U.S. Custom’s House on Whirlpool Street into an Underground Railroad interpretive center, which will complement the planned International Train Station. Cottrell has also proposed creating a park named after Tubman at Ontario Avenue and Main Street and is trying to partner with the U.S. Bridge Commission to allow pedestrian access halfway up the Whirlpool Bridge so people can relive Tubman’s historic walk.

North Star’s work will now be folded into the new heritage commission. The 13 members of the committee have been named by Gov. David Paterson, Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster and various other local and state officials. Members are Bill Bradberry, Zach Casale, Niagara Falls Senior Planner Tom DeSantis, Denise Easterling, Ken Wagner, Tricia Mezhir, Carol Murphy, Anthony Restaino Sr., Seneca Vaught, City Councilman Charles Walker, Niagara County Legislator Renae Kimble, Percy Abrams and Mark Onesi.

Walker, another longtime advocate of promoting the area’s ties to Tubman and the Underground Railroad, said he believes the creation of the new commission to implement cultural heritage initiatives was a “no brainer.”

“My goal is to actually see Main Street developed with the Harriet Tubman and Underground Railroad theme,” he said.