Cleanup continues at future site of Community Center
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Councilors approved remedial cleanup Option 1: surface soil removal, cover system replacement and institutional controls at 42 Chapman Road – site of the proposed Community Center – during their Aug. 1 meeting at City Hall.
Chris Beaulieu, director of Recreation and Parks, submitted a memorandum, via City Manager Jim Bennett, outlining the possible options with regard to cleaning up the property that once belonged to Webber Oil Company.
In the memo, Beaulieu explained how the project would be paid for and options for councilors to consider.
“As part of the EPA’s Brownfields Program and the Northern Maine Development Commission, the city was recently awarded funding of up to $200,000 to remediate the petroleum contamination on the now city-owned property. This grant will be funded at 80 percent of the project cost and the city is to provide the remaining 20 percent of the grant amount as a match,” wrote Beaulieu.
Beaulieu continued, explaining that “in the Feb. 2 report, Analysis of Brownfields Cleanup Alternatives, provided by Summit Environmental Consultants, Inc., three varying clean-up alternatives were presented.”
Three alternatives were referenced in the memorandum. The first, Option 1, included limited excavation of impacted soil as necessary to accommodate a 15-inch thick gravel sub-base and three inches of asphalt, with excavated soil being disposed of off-site. A deed restriction would be required for this option. The projected cost for this option was $162,500. As an alternative to pavement, the plan noted a soil cover system would be constructed, involving removal and disposal of 12 inches of impacted soils, installation of a marker barrier and placement of eight inches of gravel and four inches of loan. The surface would then be seeded and mulched.
Option 2 – soil removal to the excavation and construction worker standard – would require impacted soils exceeding this standard be excavated and disposed of off-site. The excavation would then be backfilled and the surface seeded and mulched. The estimated cost for this option was $787,000.
Option 3 would have councilors take no action. This option would include construction of a perimeter fence to restrict access and a deed restriction would be placed on the property. Estimated cost of this option was $13,000.
Beaulieu offered his recommendation, as follows, to the Council.
“After guidance from the EPA, DEP and our consultants and careful review of each option, considering implementability, cost and effectiveness, it is the recommendation that the city select Option 1: surface soil removal, cover system placement and institutional controls. The clean-up standard is consistent with the city’s redevelopment plans for the site and the funding is in place to complete the project,” wrote Beaulieu, noting, “although reuse plans of the site would be limited to parking and/or green space, due to the parcel’s proximity to Kennedy Brook and the street, we are confident that no other type of use would be necessary.”
Jim Bennett agreed with Beaulieu.
“We’re at the point where we believe, regardless of recommendations where the Community Center goes, that area will be used for parking,” said Bennett.
Councilor Peter Hallowell asked what Option 3 meant. Bennett answered, explaining that a deed restriction would have to be put in place indicating that “no one can use it (the property) unless you do one of the other two items.”
Bennett indicated that the city’s 20 percent match could be met, in part, by using city staff for some of the work.
“Our plan is to use Public Works (for removal of soil) and use an in-kind match on materials hauled away – an idea presented to the Council last November or December,” he said.
Hallowell asked if, when the city “took title, did we agree to hold Webber harmless?”
Bennett said that was the case.
“There’s very little to no risk to that. With the tests done, Webber basically gave us the property for nothing. There’s relatively little risk associated with that,” noted Bennett.
Plans are to hottop the area, estimated at about half an acre of land.
“The Community Center Task Force has had this as a driver. They’re not sure where they want to put the Community Center but this makes more sense – to pave this and work it into the overall plan,” said Bennett. “If it’s going to be a road, we’d just add paving to it; if it’s a basketball court, just stripe it.”
With discussion concluded, councilors voted unanimously to approved cleanup Option 1, as presented.
