Mill Site Study Committee

Meeting minutes - February 11, 2009

Present: Committee Members: Stephanie Cronin, Albert Harris, Michael Landino, Matt Nesbit, Ronald Karr, Georgette Rogers, Jeff Sauer, Joseph Sergi, and Stephen Themelis
Members absent: Kurt Amidon, Jerrilyn Bozicas, Roger Goscombe, and Ken Morgan
Also present: Selectmen Patrick McNabb

Mr. Sergi called the meeting to order at 7:05pm. Ms. Cronin and Mr. Landino joined the meeting at 8:02pm.

Since the Last Committee Meeting (December and January meetings cancelled due to weather): The State government officially recognized the Mill Site as a 43D site, affording expedited permitting.  Town Engineer, Bob Lee, would be the Town’s liaison for a potential developer.  Additionally, the State will award a $60,000 grant for the creation of a master plan and the formal establishment of a specific expedited permitting process.

The Board of Selectmen has received $25,000 from Mill Site owner, PerryVidex, to perform a market analysis and selected Bartram & Cochran to perform the analysis.  The analysis is expected to be completed within 12-16 weeks.

A clear understanding of the site’s potential environmental issues is now the biggest roadblock to moving forward with any potential site developement.  The Town and PerryVidex are exploring undertaking a formal Environmental Site Assessment in order to gain a more accurate picture of the site and potential costs associated with developing it.

Personnel Change: Ms. Rogers was appointed by the Board of Selectmen to join the Committee.

Approval of Minutes from November 12, 2008:  On a motion from Mr. Themelis, seconded by Mr. Karr, the minutes from the November 12 meeting was approved unanimously as drafted.

Environmental Site Assessment: The Committee discussed possible approaches to undertaking a new environmental site assessment, including the possible depth of such a study and types of testing.  Mr. Nesbit and Mr. McNabb agreed that a new Phase II assessment would be necessary to gain any new insight into the state of the property. Mr. McNabb noted that the prior Phase I and Phase II have already essentially ruled out any necessary major site clean-up if the property were to continue in industry use and that it is other potential uses – residential, recreational, and commercial – that require more in-depth study. It was agree that the members of the Environmental/Engineering sub-committee would begin to research possible approaches and firms that might perform a site assessment.

General Business:

The Committee discussed its future meeting schedule and concluded that the next meeting should include the now-contracted market analysis firm, Bartram & Cochran, as dictated in its proposal.  Mr. Sergi agreed to contact the company and schedule a meeting date and time. It was agreed that future Committee meetings would likely follow the needs and progress of the market analysis and master planning process as those two efforts begin to move forward.  It was also agreed that, with the exception of the Environmental-Engineering Sub-Committee, there is no reason for the sub-committees to formally meet until more actionable items arise.

Action Items:

Item #1 – Environmental-Engineering follow-up: Sub-committee will summarize what reports we already have and then develop a scope for an environmental site assessment .

Item #2 – Market Analysis: Mr. Sergi will contact Bartram & Cochran about a meeting date.

Item #3 – Administrative: Mr. Sauer will contact Den Connors about adding Mr. McNabb to the MSSC email list.

Next Meeting: TBA. 

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:19 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeff Sauer, Mill Site Study Committee Secretary