FREEDOM, Maine — Power from moving water, along with the attention of a retired banker, is giving new life to a historic building in the heart of town.
Tony Grassi of Camden is awaiting approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to install a 39-kilowatt turbine in the dam on the Sandy Stream, which flows out of Freedom Pond. The dam is adjacent to the old mill building, which Grassi is restoring, following state historic preservation standards.
In addition to the FERC approval, Grassi has sought approval for his Freedom Falls project from the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the federal Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“It’s all sort of slowly working along,” he said Monday of the approval process. Grassi took title of the old wood-frame mill building and dam on April 1. Town officials and residents have been helpful, he said, making zoning changes to accommodate the project.
The historic preservation standards were self-imposed — Grassi sought and won a listing on the National Register of Historic Places for the old mill building. He is taking advantage of federal and state tax credits for historic renovation, but the project is clearly a labor of love.
A retired investment banker, he left the business in 1990 — “when it was still fun” — and became what he calls a full-time volunteer. Grassi has been active in the Nature Conservancy and, beginning in the early 1990s, he and his wife Sally began working with the Horizons National Student Enrichment Program. In fact, they took the then-Connecticut-based program, which provides summer enrichment programs for students from kindergarten through 12th grade, to a national reach.
In addition to his other nonprofit volunteer work, Grassi has served as co-chairman, with BDN Publisher Rick Warren, of the fundraising committee for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust. He chuckles at the irony of working with that group to remove a dam on the Penobscot River while working to restore one in Freedom.
Grassi and his wife moved to Camden eight years ago.
The mill project first came to Grassi’s attention six or seven years ago when his son and daughter-in-law bought a neighboring property, where they now operate an organic farm.
The project also intrigued Grassi as a test case of sorts, he said. If he succeeds in landing commercial tenants, the now-quiet heart of Freedom could become active again.
“My hope is that other towns,” particularly those with old dams, “could do the same sort of thing,” and bring life back to historic villages.
The work has been daunting.
“The building was in really, really bad shape,” Grassi said, but was worth saving. “It’s a pretty dramatic piece of architecture,” he said.
“It had been a grist mill from 1834 until 1894 or 1896,” he said, “then became a wood turning mill, producing dowels and tool handles,” before that business failed in 1967. The building has been vacant since.
Using Belfast-based Cold Mountain Builders as a general contractor for the new construction portions and Preservation Timber Framing of Berwick to restore the post-and-beam frame, the mill building will eventually provide 4,000-square-feet of space on two floors. Camden architect Christopher Glass and Carmen Cherry of the Camden engineering firm Gartley & Dorsky also worked on the project.
Grassi said two separate tenants might lease the spaces, or one could lease both floors. Because the dam is expected to produce up to 80,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year to the building, he believes businesses that use a lot of electricity would be appropriate tenants.
He suggests arts and crafts businesses, such as a glass-blowing or ceramics shop, or a bakery might be a good fit. In fact, Grassi particularly likes the idea of bakery, perhaps one using locally grown produce. He has been working with John Piotti of Maine Farmland Trust to plan uses of the building.
“The idea is to be done by the end of the year,” he said.
Excellent!…. Go hydro, back to the green future, and another hydro plant in belfast has been bought to be refurbished. The underwater turbine project in eastport is moving forward. Thanks for spending all that money on something worthwhile.
Didn’t they just get done removing a hundred dams ? There’s no such thing as GREEN anything, everything has it’s disadvantages. Nothing lives under a solar panel, windmills chop birds up and hydro impedes the migration of spawning fish…..
Humans can live under solar panels.
Good point. I doubt there’s been one lawsuit over solar panels harming humans or birds. And hydropower was what powered Maine for well over a century. Fishways can be added or amended to ensure the passage of spawning species.
They removed the dams to clean the rivers, and clear a path for migrating fish which I supported. They where all built with antiquated technology and little forethought or care. We can now build them with fish ladders and/or streams around them, and open them at the base if needed to purge the lake bottom. I doubt these are that advanced but its a start. With todays technology it does not get any greener than hydro. Maine is setup well for it.
I grow ferns, Azaleas and a host of other flowers under my panels. A nice place to sit on a hot sunny day too. And the panels provide 100% of my electric. Nothing is 100% green, but hydro is a lot greener than a coal or oil burner.
This is sweet; I just hope LURC, and/or RESTORE and its ilk doesnt kill the dream…!
Amen!
Glad to see hydro may make a comeback… We need MORE of it and what better place to do than here, in Maine, where we have plenty of rivers that can drive a hydroelectric generator. Nice thing about it, regular folks with a bit of capital can do it – that’s where these dang government grants should go – not into some rich politician’s crony’s pockets… Electricity doesn’t have to be as expensive as it is – hydro can help lower those costs through the formation of coops – just use the corporate electricity as a back up…
You are certainly correct! It does not take a huge dam, turbine and generator to be useful and economically viable. One can now get a “micro-turbine” that isn’t much larger than a washing machine motor that will drive a generator large enough to run a house.
Many homes (especially those in rural areas) now have backup generators. I have one that is fueled by propane and will run the entire house in the event of a power failure. Except for all the beaurocratic hoops one would have to jump through, it would make much more sense to harness the energy of our many, many streams.
Unfortunately, the beaurocrats are supported by self-appointed protectors of the environment who would drive us back to the stone age by prohibiting anything, repeat anything, that can be used to support human life, comfort or progress!
The bureaucrats and their minions will okay any HUGE corporate owned project lickety-split that will cause a lot of pollution but makes it incredibly hard on those of us who want to make and provide our own energy with very little disruption to our environment. Fie on all the many petroleum pirates!
Time to restore Maine’s once thriving hydro-powered village economies, where people can kayak or canoe to work at energy intensive businesses; and live around mill ponds enjoying the fishing and swimming.
Ya know, re-reading the article, I thought about how over-regulated our lives are becoming through the actions of professional politicians in the federal government that just LOVE telling everyone else whar to do. Those are the forces that must be contested to allow us everyday citizens the ability to do for ourselves. An example is found in the following paragraph pasted from the article and demonstrates the number of federal agencies that put themselves in the way of progress:
“The dam is adjacent to the old mill building, which Grassi is restoring, following state historic preservation standards.” (*This isn’t too bad*)
“In addition to the FERC approval, Grassi has sought approval for his Freedom Falls project from the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the federal Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.” (*Now THIS number of flipping agencies is ABSURD and demonstrates, perhaps, a bit much unwarranted federal intrusion*)
Absolutely correct! This is why our deficit is astronomical and still climbing. No political organization ever decreases in size. They only grow unless someone takes a meat axe to them. Few politicians have the courage to even attempt that!
Well, they DO call it “Freedom Falls”.
Freedom Lumber went out of business in 1957, not 1967. I was born in ’58, and lived within 500 feet of that dam and mill until I was out of college. It didn’t operate in my lifetime.
There was another sawmill located about 500 feet downstream of Freedom Lumber (Banton Brothers), that went out of business in the ’40s or ’50s. I remember the remains of the building, and the dam that powered that mill was still partly standing, at least well into the ’70s.
Mr. Grassi’s website chronicles the long and complex trail of regulatory hurdles he and his supporters had to jump over to make the progress they have. It is almost a superhuman effort worthy of Hercules!
The Governor’s Energy office needs to have you read this chronicle and, if you’re as upset as I am with the red tape, then urge Ken Fletcher to sponsor legislation to streamline restorations of water powered economic enterprises like this mill….give people like Grassi the same kind of ‘fast track, one stop’ shopping the wind turbine people have received.
You can fault find any new enterprise….and if you read the DEP regulations on new hydro, it could cost an individual tens of thousands of dollars to apply for a permit; let alone the time and expense of reacting to ‘concerns and complaints’ of anyone who wants to intervene.
This is not to say that a small hydro developer should ignore the many benefits a properly designed system can have on improving water quality and expanding the fishery; but shouldn’t the state be responsible for disseminating this technology in a cooperative manner and not just erect barrier after barrier by people who regard Grassi as an ‘enemy’ of the environment?
The Damariscotta naturalistic fishway is a splendid example of how a lake outfall can be used to generate power, provide a way of catching alewives, and provide a beautiful string of stone lined pools for fish to migrate to and from the ocean. The State Energy office can coordinate the critical information on designing one w/costs and sources of funding…..if they are empowered to ‘help’ a small hydro entrepreneur!