BANGOR, Maine — Emera Maine has changed its plans for a new substation in Saxl Park after months of discussions with birdwatchers, joggers and walkers who were concerned about the effect it would have on the green space.
The company also has offered $125,000 to improve and maintain Saxl Park into the future.
Emera unveiled its new plan during a public meeting Thursday night at Eastern Maine Community College.
When Emera met with Bangor officials back in September, the tentative plan was to build the substation on a flat piece of land at the southwest corner of the park, near the Garland Street terminus. That would have meant building an access road to the site by extending Garland Street.
That plan met opposition from several Garland Street residents and users of the park, who were concerned about how it would affect that neighborhood, the park’s trails and wildlife.
The electric utility began meeting with the Saxl Park Committee and other stakeholders after that, fielding concerns and trying to find solutions, according to Kathy Billings, Emera’s senior strategy adviser.
As a result of those meetings, Emera has moved the substation site to the southeast corner of the park, just behind The Ronald McDonald House of Bangor.
The downside of the southeastern corner of the park is that Emera will need to dig into the hillside to create a level site, according to project manager Bruce Philbrick, but it also means Emera can leave Garland Street alone. Instead, the substation will be accessed via a new driveway off State Hospital Drive, which leads to Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Hospital.
Emera plans on planting evergreen trees around the site to shield it from view as much as possible. The company also will reroute walking and running trails around the development. The substation would take up an estimated 2 of the 66 acres in the park.
The utility offered more in an attempt to ease the impact.
Jim Ring, former Bangor city engineer and a member of the Saxl Park Committee, said that Emera has offered $10,000 for new “educational” signage and kiosks in the park, $15,000 for the committee to use to lobby for increased protection for parks from projects like this in the future, and $100,000 to start a “perpetual maintenance fund.”
Ring said that if that $100,000 is invested, the interest itself should fund annual mowing and basic upkeep. It costs about $2,600 per year to mow and remove hay from the field each year.
“It’s a lot of money if you don’t have it,” Ring said.
Members of the Saxl Park Committee said Thursday they were pleased with the concessions and changes Emera made to its plan.
Lucy Quimby, a Bangor resident and Saxl Park advocate, credited Emera for its efforts to “avoid, minimize and mitigate” major changes to the park. She also said the committee recognizes the need for a new substation to supply reliable power to Eastern Maine Medical Center and the surrounding area.
Emera Maine has been working on the substation project since 2011, but picked up the pace in the past year as Eastern Maine Medical Center began construction on its $247 million, seven-story expansion.
The company says there’s a growing demand for electricity on Bangor’s east side. The waterworks substation, located just behind the Bangor Water District facility, was built in the 1950s and can’t reliably meet the increased demand, according to Philbrick.
“I don’t want to give the impression that the system’s falling down today,” Philbrick said. “This is long-term planning.”
As the east side’s demand for power grew, Emera pushed some customers onto the Broadway substation supply to take some of the load off the waterworks station. That means a problem at the Broadway substation results in far more power outages. A new substation would allow Emera to more evenly distribute customers among substations.
Emera considered other locations for a substation, but preferred a spot close to the hospital and east side neighborhoods because voltage is lost as electricity travels long distances through wires.
The company estimates the total project cost will be about $7 million, $4.5 million for the substation itself, though those numbers are “preliminary numbers” and are likely to change, according to Emera spokeswoman Susan Faloon.
Saxl Park, officially dedicated in 1984, was named for Joseph Saxl, superintendent of the psychiatric hospital from 1974 to 1981. During his tenure, Saxl decided to put to use the overgrown former farmland on hospital grounds. He initiated extensive landscaping work to convert the park into a recreation and leisure area for patients and the public.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.