MACHIAS, Maine — A building that formerly housed a local dry cleaning business likely will be coming down.
The Hannah Weston Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution expect to close on the property May 26, DAR Regent Carol Sprague said May 18.
The purchase price was not disclosed.
“We’re taking the building down,” Sprague said.
The DAR runs a museum in the historic Burnham Tavern, located on Main Street next door to the laundry building. Tearing down the laundry building will make the tavern more visible. Aside from that, however, the group has no specific plans for the property.
“We really can’t visualize this until we get the building down,” Sprague said.
Because the site is a brownfield, Washington County Manager Betsy Fitzgerald assisted the group, Sprague said.
“I knew that the owner wanted to sell the building, and I knew the abutting landowners … were interested in purchasing it,” Fitzgerald said Tuesday.
The brownfield committee through the Washington Council Council of Governments did a Phase I assessment of the laundry property. This assessment basically meant substantiating the contamination, she said. The COG also completed Phase II, which provides a plan for handling the contamination.
“Because of that brownfield, the debris from the building coming down has to be handled a certain way,” Sprague, who also credited Fitzgerald with making the transaction possible, said.
“Betsy has been wonderful,” Sprague said.
“I have done nothing but shepherded it through. The ladies have been far too generous about giving me credit,” Fitzgerald said.