HOWLAND, Maine — With the cleanup of the former Howland tannery site resuming, town officials are starting to look toward applying for grants that would fund water and sewer service to the town-owned property in 2017, they said Friday.
The cleanup of the site resumed Tuesday, a day after the Maine Department of Environmental Protection issued a permit allowing the removal of debris by contractors employed by the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, Town Manager William Lawrence said.
“The trust and their subcontractor weren’t going to move any further on the contract [for site cleanup] until those permits were in hand,” Lawrence said Friday.
The trust is finishing the construction and cleanup of a fish bypass on the Penobscot and Piscataquis rivers with the goal of having that work completed by the summer. With that work finished, the town hopes to begin marketing the tannery land for development as a retail site, according to Glenn Brawn, chairman of the town Board of Selectmen.
Cleanup work stalled for several months because of a dispute between PRRT and town officials over the scope of the work and the lack of an appropriate permit, town officials have said. Town officials had argued that the massive mounds of dirt and other debris on the site were not their responsibility to remove. PRRT officials disagreed.
A great deal for both sides rides on the successful conclusion of the project. They have worked together since 2008 to build the $3.2 million fish bypass on land adjacent to the town-owned tannery site. Its access to Route 155, Interstate 95 and the rivers have made the site the centerpiece of town economic development efforts that began about 5½ years ago. The bypass, meanwhile, is part of trust plans to open nearly 1,000 miles of habitat to endangered Atlantic salmon, sturgeon and other species of migratory, sea-run fish.
Town officials hope to apply for federal Community Development Block Grant funds to pay to run the water and sewer service under the road near the site. A developer then would likely run the hookups to the service. A developer also could pay for the water and sewer service without the aid of grants. To qualify for block grants, the town would need to do an engineering study of the hookups, Lawrence said. Such studies cost several thousand dollars.
The property already has three-phase electrical power, Lawrence said.
The site’s section of Route 155 is the most trafficked in town, with about 6,000 cars passing it daily, according to an economic development study town officials had done. Town officials’ next question is whether to consider relocating athletic fields on the other side of Route 155 to another location to further transform the area into a good site for retail or commercial development, Brawn said.
Town officials are considering approaching SAU 31 officials or leaders in other towns either to use the schools’ ballfields at Penobscot Valley High School of Howland or as part of an exchange of services that would allow Howland and the other towns to save money by eliminating redundant services or sharing equipment, Lawrence and Brawn said.
Selectmen will discuss those ideas first. No dates for the discussion have been set, Lawrence said.