Air concern of the Bellows Falls Depot project – VTDIGGER

This story by Robert F. Smith was first published in Commons on January 28

Bellows Falls, a complex property situation involving two government agencies, can derail Rockingham’s plans to buy and restore Bellows Falls Train depot, but development director Gary Fox said a building.

To this end, the city sent a letter to governor Phil Scott, who seeks cooperation from two state agencies to move the project forward, and the state confirmed its desire to find solutions.

The 8 -acre railway yard at the northern end of the island, part of the VTRANS (VTTRANS) agency, designated in the center of the village’s historic region, while Green Mountain Railroad (GMRR) owns the depot building since 1923. the middle of this land.

It is also controversial who is responsible for cleaning industrial pollution – and how it will be paid.

The city wants the restoration of the historic depot to be at the center of the island’s development in the coming decades. GMRR is ready to sell the city building for $ 285,000. City authorities report that while Vtrans will not sell the land on which the building is sitting, the state agency is ready to hire the land of the city.

Some urban officials, such as the chairman of Selectboard Rick Cowan, expressed concern that if the city bought the building and hires the land before resolving the environmental mediation, the city could be stuck with the environmental cleaning bills as the proposed leasing proposed leasing Vtrans assigns the liability for the tenant to clean the tenant.

The renovated Depot building may include a restaurant – a script designed in the $ 4.3 million designer work – but Cowan said leasing would prohibit the sale of alcohol on VTRANS ownership, which could drastically influence all future plans for Restaurant.

Lawyers participate in discussions to let these problems rest before the purchase.

“There is a lot of ambiguity in the language of the leasing,” Fox said. “But changing one or two sentences in the lease can clear all this.”

This is the purpose of the present conversations with various state departments and a letter from the city asking the governor to intervene.

“Why don’t you just smooth these problems?” Fox asked. “Who wants to go to court that way? Now let all this be square. “

The city calls for the condition to help solve problems

The Rockingham Selectboard sent the letter to Varmont Governor Phil Scott earlier this month, asking him to intervene with the agencies and help solve the problems before April 1.

“We need your help!” The letter on January 7 begins.

The letter asks Scott to work with the Ministry of Environmental Protection in Vermont (DEC) and Vtrans “to achieve a positive result for the island neighborhood.”

As a major transport and industrial center for two centuries, the soils of the island suffer from wide pollution, which must either be removed or contained.

Rockingham is approaching the end of Stage I of a plan for the development of three parts for the historic station. Stage II is planned to start around April 1.

The stage that predisposition works involves a study of the site for structural and environmental problems. The cost of this job was $ 127,542 in taxes and over $ 64,000 grants. An action plan has been developed that will be adopted in Stage II.

At that moment, Fox said, “We will have a railway station we can work with. It will be restored to protection standards. “The important thing about the project,” he said, the city already has “100% involved in Stage II funding.”

This funding includes $ 269,000 raised from taxes, and Fox said, “You have just under $ 1 million in money that is not taxor entering it,” citing money already raised from grants.

Environmental problems such as lead paint, soil gases such as trichlororetry and contaminated soil will be discussed by the end of Stage II.

Last June, consulting engineers Sanborn, Head & Associates discovered tetrachlorethylene vapor in the air in the soil under the base of the landfill building and above the water mass.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the chemical was widely used in tissues for dry cleaning and metallic degreasing.

The agency describes the primary long -term effects of the chemical as neurological, “including impaired cognitive and motor neurobicheral indicators. Exposure to tetrachlorethylene can also cause adverse effects in the kidney, liver, immune system and hematological system and on development and reproduction. “

Fox said that at the end of Stage II of the project: “We will have a safe station AMtrak, which is safe, with environmental problems mixed by elimination or sealing.”

“The building will be restored and it will have all the new windows and doors,” he said.

But Cowan said there were still unclear details that worried him, and that Fox was trying to resolve. Solving these issues, Cowan said, it will be necessary to obtain his approval for the project.

SelectBoard members told Scott that the city should get a “commitment from Vermont Dec and Vtrans to deal with the polluted raid, putting the city at risk of 170 years of railway operations. “

Planning project forecasts show that the use of the railway yard will double over the next decade.

Pollution and housing problems

The railway yard, a local gadget for more than 170 years, occupies the northern end of the island, the 20-dear rail/industrial section of the Belose Falls, formed by the Connecticut River to the north, east and south, and the channel supplying the hydroelectric station of the city on the west side S

The railway also played a critical role in the history of the region. The railways provide transportation of paper, textiles and other goods produced in the area, as well as milk and other agricultural products sent to Kene and Concord, New Hampshire, to Boston and outside. The railway service has gone through the years to mainly long -distance loads and one AMtrak, Vermonter passenger train.

The channel was built in 1801 and helps Bellows Falls become a major transport center. During the short 1800, the channel will be transformed from transport to the provision of water energy for mills. In the 1920s, the channel was restored for the power supply of the hydroelectric installation in the Belose Falls.

The island has been home to several factories over the last 200 years that have created widespread land pollution there.

The appearance of the railway in the 1940s increased the importance of the village as a transport center. The Bellows Falls railway yard was a major northeastern railway center.

As the island is next to the center of Bellows Falls, in recent years it has also been identified as part of the historic neighborhood in the city center. Fox said that the island’s remodeling for various commercial and residential purposes is a vital part of the future plans of the village.

The city has developed a plan for a wide area contributing to the Windham Regional Committee. The plan offers several projects for the urban and private industry over the next few years.

These include the addition of over 100 residential units to the island in the above stories there and 45,000 square meters of commercial development at the street level.

Asked by a few in the community that adding low -income homes increases crime, Fox mocked the idea as nonsense.

The history of the village supports him. In the last few decades, five main residential projects, including numerous low -income tenants apartments, have been completed in the half -mile section of the center of Bellows Falls from the former Westminster Street weapons building to the recently opened Bellows Fall building on the building of the Bellows Falls The garage on the garage on the garage of Bellows on on on on on on on on offt Rockingham Street.

City authorities said all these projects in combination had a zero influence on crime statistics and that buildings had a reputation of well -managed and safe.

On the contrary, Fox said: “The way to eliminate tax problems in the city is to add buildings back to the big list.”

The island, he explained, is the area where the city lost significant buildings from the list of taxes. Adding to the attractiveness of the island is that “it already has water, sewage and three-phase power and has the most space to grow.”

Cleaning the island’s pollution is not only the “right thing for the future,” Fox said, but “the most valuable place to add property value” in the city.

In response to the legal basis of the city, Scott’s office promised to “work directly” with the Transport Agency and the Natural Resources Agency and assured the city that the governor’s office “actively works for a decision”.

“Who wants to invest in a community that will not invest in itself?” Fox asked. “There are many places for federal and private money. If the city escapes frightened, private money will go elsewhere. “