Source: http://www.fosters.com, March 22, 2017
By: Judi Currie
The City Council is moving forward with a plan to clean up the former Breton’s Cleaners site and demolish the building.
The former dry cleaning business at 1 Winter St. has been closed for more than a decade. The property sits along the banks of the Salmon Falls River just off the Somersworth/Berwick Bridge.
On Monday, the council authorized City Manager Bob Belmore to sign an agreement with the state Department Environmental Services to accept a $178,000 grant from Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund.
In his State of the City presentation earlier this month, Belmore said his goal is to get the property cleaned up, sell it and get it back on the tax rolls.
“We are very excited to finally move forward with getting rid of a blighted property right on the border to Berwick,” Belmore said.
According to the resolution passed by the council, the remediation work will include abatement by demolition of asbestos and lead-based paint on building structures, the removal of containerized hazardous materials and universal wastes located within the building and placement of a temporary cap over tetrachloroethylene affected soil.
At a public hearing in December, environmental consultant Amy Doherty of GZA and Mike McClusky of the state Department of Environmental Services were on hand to present a cleanup proposal and answer questions.
According to Doherty, the estimated project cost is $380,000. The building demolition and hazardous materials abatement of $178,000 is covered by the grant from NH DES.
The city has applied for a $200,000 EPA’s Brownfields grant.
Belmore said in December the city will have to provide a 20 percent match to the EPA grant and if there is no developer found for the property to take on the monitoring costs that will fall to the city as well.
The EPA’s Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup grant program, provides communities with funding to assess, clean up and redevelop contaminated properties. The awards will be announced later this spring.
Costs not covered by the cleanup grant include permit renewal of $5,500 and 10 years of monitoring at $87,500.