TURNERS FALLS — The abandoned Southworth paper mill at 36 Canal St. has been ordered to be secured from intruders and vandals, and brought up to fire safety standards.
The mill, on the strip of land between the power canal and the Connecticut River, has been empty since Southworth went out of business in August 2017. The company stopped maintaining the building some time in the year since, according to Turners Falls Fire Chief John Zellmann. Now the building is not secured or patrolled and has no fire alarms or sprinklers.
“Right now if there were a fire in that building we would not know it until somebody saw it,” Zellmann said. “That’s been my concern for a year now.”
At a Selectboard meeting in August, Zellmann warned that “it may go down the same road as Strathmore.” The Strathmore building, on the same strip of land, was similarly abandoned and ultimately was destroyed in a fire.
There have been reports of trespassers in the building, causing concerns about maliciously set fires.
The fire department gave notices to the building’s owners several times in the past year, Zellmann said. In August, the town of Montague and the Turners Falls Fire District complained to Franklin County Superior Court, and on Friday the court granted a preliminary injunction, requiring Southworth to fix its sprinklers and fire alarms and either secure the windows and doors or have a 24-hour watchman.
The company will have seven days to comply after being served a notice. Until then the building will be randomly patrolled by police officers.
Southworth’s attorneys were unavailable for comment Tuesday.
Until Southworth went out of business last August, the mill had been in operation since 1900. Southworth took ownership of the mill in 2006 as part of its acquisition of Esleek Paper, the original owner of the mill.
When it closed, Southworth had about 120 employees throughout Turners Falls, Agawam and Seattle, Wash. The Turners Falls mill had employed about 60 people.
In January, a Maine-based company called SBD Greentech took steps to purchase the building, but backed out in February. In May the town took a tax title on the property, which protects its interest in the unpaid taxes on the property.
As of February, Southworth owed the town of Montague $275,000 in unpaid taxes and fees.
Town officials worry that the Southworth mill could wind up like its neighboring Strathmore factory complex, which the town had to take ownership of it for back taxes several years ago when its owners essentially gave up on it. That factory has been mostly empty since then, although the town keeps hoping to find a developer who can revive at least part of the old brick structure. A large section of the complex was destroyed by a suspicious fire several years ago, and the town has had to spend tens of thousands of dollars to protect the building from vandals and intruders.