MONTAGUE — In an effort to address the Canal District in Turners Falls, the town is seeking grants totaling up to $350,000.
The Selectboard unanimously signed off on two grant submissions for grants from MassDevelopment, an the economic development arm of the state, in its meeting this week.
Town Planner Walter Ramsey came before the board to discuss the grant applications that the Planning Conservation Department has been working on.
The first grant program is a Site Readiness Grant — the town will ask for up to $100,000 toward planning for infrastructure improvements to the Canal District in Tuners Falls. Ramsey said that would include six properties between the canal and the river commonly known as Indeck, Strathmore, Southworth, 42 Canal Street (the location of the new cidery), Railroad Salvage and the Railroad Salvage annex.
“The study would develop this infrastructure master plan and prioritize replacement of bridges and utilities that served the mills, particularly those over the power canal,” Ramsey said. “There are seven bridges total in this little span that serve these six sites, and only one bridge is functioning to its design capacity, and that’s the Fifth Street bridge — the one with a hump in it.”
The utilities that are going to these sites are carried over bridges, most of which are the closed bridges, that are pedestrian bridges. Only one of the six sites has sewer, and one of the six sites has water, and they are not the same site, according to Ramsey. The town owns two out of the seven bridges — the Fifth Street pedestrian bridge and former Sixth Street Bridge, which was formally used for a vehicles.
“We know it’s a mess there, but this study would assess what’s there and come up with a strategic prioritized plan for what improvements to make,” Ramsey said. “We would have budget estimates for the different projects and a working plan that we can then go out and help attract private investment.”
Ramsey said the town is more likely to get a good quality investor if there is a plan in place for infrastructure improvements. Then, the town can better align itself for future public funding requests from state and federal sources, as well.
“It’s a necessary step. I know we’ve done plans and studies for the district before — this is one that is going to look at the whole district,” Ramsey said.
If the town gets it, the state does not ask for a match.
“I think it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s something we need to ask for to keep moving forward,” Ramsey said. “It would build off of existing studies that have been done there.”
The second grant is a Brownfield Redevelopment Grant for up to $250,000 for asbestos and hazardous materials removal at the Strathmore Mill complex, which includes 11 buildings. It would cover the hiring of an engineer to manage every aspect of the project — doing the final specifications, managing procurement, construction observation and all the close-out documentation.
Ramsey said the program is new and funds above-ground remediation, in additional to below-ground. The abatement would include removing windows, which have asbestos in the calking, but would not remove shingles.
“This would abate the buildings that are proposed to remain. That parlays into the demolition study that’s being done, which is looking at demolishing half of the buildings in the complex right now,” Ramsey said. “The half that would remain — the buildings around the hydro turbine — are the ones that are going to be abated under this grant application.”
Town Administrator Steve Ellis asked Ramsey about the buildings chosen to be abated.
“At this point, because we’re still looking at different demolition scenarios in terms of the buildings, we’ve gotten this opinion of probable cost as a basis from (the Franklin County Regional Housing Authority) built around buildings one, two, four and 11 remaining,” Ellis said. “But we could potentially have to pivot that at some future point after the award. If one were taken down for example, five and six, which are on the north side of the Turners Falls hydro, end up being preserved. We have to at this fixed point in time submit for one scenario.”
Ramsey said if one building goes, or another one stays, there is built-in flexibility.
A couple of years ago, Town Meeting approved the town could match $110,000 by borrowing, according to Ramsey, who added that having the match in hand will make for a strong application. The total cost of abating half of the complex is $360,500 — $110,000 from the town and $250,000 from the grant.
There are repayment terms for both grants — MassDevelopment expects to be repaid through any net land sale proceeds and/or long-term lease revenue. Barring revenue from that, the town would do an annual appropriation of 15 percent of any economic benefit to the municipality from the project.
Ramsey said MassDevelopment defines economic benefit to the municipality as any new net value revenue from increases in property taxes attributable to the development of the site.
Ramsey said he has confidence in getting the Brownfield grant, because the town is competing at the state level. The town has applied to the United States Environmental Protection Agency twice for funding to do the cleanup, and it was rejected both times.
“The main reason why we missed out, is because we are competing on a national level, and the threat to the environment and public health is not high enough compared to some of these other sites across the country,” Ramsey said. “What’s nice about this grant application is that we’re competing against projects in the state, and its from an economic development agency. I really like our chances with this grant.”