Cleanup to cost Northborough about $2 million
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Northborough - It could cost the town more than $2 million to clean up a portion of the 119 Colburn St. property contaminated with lead and arsenic, said Adam Last, principal engineer for Corporate Environmental Advisors Inc., during the Board of Selectmen's Jan. 28 meeting.

Last, an engineer who specializes in hazardous waste cleanup, also explained that the contaminated sites do not affect where the new Senior Center, proposed for the same 17-acre parcel, is expected to be built.

There are two areas on the property, and a third at 167 Bearfoot Road, an abutting property, that Last said the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have listed as disposal sites due to the lead and arsenic contamination. The sites were used as an outdoor shooting range and skeet trap-shooting areas when the property was home to a rod-and-gun club operated by the former owner, Central New England Sports Center Inc.

Last said the cleanup, which will include removing contaminated trees and soils and transporting it off the site, will take between three and six months to complete.

Almost as important as the cost of the cleanup is the timeframe in which the town needs it completed, Last said. Under what is known as the Massachusetts Contingency Plan, the town has an obligation to complete the cleanup by July 1, 2009.

Following Last's presentation, Northborough Town Administrator Barry Brenner told the board that the town has $600,000 in an account earmarked for the cleanup. He said the remainder of the money, about $1.5 million, would have to come through bonds that the town could obtain only after the action is approved at Town Meeting.

Within Last's cost estimate was a 25 percent contingency line item of about $425,000. Last explained that the item was there in case costs of the actual cleanup were higher than expected.

Brenner pointed out that if those monies weren't needed, it would further reduce the cost of the project, which would reduce the amount of 20-year bonds that would have to be obtaine d .

"When we request money for the project at Town Meeting, we request the total, but we only take bonds out as needed," Brenner said. "So if the cost of the project is around $1.7 million, minus the $600,000 we already have, that would mean we'd only need bonds in the amount of $1.1 million."

Brenner said he'll work with the Financial Planning Committee and the Appropriations Committee on the article for Town Meeting

Selectman Dawn Rand asked Last and Brenner what would happen if Town Meeting doesn't approve the appropriation of funds.

"We would need to bring it back to another Town Meeting next year and show a good faith effort," Brenner said. "If the town says it just doesn't want to pay, it faces the possibility of fines being assessed against the town."

Brenner explained when the town bought the property in 2002 it had to close on the purchase before the previous owner, Central New England Sports Center, had time to have an environmental survey completed and hazardous waste, if there was any, removed.

As a contingency, Central New England Sports Center gave the town $380,000. That money, Brenner said, is part of the $600,000 already set aside for the project.