Wilton board discusses future of former Forster mill property

WILTON – Environmental consultants met with Selectboard members Tuesday for the final closeout meeting of the Forster Manufacturing Co. mill site, discussing possible next steps for the property.

Nick Sabatine and Jaime Madore of Ransom Consulting went over the past few years of the property, which previously served as a home for an automobile fabric supplier, a factory for wood products and the manufacturer of plastic cutlery over the course of its 115-year-old history. The property was acquired by the town of Wilton in 2015 through a foreclosure process. The town then hired Ransom Consulting and applied for a series of grants and loans from federal and state agencies to conduct site assessments, abate asbestos and other hazardous materials from within the site and then a two-phase demolition project that concluded last year.

Both phases of the demolition were awarded to low-bidder EnviroVantage: the first phase took down a free-standing wall left behind from an aborted demolition effort by the previous owner as well as the section of the mill nearest to the road. The second phase took down the section closer to the stream.

“If we look back a couple of years,” Sabatine said, “this is a very different site.”

Work was completed in summer 2019, on schedule and under budget by $100,000 to $120,000, Sabatine and Madore reported.

“We’ve been fortunate to have a contractor who’s been consistent through two phases of work,” Sabatine said.

Selectboard members that spoke to the issue said they wanted to see the property return to the tax rolls. Options ranged from simply putting out the equivalent of a request for proposals for would-be developers, Sabatine said, to further improving the site to make it more attractive for development. Other communities, such as the towns of Canton and Dover-Foxcroft, went through a multi-session visioning process to develop ideas, Sabatine said. In Canton, for example, contaminated soil was transported to a different location on the site and clean fill was brought it – that meant that the newly-cleaned location did not carry deed covenants impacting future development.

Speaking to Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s setback restrictions, Madore said that the only development that was likely to garner approval within 25 feet of the stream was restoration-related: i.e. returning the area to a natural state. Outside 25 feet but within 75 feet of the stream, development was possible with a DEP permit by rule. Development without DEP restriction was possible outside of 75 feet.

Selectboard member Tom Saviello asked the Ransom Consulting representatives to get an estimate of the cost to remove the structures in the stream – referred to as the piers. The town has access to roughly $20,000 in Maine Department of Economic & Community Development and $100,000 in loaned funds. That money could be used for further improvements to the site, such as cutting out the piers.

“To me, that’s the downside of that site,” Saviello said of the piers. He asked whether it was more advantageous to have the town remove the piers, making the property more attractive to developers, or let the prospective developer take care of the issue.

A motion to ask Ransom to look into the issue passed by a vote of 5 to 0. The board also asked for more information about the New Jersey Institute of Technology, which is contracted by the Environmental Protection Agency to help support brownfield development planning.

Selectboard member Tiffany Maiuri thanked Madore and Sabatine for their years of work on the project, with other members echoing her sentiment that Ransom had been “wonderful” to work with.