By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT – City officials will contract technical support from a University of Connecticut program to help inform the council’s decision on the Sullivan smokestack, a 104 year-old remnant of the city’s manufacturing history whose continuing deterioration poses a growing safety problem.
On Wednesday, the Claremont City Council voted unanimously to allow the city to work with the University of Connecticut Technical Assistance for Brownfields Program, a university-funded program that provides technical support on brownfields development, including guidance in land reuse decisions and brownfield grant applications.
City Planning and Development Director Nancy Merrill said the university program will have no cost to the city and will help the council incorporate a broader perspective when deciding the fate of the Sullivan smokestack.
“What we really want is to not look just at the smokestack, but at that whole side of the river,” said Nancy Merrill, director of Planning and Development. “Because it’s really hard to look at grant funding if you don’t know what to do with it as a whole.”
The community discussion concerning the smokestack, which is important, has arguably redirected the attention from the forest to a single tree.
That forest, proverbially speaking, would be approximately 14 acres of city-owned riverfront parcels that span from Puksta Street Bridge to Union Street Bridge. In the coming months the city aims to gather community feedback regarding the development of this property for private or public use.
But first the city must address the 146-foot retired chimney that stands upon the land.
The chimney, originally built in 1918, has become a major safety concern in the city. A large section of the upper chimney wall has dislodged and many bricks are “dangerously suspended” and capable of falling at any time, according to the inspection report from the Connecticut-based firm Structural Repairs.
The report calls for the uppermost 16 feet of the chimney to be removed, but provides rough cost estimates for the remainder of the chimney, depending on whether the city opts to demolish it or restore it for historical preservation.
Engineers estimated a rough cost between $140,000 to $170,000 to completely demolish the structure and a rough cost of about $272,000 to restore it.
Should the council wish to restore the chimney, Merrill said it is important when seeking grant assistance to have a viable reason for preserving it.
“In terms of grants, it’s not a matter of us having this great chimney,” Merrill said. “The question is what are you going to do with it?”
The University of Connecticut program, which was recommended to the city by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, will look at the land and brownfields, as well as the previous studies, to help the city examine the total work needed to develop the property.
Merrill said she has already spoken to representatives of the program, who plan to send interns to the city in mid-May.
The university program would run 10-weeks, Merrill said. There is also a fall program available that provides support with the grant application process.
During this time the city should proceed with at least removing the chimney’s uppermost 16 feet, Merrill said. This portion must be removed regardless and would still allow the council to decide whether to demolish or preserve the remainder.
In a separate vote, the council voted to seek comparative cost estimates to fund a partial removal. Some councilors indicated they are more inclined to demolish the entire structure and would not support a temporary, partial removal unless it is cost-effective.
According to the study, it will cost roughly $18,000 to remove the 16-foot top. However, the stack would need a new chimney cap, which engineers estimated at $19,000.
The council expressed interest in knowing whether there might be a cheaper, temporary cap option, which would make more sense if the council eventually votes to demolish.
Merrill said the city currently has $16,000 in its tax increment financing (TIF) fund to go toward the chimney-top removal.
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