WEST LEBANON — City officials are making a renewed push to have four crumbling, state-owned structures removed from the Westboro Rail Yard, a first step toward creating green space on the 22-acre site in downtown West Lebanon.

A recent report commissioned by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation says it would cost $858,000 to rid the property of its historic bunkhouse, roundhouse, sandhouse and chimney.

It’s money the City Council argues would be well spent, ridding the neighborhood of blighted buildings many consider beyond repair.

The council also has turned to its Statehouse delegation and Executive Councilor Mike Cryans, D-Hanover, to make its case in Concord. The additional help is needed after talks with the office of Republican Gov. Chris Sununu appear to have stalled.

“I just felt the momentum had been lost,” Mayor Sue Prentiss said at the City Council meeting on Wednesday. “We need to know if this is on the governor’s radar or not because we had a very strong sense that we were moving in a direction toward seeing something in the governor’s budget, and we don’t have that sense anymore.”

Messages left for Sununu spokesman Ben Vihstadt were not returned on Thursday.

Cryans, who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said he plans to advocate for the project but also cautioned that the city still could be asked to contribute to the cleanup effort. “It’s like a lot of things in life. If you can get a good chunk of it, it’ll make it worth your while to tackle the project,” he said.

City officials have worked for more than a year to draw the state’s attention to the 170-year-old rail yard, after fire officials warned in 2017 that shrapnel and fire from a propane facility in the rail yard could prove “potentially fatal” for 492 people living in a 1,560-foot radius.

The Chamber of Commerce and area businesses also argued that continued neglect of the old rail buildings would discourage development in West Lebanon.

Details of the DOT report — completed in January by Manchester-based ATC Group Services — are unlikely to surprise city officials, who have witnessed the rail yard’s decay firsthand and long warned of asbestos and lead contamination.

“All three buildings are vacant and in poor condition. Portions of the roof and support structures of each building have collapsed,” the report said.

Consultants found asbestos in roofing material, a chute within the roundhouse and in the caulking of the sandhouse’s chimney. Testing also showed that lead paint is present in several areas throughout the site, although it’s possible levels are low enough that debris could be disposed of normally, the report said.

Overall, ATC estimated it would cost $288,555 to demolish the roundhouse, $145,500 to remove the bunkhouse and $184,350 to get rid of the sandhouse and chimney. Asbestos removal would be an additional $240,132, the report said.

The council on Wednesday offered to help reduce those costs by reusing masonry from the site. If Lebanon were to grind up the bricks, they could serve as a base for road projects or a potential parking lot, said City Manager Shaun Mulholland, who estimated that the state would save $287,760 by forgoing transportation costs.

“From my perspective, that’s a great thing. I mean that’s offering up over 30 percent of the total estimated cost of the project as an in-kind contribution from the city at virtually no cost to us,” replied Assistant Mayor Tim McNamara.

The city’s efforts to shed light on the decaying buildings also comes as legislation calling for increased transparency around state-owned properties appears headed for defeat.

The House Public Works and Highways Committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to recommend killing HB 135, which would have required the state to notify a municipality 15 days before a railroad property within its boundaries is sold, leased or transferred to another entity.

Public Works Committee Chairman John Cloutier, D-Claremont, said there’s an existing state law that already requires the state to notify towns and cities 60 days before a “substantial change in use or a substantial new use” on its property. “We felt that a lot of concerns raised by the sponsors (of the rail yard bill) is covered by existing state law,” Cloutier said in a phone interview.

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.