CLAREMONT — A river walk, an amphitheater, a brew pub, space for a farmers market and river access were some ideas residents came up with at a workshop to discuss redevelopment of the property along the Sugar River that is the heart of the city’s industrial past.
About 40 residents attended the meeting at the visitors center to first hear from the University of Connecticut’s Technical Assistance for Brownfields program, which works on abandoned, potentially contaminated industrial sites.
The team studied the properties along the north side of the river, from the former Synergy gas plant location west to the area of Spring Street. The site includes the crumbling Sullivan smokestack and pump house, both of which are in disrepair and whose future has been debated at City Council meetings.
Some councilors wanted to move ahead with demolition of the “stack” in March, but several residents objected and urged the city to look into grants and other sources to save the structure.
The council finally agreed to bring the TAB program to Claremont, at no cost, and look at redevelopment possibilities for the entire area, which comprises about 9½ acres on three adjoining city-owned properties that include the visitor’s center and two parking lots. Most the discussion at the workshop focused on the 7-acre piece that runs along the river below the parking lots.
Nefeli Bompoti, assistant research professor and program manager for TAB at UConn, who led the presentation, noted the pump house is not only in very poor condition but is in the floodplain, meaning if it were demolished, a new structure would likely not be allowed. She said repairing the smokestack would be very expensive, but the city could simply maintain it and leave it as a historic site.
Earlier this year, a Connecticut firm did an analysis of the 140-foot chimney, which was constructed in 1918 and has not been used since 1978, and concluded it would cost about $270,000 to restore it and between $140,000 and $170,000 to demolish it.
Most of the area studied by TAB is the former site of the Sullivan Machine Co. Melinda Bubier, project manager of the brownfields program at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, told attendees an initial assessment for contamination did not reveal “anything alarming” or any leaching into the groundwater. Bubier recommended the city decide what it would like to do with the property there and then complete further assessments to see if the plans are feasible.
Residents at the workshop on Monday did not dwell on the pump house or chimney but instead on redevelopment ideas for the site. The suggestions for the area nearly all supported using it as an outdoor space for a variety of interests.
While opinions among the groups at the workshop differed on some ideas — some suggested a dog park while others worried about a different kind of waste that dog owners tend not to clean up — there was consensus that whatever is done must connect to other parts of the city. One resident called it a “great area, but it is not tied to anything” and another said the pedestrian bridge leads to a parking lot behind a mill building.
“Make sure what we do is tied to the downtown,” added Spencer Batchelder.
That connection would include signage to direct people to Opera House Square and recently revitalized Pleasant Street, as well as city parks.
Bompoti mentioned some of the challenges of the site, including changes in elevation from the visitor’s center down to the river and the restrictions at the gas plant site, where the Environmental Protection Agency completed remediation several years ago. Some of the soil contaminated by coal tar remains but is capped with a material impervious to water.
Mike McCory, project manager with the city, concluded the workshop by stating the city will compile the ideas in a report and use it as a guide going forward.
“This input will really help shape the direction we decide to go,” McCory said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
