SOUTH ROYALTON — The demolition of a dilapidated former grain mill has been halted while the property owner figures out how to dispose of asbestos on the site, town and state officials said.
The delay has dismayed residents, who’d been told the mill would be gone by spring. Last fall, the Royalton Selectboard gave property owner Eric Jacobs 120 days to remove the structure.
But before hiring a contractor, Jacobs neglected a state requirement to have an assessment done, said Lawton Rutter, senior inspector for the asbestos and lead regulation program at the Vermont Department of Health, in a phone interview.
Demolitions in Vermont require an asbestos survey in advance, Rutter said, and any asbestos must be removed before demolition. Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral, once widely used in building materials such as shingles and insulation — but no longer, because it causes lung cancer.
Work stopped on the Royalton site June 11, when the state Department of Environmental Conservation found asbestos shingles there, Rutter said. A consultant inspected the site the next day and confirmed that the shingles contain asbestos.
The asbestos would be a hazard to people working on the demolition, but not to people living nearby, Rutter said. The mill, which opened for business in 1909 and closed in the mid-1990s, sits in a residential area.
The state is awaiting a remediation plan from Jacobs, who will then need to hire a contractor so the asbestos can be disposed of properly. Efforts to reach Jacobs on Thursday were not successful.
Residents had hoped for a swift cleanup of the former feed plant. The smell of residual materials that were mixed into livestock feed blows onto neighboring properties. Depending on the wind, the odor can drift to the nearby White River Valley School.
It doesn’t seem fair that the state is delaying the project while the neighbors still have to live with it, Selectboard member Nell Gwin said at the board’s meeting Tuesday evening.
The board voted June 23 to fine Jacobs if demolition work had not resumed by June 26 and if the project was not completed by Aug. 1.
However, the state’s enforcement action on asbestos cleanup takes that timeline out of the town’s hands, board member Tim Parker said.
“Am I hearing that there is no deadline for when Mr. Jacobs must submit a plan?” asked Kathy Hassey, a South Royalton resident who lives near the plant.
Board member Kip Bergstrom expressed concern that asbestos abatement contractors might be hard to find in the midsummer, which could push the cleanup into the fall.
Rutter confirmed there is no deadline for the asbestos cleanup, but said the state has authority to compel cleanups if property owners appear to be dragging their feet. The timeline will depend on the cleanup plan and on when workers are available, Rutter said.
“From my perspective, the owner has been very cooperative and very responsive of everything that has been asked of him so far,” Rutter said. If that wasn’t the case, he’d be talking with the Health Department’s legal team. “Compliance and enforcement is a big part of what we do,” he said.
Gwin, who lives near the plant, said she’s concerned that the project will be left to sit. The feed mill has been closed for the past 30 years. Jacobs purchased the mill in 2004; it sits on a 0.6-acre parcel that’s served by town water and sewer, making it suitable for housing.
“There’s got to be a hard deadline on that, yeah?” Gwin said during Tuesday’s meeting.
For neighbors like Hassey, the smell of the mill makes it difficult to enjoy Vermont’s fleeting summer. She said she’s put a picnic table in her backyard, which faces away from the mill, “because in these nice months, don’t you want to be outside?”
Her neighbor Nancy Eddy, who joined her at the meeting, said she has lived near the mill for “50-some-odd years.” It was fine when the mill was running, she said.
“Now it’s just a case of waiting to see what’s going to happen.”
