PATTEN, Maine —The chair of Patten’s Select Board completed the demolition of the town’s historic recreation center earlier this year despite local officials knowing the building was filled with asbestos, according to new details on the noncompliant tear-down that the town shared in response to a Freedom of Access Act request from the Bangor Daily News.
That April 17 demolition ultimately was found to have violated strict state environmental protection regulations, in part because it should have been carried out by a state-licensed asbestos removal expert, according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Select Board Chairman Gregg Smallwood does not have that licensing.
The state agency also found that Smallwood’s company, Smallwood Inc., demolished the building on Founder’s Street in April without taking proper precautions.
The town had not previously confirmed that Smallwood carried out the work, and when reached by the BDN in April, Smallwood refused to say who did the demolition.
“The building is gone and I don’t want to talk to you about it,” he said in April. “The DEP was here and it’s all taken care of.”
Town Manager Gail Albert provided the confirmation that Smallwood Inc. demolished the recreation building. She said that he completed the tear-down at no financial cost to the town.
Maine DEP officials inspected the site in April, just days after Smallwood’s excavator tore into the building, and later issued a notice of violation to the town on May 5.
According to the notice, Smallwood did not notify the DEP prior to tearing down the 1941 building, did not use a state-licensed asbestos removal contractor and failed to use proper asbestos abatement work practices.
The state is now requiring the town to follow corrective measures, including meeting all state regulations for future asbestos abatement projects. By November, the town is also required to develop a plan for future demolition of town properties, according to the violation notice.
Non-compliance could lead to further enforcement actions, according to the DEP.
“The DEP is requiring Patten to take corrective actions but did not impose a fine,” said Deputy Commissioner David Madore in May.
The presence of asbestos in the recreation center was documented in a 226-page report produced last summer as part of a Phase II site assessment through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfield program, which helps to deal with contaminated sites.
Eastern Maine Development Corp., the manager of the Brownfield grant, hired Campbell Environmental Group to complete the report as part of the federal program.
The Phase II assessment found asbestos in several parts of the recreation center, including 1,800 square feet of white siding, the rim around the boiler room door and two additional boxes of asbestos tiles in a second-floor room.
“Once those assessments are complete, it is the town’s responsibility to follow demolition regulations,” said Jennifer King, a Brownfield specialist and EMDC’s senior director of planning and development, in April. “If they choose to demolish, the DEP must be 100 percent involved in the process.”
Town officials told DEP investigators in a late April video conference that a January 2024 survey identified asbestos in the building.
And during a Jan. 6 Select Board meeting, the Brownfield-funded report on the building was shared with the Select Board.
According to minutes from the meeting — which did not record comments verbatim — the Select Board, under Smallwood’s direction as chair, discussed the presence of asbestos in the building. Additionally, an unidentified speaker said that the town would not be receiving funds to assist with the tear-down.
In the ensuing discussion — which was not fully detailed in the minutes — an unidentified speaker said that the town voted previously to tear it down.
The Select Board previously discussed the building during multiple meetings throughout 2022, including on March 16, July 5, July 19, Sept. 27 and Oct. 21, according to a BDN search of meeting minutes.
Initially, the Select Board members, including then-vice chairman Smallwood, agreed to inform the community about the building. They also discussed the possibility of putting it on a warrant for a town meeting vote.
As the discussions progressed in 2022, officials considered selling the building but eventually in October 2022 decided to have Smallwood go in with an excavator and tear it down. Officials were not aware of the asbestos contamination in 2022.
However, there has been nothing in the board’s 2025 minutes that indicated the town directed Smallwood to tear the building down in April against state regulations.
A BDN search of the minutes from January 2022 through April 2025 did not reveal references to other contractors doing the demolition, and there was no discussion about obtaining bids for the work.
While Smallwood previously declined to discuss the project with the BDN, he told DEP investigators in an April 26 video conference call that he removed the asbestos from the building and stored it in barrels prior to the building’s demolition.
State officials said that Smallwood was “not a licensed or certified individual to perform this regulated work in the state of Maine.”
Additionally, they wrote that they had “no record of notification for this demolition job and proper work practices such as a regulated area, signs and decontamination unit were not present on the site.”
