The Belfast City Council has selected a firm that will coordinate the federally funded cleanup of two downtown properties.
Councilors voted 5-0 on Tuesday to choose TRC Environmental Corporation after the city was awarded $2.5 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields cleanup and assessment programs earlier this year.
Of that amount, $2 million can be spent on remediating the two sites, while $500,000 can be spent on assessing the condition of another 10 properties in the city.
The selection of the firm marks forward progress in a years-long effort by Belfast to redevelop the downtown area around its waterfront, which was once dominated by industrial operations such as chicken processors but now is better known for its arts, food and tourism offerings.
TRC, which has offices in Augusta and Bath, will receive $125,000 to coordinate the remediation work and another $356,000 for the assessments. It will supervise the projects, handle community outreach and perform other tasks.
The city plans to remediate two different properties with the funds: the former Waldo County Superior Courthouse at 137 Church St., which the city purchased last year, and the deteriorating former nursing home building known as Bradbury Manor at 74 High St.
The courthouse closed in 2018, when judicial operations were relocated to a new building at 11 Market St. Belfast has since repurposed the building for storage and municipal record-keeping and intends to expand city hall there once a cleanup and renovation is complete.
The city has condemned Bradbury Manor and seized it by eminent domain.
It now hopes to use the Brownfields clean-up for cleaning out its interior and demolishing it, which the Planning Board approved last year. The city has gone ahead with those plans after the building’s owner continued to neglect the structure and not work with them after it had been determined to be a safety hazard, officials have said.
The next steps before going ahead with the teardown would be holding a public meeting and a 30-day comment period, as required by the grant, Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge said. The city would need to select another firm to perform the demolition.
