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EPA settles suit about Facemate

Date: 8/3/2011

Aug. 3, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE — A complicated lawsuit that has impeded the development of part of the Uniroyal/Facemate properties is coming to a close.

On July 26, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notified Mayor Michael Bissonnette the agency had reached a settlement in its litigation against the Facemate property in an effort to recoup costs associated with the clean-up, back taxes and security of that property.

The EPA had spent $1.39 million in clean-up actions the agency undertook at the site from 2004 to 2005. The agency had a $1.26 million lien against the property.

Bissonnette explained the lawsuit was not technically against the city, but against the Facemate property, which the city came to own. At the same time the EPA was pursuing the litigation, the city was asking for federal dollars to demolish the building as part of preparing the property for future development.

The mayor said he enlisted the aid of Sen. John Kerry, who then in turn contacted the Attorney General’s office about the lawsuit.

Under the settlement, the EPA will have a share in the net proceeds from the sale of the Facemate property. Six acres of the 19.25 acres have been dedicated as the site of the new senior center.

Bissonnette said the city had worked out a settlement with the EPA three times and three times the agency backed out of it. In frustration, he offered the property to the EPA and told them once the agency took possession, the city would order its demolition.

The lawsuit caused the city to miss a $400,000 brownfields grant that could have been used to further clean up the property. That funding, according to Bissonnette, went to the Union Station redevelopment project in Springfield.

The close of the legal action will allow the city to pursue $5 million in federal grants for additional clean-up of the property, Bissonnette added.

“This settlement helps clear the way for the site’s redevelopment, which means an expanding economic foundation for Chicopee. This cooperative, win-win solution is a good example of [the] EPA and a municipality working together to clean up and rehabilitate a site when there are no responsible private parties left to do the work,” Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA’s New England Office, said.

Bissonnette said there was a site visit last week with potential architects for the senior center and he anticipated the Facemate building should be demolished during the current construction season.

He credited Kerry, City Solicitor Karen Betournay and Attorney William Grady with the efforts that led to the settlement.



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