Officials are pushing for help to clean up the massive old mill property off Terryville Avenue that once housed a New Departure factory.Mayor Art Ward said that state economic development officials have expressed support for the idea of cleaning up the old mill site as well as the former J.H. Sessions factory on Riverside Avenue.
“There’s a ton of potential there,” Ward said.
The 7.3-acre site, which is technically on Franklin Street, is owned by the Stratford-based Gavlick Realty Co., which paid off a $251,000 back tax bill on the site in 2003.
Some of the old mill buildings are in pretty good shape while others are shabby, with their windows shattered and trees growing up around them.
Even so, officials said, there’s hope that the site could become a thriving enterprise again.
Roger Bergeron, a vice president of Pan Am Railways, pointed out that tracks still stretch into the complex from the little-used rail line that runs along the back of the buildings. He said they could be used again.
In addition, he said, the old buildings have high roofs of the sort that many companies are looking for so they can load and unload material easily.
Ward said that the Connecticut Development Authority and other state agencies are interested in the idea of cleaning up the site so that it could become a source of jobs and taxes again.
Getting state dollars to fund the cleanup “would prove invaluable,” Ward said.
New Departure manufactured ball bearings on the site from the early 1900s into the 1960s, records show. It had a foundry on the site.
Back in 2005, General Motors, the successor to New Departure, agreed to pay for for the cleanup of the site, where oil and PCBs were leaking into North Creek. It isn’t clear how much work GM did on the site or what remains to be done.
During last fall’s municipal campaign, city Councilor Mike Rimcoski said a major environmental problem still exists on the property.
"We've got a big problem there," Rimcoski said, and will need federal cleanup help to deal with it.
Until that’s done, Rimcoski said, "We can't touch it."
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Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
