Oh Please...

Date set for revote on Shutesbury library as environmental questions raised
By Ben Storrow
Created 11/30/2011 - 6:00am

SHUTESBURY - Amid allegations that town officials failed to conduct a proper environmental assessment at the proposed library site on Leverett Road, the Select Board on Tuesday scheduled a revote on the library proposal for Jan. 10.

Town officials termed the allegations, raised by resident Michael Hootstein, an environmental geologist and library opponent, "undocumented" and "speculation." Nonetheless, they promised to investigate any possible contamination of the soil at the site, which had been home to an automobile repair shop, excavating business and bus company at various times before the town bought the land.

It was unclear if such a review could be completed before the town's second vote on approving the $3.5 million library in January.

"This is, right now, speculation," said Select Board Chairwoman Elaine Puleo, responding to Hootstein's charges. "However, whatever needs to be remediated will be remediated."

Voters defeated the proposed library by 423-382 earlier this month. But following a marathon Select Board meeting Nov. 16, members April Stein and Puleo voted to put the question on the ballot a second time. The third board member, Al Springer, opposed the revote.

Some 30 residents attended Tuesday's meeting at Town Hall when the Select Board was scheduled to announce a date for the second vote.

After a short debate, which largely centered over selecting a date that would accommodate most voters, the Select Board unanimously decided to schedule the revote for Jan. 10.

On a separate issue, Puleo announced Tuesday that the town had settled on a $40,000 strategy to remove what remains of an old gasoline leak beneath the fire station by injecting a solution into the ground that essentially neutralizes the gasoline. The leak at the fire station has bedeviled officials here for years, with the town spending $235,000 since 2008 to clean up the gasoline in the vicinity of the station, according to a Gazette review in April of the expenses.

Claims that the proposed library site - which is next to the fire station - could be similarly contaminated were greeted with alarm by town officials and residents alike.

Hootstein charged Shutesbury officials with failing to adequately assess potential contamination at the Leverett Road site before the town's purchase of the land in 2004. Shutesbury bought the 22-acre property, which sits across the road from the Highway Department building, from Amherst developer Barry Roberts for $212,510.

Hootstein said the town's failure to conduct the required analysis could potentially jeopardize public safety if a library were built there. That failure, he said, would disqualify the town from receiving federal funding in the event a cleanup at the site is necessary.

Fuss & O'Neill Inc., an environmental consulting engineering firm in West Springfield was hired by the town to inspect the property before its purchase in 2004. However, according to Hootstein, that firm's report stated that the automotive repair shop on the site was inaccessible on the day of a visit to the property. Not inspecting the shop failed to meet the reporting standards required for a site of that kind, he said.

"By failing to release any site assessment information until after both proposed library votes were cast, Shutesbury town officials deprived Shutesbury voters of our rights of informed consent," Hootstein said.

Becky Torres, Shutesbury town administrator, said that former town administrator David Ames ordered extra testing done in the area immediately around two gas tanks on the proposed library site. At no point did the town receive any indication that the site was contaminated, she said.

Moreover, she said an updated report by Fuss & O'Neill in 2010 confirmed those findings, while a consultant hired by the town ruled out the possibility of gasoline from the adjacent fire station contaminating the proposed library site.

"If there is contamination on that property, which was not brought up by the public in 2004, we need to deal with it," Torres said, noting that the town is responsible for the land regardless of whether a library is built. "But at this point we have no documentation that it exists."
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