BERLIN INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT PARK AUTHORITY
Board Meeting
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
BIDPA MEMBERS STAFF
Dick Huot, Chair Pamela Laflamme, City Planner
Don Huot Patrick MacQueen, City Manager
Terry Block
Andre Duchesne Norm Charest, Economic Development Director
Mike Caron Diana Nelson, City Councilor, Ex-Officio
Members Excused: Paul Lozier, Jerry Dumoulin
Members Absent: None
Others present: Mark Evans, City Councilor elect; Alan McLain, Jim Wagner, Jay Poulin, all representing Greenova, LLC;
The board meeting began at 6:00 P.M
Addition to the Agenda: Greenova, LLC - Presentation to the BIDPA Board.
Minutes:
Mr. Block made a motion to accept the minutes for the October meeting, seconded by Mr. Duchesne, all voted in favor.
Financial Report:
Mr. Dumoulin was not in attendance, so the report was tabled until the December meeting.
Greenova, LLC - discussion with board regarding proposed wood pellet facility:
Jay Poulin of HEB Engineers presented the site plan of the proposed project to the BIDPA as he did two weeks ago for the Berlin Planning Board. There would be several operations going on at the plant, with the first being a log storage area where whole logs would be brought to the site and stacked. Lot 11 would be used to de-bark the logs and process them into chips. That area would be paved to achieve a clean surface. Chips would then be conveyed to a kiln dryer which is heated with the extricated bark from the logs. Chips are then sent into a hammer mill and then conveyed to storage.
There are two means of shipping: trucked by the bag and loaded on pallets and there would also be six silos for bulk fill.
The operation would have three truck movements: that of raw wood delivery, bulk fill, and packaged pellet movement. All trucks will need to be weighed empty and full. A 45,000 square foot building is proposed with the processing equipment behind the building.
There will be constant truck activity on the lots and it may be proposed to discontinue the loop and provide a cul-de-sac or hammerhead due to safety concern. Mr. Poulin reviewed the road and code issues with the board and his reasoning for need for a road closure. He brought up the issue of the covenants as a problem for the project and Greenova's desire to see the covenants amended or rescinded to deal with many of the concerns that they have with these covenants.
Mr. Charest reviewed the history of the covenants and a meeting that was had with Greenova, City Staff, and Chairman Huot. He explained that he has discussed the covenants with the majority of the owners in the Industrial Park and five out of the seven owners have already agreed preliminarily that the covenants should be removed.
There was discussion between the board and Mr. Poulin about the necessity of the covenants. Mr. Block spoke to the historical use of the park and that he felt that this project is out of sync with the other projects in the park.
Mr. Poulin proposed to the board that the 100 foot easement was too large for their project and that they would like to see that easement request reduced to twenty five feet on Lot 7 and that another twenty five feet be reserved on the BIDPA parcel that is to the east of Lot 7.
There was a discussion about Industrial Park Road and whether the road could be closed. There were concerns about how access to the property would be made, who would have the ability to access the property, how the road closure would impact the other businesses in the park and what type of turnaround would be available for plow trucks, and other traffic in the park would deal with the dead ends.
Mr. Poulin explained to the board that there will be a need to go to the Zoning Board of Adjustment to deal with the issues of building height and noise. He shared with the board a handout about the noise on the property and the decibel ratings for the equipment. He explained the decibel readings would differ depending on how the equipment was positioned on the property.
Mr. Block left the meeting at this time - there was no longer a quorum.
Mr. Poulin described the emission control process with the board. He told the board that all permits have been applied for and that there is a substantial investment in the emission control equipment and there will be no issues with emissions in the park.
Councilor Nelson told the board that she thought that as it is the Industrial Park, it seemed as though this was a project that should get as much assistance from BIPDA as any other project we have supported in the past in the park. The property is industrial, the park is set up for industrial uses, and therefore she would like to see the covenants removed.
There was a brief discussion about the merits of the covenants. The board members present asked Mr. Charest to meet with the property owners and get their signatures. When he has obtained at least 2/3 of the property owners, then the board would call a special meeting to take a vote on terminating the covenants.
The board members present discussed the issue of the easement and those present agreed that twenty five feet was sufficient.
As there was no quorum for the meeting, further discussion was postponed until a quorum was reached.
Economic Development Director's Report & Maynesboro Industrial Building Update:
The report was tabled until December.
Other: None
Public Comments: None
Non- Public: None
Member Comments: None
Adjournment:
The meeting adjourned at 7:15PM.
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