Paperwork help becomes priority

Springfield will contract with the Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission to do some administrative work on the $750,000 grant the town received toward the rehabilitation of the old Fellows Gear Shaper complex.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100215/NEWS02/2150346                         Paperwork help becomes priority By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Rutland Herald - Published: February 15, 2010 SPRINGFIELD — Springfield will contract with the Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission to do some administrative work on the $750,000 grant the town received toward the rehabilitation of the old Fellows Gear Shaper complex. Town Manager Robert Forguites said the community development grant program requires a great deal of paperwork, which will be handled by the regional group, in conjunction with the Springfield Regional Development Corp. The grant will be given to 100 River Street LLC, the out-of-state developer that is in the process of buying the 100-year-old industrial site, which it plans on turning into a health care clinic for Springfield Hospital. Bob Flint, executive director of the Springfield Regional Development Corp., said the grant, a ''slums and blights grant,'' can only be used on certain aspects of the $2 million project, such as the demolition of dilapidated buildings or structures at the complex. According to Forguites, the regional development corporation will act as a "sort of clerk of the works," to manage the grant. The town is "sub-granting" the funds to 100 River Street LLC, Forguites said. The town has to adopt a non-displacement policy, which is a standard requirement for such a federally funded grant. However, no one is being displaced by the renovation project, Forguites said, since no one lives at the building. If it did involve housing, the town would have had to find a new home for the displaced tenants, he said. Flint and Tom Kennedy, the executive director of the regional planning group, met with the Springfield Select Board last week to discuss the administration of the grant, but Forguites said the board didn't sign any agreements yet. The board will take up the issue again at its next meeting. He said unlike some grants, the town will not receive the entire $750,000 in a lump sum, which would have been turned over to the developer after some contracts or agreements are signed. Under this grant, the money is handed out as parts of the project are completed. "There was no giant check," Forguites said. Flint said the grant would pay for demolition of some of the property, as well as life safety systems, such as sprinklers. He said that additional environmental cleanup work was needed, and that remediation of the site is being finished. The complex, which once housed the Fellows Gear Shaper Co., a machine tool plant, is considered a ''brownfield'' site, or property to be redeveloped that may be contaminated. He said the so-called chip shed had already been removed, and some of the contamination had gotten into the concrete foundations. "Hopefully, in another three to four weeks, all the grant agreements will be in place," said Flint, who has said the rehabilitation and reuse of the Fellows complex is a ''dress rehearsal'' for the similar restoration of the Jones & Lamson Machine Tool building on Clinton Street.