Cummings mill redevelopment plans get hearing

NORWAY — During a public hearing held January 13, at the Norway Town Office, Brett Doney, CEO of EnterpriseMaine, detailed plans for the C. B. Cummings mill redevelopment project.

Rehabilitation of the 144-year old former wood turning complex is currently tied to the successful application of two Community Development Block Grants (CDBG).

One grant, for downtown revitalization, will be for $500,000.  The other grant, to be submitted in conjunction with Growth Council of Oxford Hills — a division of EnterpriseMaine — is a nonprofit redevelopment request $250,000.

Doney unveiled what was described as a conceptual plan for “phase one” of the project.  If funding is obtained, redevelopment would then proceed to an engineering plan.  Additional hearings would be scheduled at that time to solicit public feedback.

Doney also mentioned that any citizen wishing to contribute to the C. B. Cummings Advisory Committee could contact Marcy Broughter of EnterpriseMaine at 743-8830.

Doney said that completion of phase one should allow EnterpriseMaine to begin selling the first buildings from the mill complex to redevelopers, or possibly even private businesses.

Because estimates for the total infrastructure redevelopment costs at the mill site currently run to $1.1 million, provisional plans call for EnterpriseMaine to “come back [to the town] with at least one more phase.”   

“If all goes well, phase one will be done by next summer,” said Doney, who left open the possibility of work extending into 2007.   “We’d like to be out of [both phases of] the project in the next three years.”

Western Maine Development — another division of EnterpriseMaine — will contribute $195,000 to the redevelopment project.  A portion of this amount will cover the 20 percent local match required for the larger grant request. 

Part of these funds will be earmarked for redevelopment projects which, according to Doney, can only be paid for with matching funds.  These include installation and upgrades to potable (drinking) water systems, fire protection water system and sanitary sewer forced main and pump station. 

Other portions of the project, which must be paid for out of the matching funds, include property purchases and the erection of new signs.

The town will seek to purchase a property on Water Street, between Main Street and Pikes Hill, to be converted into parking. 

Also planned for purchase is a four-acre property off of Orchard Street belonging to George and Mary Verenis.  Currently classified as an “unbuildable lot” by the town — due to combination of wetlands and steep terrain — this area will be converted into walking trails intended to tie “open space” into both the mill and downtown areas. 

Plans call for these trails to connect to other trails that will parallel the Pennesseewassee Stream and exit onto Main Street by the Opera House and the vacant Aubuchon Hardware building.

New grading and paving of walkways beside the Opera House also will be required.

A separate grant request has been filed with the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) to construct foot bridges across the stream, linking the mill complex with Main Street.

Doney said that “it will be some time” before the town finds out if the MDOT grant was successful.

Another expenditure that will be used to meet matching requirements will be the erection of “interpretive signage.”  These signs, to be placed on Routes 26 and 118, are intended to act as gateways directing motorists to downtown Norway, which — along with the Cummings mill site — will be identified as the town’s “historic district.”

Other funds going into the project, above and beyond the CDBG grant, include a $2,600 donation from Selectman William J. Damon and $20,000 worth of fill, an in-kind donation from the town.

Also included will be $31,000 that is to be repaid to Norway by Maine Discoveries.  The town had loaned this amount to the downtown store, which has since gone out of business, under its community development program.  Maine Discoveries was a division of EnterpriseMaine. 

“We really closed it [Maine Discoveries] because we thought a tenant was going to move in there and that deal fell through,” said Doney.  “We are going to try and get that space filled.”

According to Norway Town Manager David Holt, once those funds are repaid, they can only be turned around into other community development projects.

Once construction gets underway, assuming either grant is awarded, the concept plan calls for the demolition of the dowel mill and the single-story concrete paint vault, as well as the boiler feeder.  In place of these structures will be a parking lot.  Additional landscaping will include the planting of several trees designed to act as an inviting gateway.

Integral to the site will be the installation of a storm water management system to help bring the Pennesseewassee Stream into compliance with federal environmental protection guidelines.

Also getting an upgrade will be sewage facilities, water mains, and telecommunications services.  Much of this work will need to be completed by the town before any of the buildings can be sold to redevelopers.

“For those things that have a federal requirement behind them, like the drainage and the sewage and all that stuff, its very unlikely that a private developer is going to be interested in doing that,” said Holt. 

Holt does not expect tax increment financing — credits toward taxes for investments above and beyond a property’s market value — to figure into any potential sales to developers.

Doney reported that EnterpriseMaine has already received interest in some of the buildings on the site, including the existing office space.  One unnamed group is said to be interested in converting the machine shop into an art gallery, while the planer mill is being eyed by another potential manufacturing interest.

The large three-story cinderblock building, at 14,500 square feet, is planed for either office space or loft-style housing.

“The hope,” said Doney, “is to get younger people to move into downtown, in an ownership type of thing.”

“On that building, we’ll be issuing an RFP [request for proposal] for developers.  So, a developer may come in and their own ideas, and if we like those ideas we may select that developer,” said Doney

Additional plans call for the construction, as early as this spring, of four townhouses on property at the corner of Pikes Hill and Water Street.  This area will be earmarked for “empty nesters” seeking to downsize their homes and “snowbirds” looking to have a property management firm care for their homes while they are away.

 

“We’ve worked really closely with a lot of people in the community on this plan so that the space here [at the mill] compliments Main Street and doesn’t compete with it,” said Doney.  “We’re not creating the same kind of space that would be on Main Street.”

According to Doney, EnterpriseMaine only hopes to break even on the Cummings mill redevelopment.  The group, he said, has paid itself nothing for operating expenses related to the project.

“Really, the reason that we’ve been able to do anything in downtown Norway on the real estate side, [is that] when we bought the old Bridgton Knitting Mill, that has turned out to be a profitable real estate project,” said Doney.  “We’ve been taking the profits from that and plowing it in over here.  That’s what’s paying for our staff time.”

EnterpriseMaine had initially worked with the Cummings family and a broker for “about a year” to try and find a willing buyer for the mill.  Failing that, EnterpriseMaine purchased the property outright in December, 2003 for $100,000.

“Our hope is that this [redevelopment] will be a driving force to convince other people to invest in their properties,” said Doney.  “You all know that it’s a real struggle on some of these downtown commercial buildings.  But we think that the worst thing that we can do is just give up.”

Doney said he expects the state to make only “one to three” downtown redevelopment CDBG awards in 2005.  Only one of the CDBG awards for non-profits is anticipated this year.  The two grants are in different categories and do not compete with each other. 

Turnaround time is said to be short, and an answer on the grant applications, from the Maine Office of Community and Economic Development, could be available in only a few months.

For the sake of a buck, Norway swallows its pride

NORWAY – Perhaps, Hamlet said it best.

In every production of Shakespeare’s famous play, the young prince of Denmark cuts the rhetorical legs from beneath Polonius, his country’s chief administrator, when he turns to the old man and heaves with a breathless sigh, “Words, words, words.”

In the play, Hamlet’s kingdom is at war with the country of Norway.  And, at a special town meeting held January 13, it almost appeared as if our local Norway was at war with itself.

What separated Norway’s citizens from their municipal officers was precisely the same thing that caused so much tension in Hamlet’s time.

Words.

In this case, the particular words in question were “slum” and “blighted.”

To administrators like Norway’s five selectmen, Town Manager David Holt, EnterpriseMaine CEO Brett Doney, and community development director Debbie Wyman, these words carried no particular meaning beyond their use as fundraising tools.  By designating a portion of Norway’s downtown area as “slum and blighted,” both the town and the Oxford Hills Growth Council would become eligible to apply for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG.)

But to a good portion of the 39 local residents who turned out in freezing rain for the meeting, “slum and blight” were painful, hurtful words that seemed to describe not just a few vacant buildings, but their identity as individuals and their character as a community.

Holt became cognizant of citizen reaction almost as soon as a map of the area to be addressed was released.  Selectmen approved the map at their meeting of Thursday, January 6, and by Monday Holt was already getting an earful.  “Three or four” residents contacted Holt personally, and each one referenced “several others” said to feel the same way.

These local citizens, only some of whom actually lived in the area to be termed a slum, were reportedly incensed that Norway might be saddled with such a derogatory description. 

“I really feel badly about the original map that I distributed,” Holt told the special town meeting assemblage. 

That first map had the blighted area extending east along Main Street to where the Pennesseewassee Stream crosses near Tannery Street.  It then followed the Pennesseewassee Stream, bordering on Greenleaf Avenue, Orchard Street, and Pikes Hill before ending at the intersection of Water Street and Main Street

“We’ve used that [slum and blight label] as a tool before,” said Holt, who noted that the grant money to renovate both the Fair Share Commons building and the downtown parking lot had been made possible by first assigning to them such a designation.  The former C. B. Cummings mill complex also had been labeled blighted last year when its first CDBG grant was applied for.

“Because I am somewhat hardened to this — I’ve been doing it for 30 years — I was guilty of being insensitive,” continued Holt. “Because, to me, it’s just a tool to get the money that we want.  And after I listened to people tell me how they felt about it, I realized that I had been insensitive.

“I’m really sorry for that,” Holt said.  “I can’t take it back.  I did it. But as soon as I realized what I did, I tried to correct it.”

Holt began a public hearing on the subject, which preceded the special town meeting, by announcing that he would offer an amendment to truncate that area the town would be seeking to call ”slum and blighted.”

The triangle of Main Street, Water Street and Pikes Hill would remain, he said.  However, the section along Main Street would be cut nearly in half, now ending at the empty Aubuchon Hardware building.  With this change, areas around Greenleaf Avenue, and behind King Street and Oak Street, would be removed from consideration.

Holt offered his hope that this would placate those who were upset over the terminology, while still leaving enough of the downtown area tied to the Cummings mill redevelopment project to assure a reasonable chance of being approved for CDBG funding.

For those working on the mill project, including officials from both the town and the Growth Council of Oxford Hills — of which EnterpriseMaine is a division — this was where the matter hinged.  Last year, the town had submitted a CDBG application to rehabilitate the mill.  That grant was subsequently turned down, costing the project a potential $400,000. 

Criticism of the application from the Maine Office of Community and Economic Development indicated that the mill had not been clearly enough tied to the downtown area, which is supposed to be the focus of CDBG expenditures. 

“We were, like, half a point away from getting funded,” said Doney, at Thursday’s meeting. 

Community leaders then decided that the solution to this problem, when reapplying for CDBG funds this year, would to extend the area termed slum and blighted from the mill onto Main Street and the surrounding neighborhoods.  Holt described the slum and blighted designation as a “threshold criteria” to even applying for CDBG funds.

Holt further noted that the application of “slum and blighted” to an area is something that only a legislative body — in Norway’s case, a town meeting — can do.  Selectmen do not have that authority. 

However, he cautioned, should voters elect to not enlarge the slum and blighted area, neither the town’s $500,000 grant application, nor a similar $250,000 request from the Growth Council, would be submitted.

“Lots of times, it’s the governmental requirements, as you all know, that make it necessary to do things that a private person wouldn’t normally do,” said Holt.  “I didn’t make the federal rules.  People like me have to play by them however.  I can’t defend to you the wording.”

However, this rational did not seem to register with many of those present.  Most still took umbrage with the language in the warrant article on which they were to vote.   Taken from federal definitions of “slum and blighted,” their affirmative vote would declare the south side of Main Street, along with all areas inside the mapped out zone, to be “. . . a serious and growing menace, injurious and inimical to the public health, safety, morals and welfare of the residents of the Town of Norway.”

After Doney concluded a presentation on plans for the mill site, including how the town would come up with its required 20 percent matching funds, and how the grant money would be spent if awarded, Maurine Birtic was the first to speak.  In praising plans for the mill, Birtic echoed what seemed to be the nearly unanimous thoughts of the crowd.  But, like many gathered, she also questioned the price to be paid.

“For the public records to say that this [downtown] is a dilapidated slum, is this cost worth it?” she asked.  “That’s pretty strong language.”

“I work on Main Street, Norway,” agreed one young man in the audience,  “I don’t see anywhere that’s a ‘serious growing menace.’”

“As far as I am concerned, there is no slum in Norway,” said another, older, gentleman.  

Concerns over calling their town a “slum” was something that did not appear to be restricted along age lines.

“I realize that these are federal guidelines,” said Shelly Cummings, whose husband, Steve, was part of the last generation to own and operate the 150-year old mill, “but we, as citizens, where is the line that we are going to draw that is going to say what are willing to do, what hoops are we willing to jump through, what designations are we willing to change, in order to receive grant money. 

“Are we willing to degrade ourselves, and degrade our community, in order to receive grant funds?” asked Cummings.  “I absolutely applaud the [redevelopment] plans, I would love to see them, but isn’t there a better way than selling our souls?”

Many voters, increasingly uncomfortable with the warrant’s terminology, suggested alternatives, such as assigning the slum and blight label only to those buildings that all could agree were actually dilapidated.  However, municipal officers tried to make clear that the designation applied to a geographic area, and not individual properties.  Others suggested leaving the area intact, but removing some of the harshest language, such as the references to the neighborhood being “injurious [to] . . . morals.”  But as selectmen again tried to clarify, not all, or even any, of the buildings necessarily needed to meet every single criteria listed in the federal definition of blighted.

“The area can have that classification to satisfy a bureaucrat in Washington,” said Selectman Robert Walker, “that doesn’t mean the whole area is.”

“Back in the early ‘60s was when the federal government assigned three different categories for grants,” said Wyman.

She then detailed the three levels as  “low and moderate income”, which is applied to housing; “urgent need”, for which a “serious health problem” must exist; and “slum and blighted.” 

“We can’t get rid of that term,” said Wyman.  “David [Holt] and I have been doing this for at least 20 years, and slum/blight has always just been, like two words, and it doesn’t really mean anything.  It’s just a word that the federal government came up with.  And they need to change it, not us. 

“We’re not designating this area like, ‘Oh my God, it’s terribly deteriorated and a slum, awful place,’” said Wyman.  “It’s just [that] the government says that’s the category we can get the money under, that’s all. 

“Personally, I think we are making too much out of that one word,” she concluded.

But voters were clear that, to them, any word used to describe their neighborhood was not “just a word.”  And, as some noted, considerations included not just their pride, but also their pocket books.

“Is it in some respects shooting ourselves in the foot?” asked Birtic.  “My concern would be, ‘Gee, this looks like a really nice area, but how will I get financing because of the bad designation.’  Would you invest in a property in an area with that designation?”

“There’s not a big sign going up,” noted Leslie C. Flanders, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, with a shake of the head.

“It [the slum designation] is not something that’s in the deed to the property,” agreed Doney.  “It’ll be in the papers for a few weeks, then forgotten.” 

Doney also noted that the slum and blighted designation had never been lifted from the old Hamilton Block once it had been rehabilitated as the Fare Share Commons.  The reason, Doney said, was that once necessary funding had been secured, and the property had been upgraded, no one “even remembers” that the area had once been called blighted.

Holt also tried to reassure citizens that, should they vote to accept the slum and blighted designation, it should not serve to devalue their property.

“That is just the federal wording,” said Holt.  “I can’t tell you anyone ever paid a consequence for the designation.  I don’t think it devalues your property, [even though] I understand it hurts your feelings.”

“There are ramifications of the designation,” interjected Paul Brook, owner of Woodman’s, on Main Street.  “One of these is it gives municipalities added ease in taking over properties through eminent domain, if they think it’s going to benefit the town.  That’s the first thing that scared me to death when I read this.  What other ramifications are there that we don’t know about?” 

“We have a plan here and nowhere in this plan does it say anything about taking over any property,” answered Flanders.

“But it could happen.  Can you tell me it couldn’t?” Brook shot back.

“I’ve worked here 16 years and we’ve never taken over a property by eminent domain,” replied Holt.

Holt also noted that he had “refused” to work on a concept recently floated that would have called for the town to take over Woodman’s so that it could build a parking lot for the opera house.

Still, for some residents, such as Cherrie Bonney, the real concern was that an area would be designated as a slum in order to rehabilitate the mill complex, while nothing was planned to address certain buildings in the blighted area that more clearly met the definition under consideration.

“To my mind, a lot of it is much more offensive than the C. B. Cummings property,” she said.  “I have a real problem driving up Main Street and seeing so many businesses closed.  Empty.  And we’re talking about the C. B. Cummings project as maybe a way to turn all of this around, but shouldn’t we turn around Main Street first and then deal with this problem?  

“How are we really benefiting from the C. B. Cummings project if all of Main Street is still going to be empty and the end of Water Street is still going to be a dump?” demanded Bonney.

This brought a rustling from the crowd, and a few tentative handclaps.  However, perhaps uncertain if cheering Bonney would be disrespectful to town fathers, commotion quickly died down to a polite decorum.

“In the early days, C. B. Cummings helped create Main Street,” Holt answered, after reassuring voters that they should feel free to applaud if they felt the urge. 

“The people that worked there and owned the place would go onto Main Street and do business and buy lunch.  And so there's always been, in my opinion, and interrelationship,” continued Holt.  “I quite honestly, given what I suspect is going to keep happening on [Route] 26, don’t know a lot of good answers.    I have a couple of ideas about how we can address it.  [The] C. B. Cummings [project] is one of them.”

“I don’t like the slum and blighted [option],” said Flanders. “I wish there was some other way we could raise the money.  We’ve worked for over a year now to try and come up with a plan to improve Main Street and to bring [the] C. B. Cummings property back as a taxpayer for the town. 

“If we don’t do something, and Main Street dies, it doesn’t make any difference about the houses on Water Street, or Orchard Street, or anywhere else,” said Flanders.  “I see this as the only hope for the whole area.“

Birtic, who had been given the opportunity to ask the first question, was also allowed to pose the last.

“Are there any other options to getting funds?” she asked with a resigned air.

“I can assure you, we’re leaving no rock unturned in looking for options, and this is the only one that we’ve identified so far,” answered Doney.

In what appeared an attempt to save some face for the town, Cummings offered an amendment calling for the immediate lifting of the slum and blighted designation should the town not be awarded the CDBG funding.  Only one person voted against that motion.

And with that, the question was called with a show of hands.  The final vote was 19 to 13 in favor of labeling the newly mapped out area as “slum and blighted.”

With the meeting over, echoing voices trailed from the foyer into the evening beyond, and only Holt remained to shut the lights in the silent public hall.  He took advantage of the quiet moment to reflect on what had been a “spirited” event.

He would never have sought to create controversy on purpose, said Holt, but he could not help but wonder if the debate had not done some good.  Very rarely are there many residents at selectmen’s meetings.  And even town meetings, especially special town meetings held in poor weather, are scantly attended, he said. 

Holt was glad that people had come out to voice their opinions.  It makes a difference.  A town manager cannot live in a bubble, he indicated.  Any town administrator has to know what the people are feeling, what they are thinking — what they know, and what they want.

“If I’m still here months or years from now, I won’t forget,” said Holt, referring to the many points citizens had raised during nearly two hours of open discussion.

“In the end, I care a lot more about the [public] participation than any of these buildings,” said Holt, “because that’s really what’s in jeopardy.”

Norway to vote tonight on declaring portion of town ‘slum and blighted’

NORWAY — At a special town meeting to be held at 7:00 p.m. tonight, in the town office, Norway citizens will have the opportunity to designate a large section of their downtown area as “slum and blighted.”  However, Town Manager David Holt stresses that this classification should not be confused with any part of this area being “condemned.”

“It sounds like an ominous term,” said Holt, “but it’s just a federal term that’s necessary to apply to an area where you are going to spend CDBG [Community Development Block Grant] money.”

“Slum and blight” is defined in Maine statutes as an area in which there are a substantial number of buildings or improvements that are detrimental to the public health or safety due to any combination of the following: deterioration or obsolescence; inadequate provision for ventilation, light, air, sanitation or open spaces; overcrowding; conditions that endanger life or property by fire and other causes; inadequate street layouts; or even where tax delinquency exceeds fair market value.

The area that municipal officers seek to define in this manner includes the entire south side of Main Street, from Water Street to the area just across from Tannery Street.  From there, the blighted area will extend back around to Water Street by following the Pennesseewassee Stream, Greenleaf Avenue, Orchard Street, and Pikes Hill.

“There are buildings within that area that easily come under that category,” said Selectman Robert Walker at a recent selectman’s meeting where the issue was raised.  “It doesn’t mean that the whole area is, but it means that there are buildings within that area that are.”

Only a town meeting vote has the authority to bestow the “slum and blight” label.  Selectmen cannot take that action unilaterally.  

Such action, if it is to be done, must be taken before the CDBG application is submitted.  The deadline for that grant is Saturday, January 15, or, two days after the special town meeting.

According to Holt, the only alternative to declaring the area “slum and blighted” that would still leave the town eligible for CDBG funding would be to somehow prove that the grant would benefit “low and moderate income people.”

“And that’s really pretty hard to prove,” said Holt.  “It’s not impossible, but [declaring an area] slum and blight is a much lower threshold [of proof] for a town to achieve.”

In February 2004, the Maine Office of Community and Economic Development rejected a CDBG request from Norway for $400,000.  That grant was a first attempt to secure funding for rehabilitation of the C. B. Cummings Mill behind Main Street at the foot of Pikes Hill.

“One of the criticisms of our application,” said Holt, “was this [CDBG] is a downtown program, and they felt that we didn’t do a clear enough job connecting the mill to the downtown. 

“Those of us that live here, it’s just an accepted thing,” continued Holt.  “But if you are in Augusta, scoring applications, if you can put yourself in their position, we have to make it clear that the mill and the downtown are one and the same.”

That, at least in part, led to the proposed widening of the “slum and blighted” area.

“We need to change the area [of what’s to be designated],” said Holt, “because some of what’s being proposed now is to spend some money on the back side of some of the buildings on Main Street, as well as over at the mill property.”

There are currently plans to submit two separate Community Development Block Grants, totaling $750,000.

One application, filed by the town, is for $500,000.  This is the grant tied to the “slum and blighted” labeling.

“It’s [for] a mixed bag of stuff, it’s kind of a laundry list of things,” said Holt.

The other grant, for $250,000, will be filed by the Growth Council of Oxford Hills.  The Growth Council is a division of EnterpriseMaine, the current owners of the old wood turning mill, which it purchased in December, 2003 for $100,000. 

Portions of both grants will be used to make the Cummings mill site more attractive to redevelopers and private businesses by tearing down certain buildings and upgrading sewer, water and parking facilities for those buildings that remain.

Money for foot bridges linking the mill to Main Street is expected to come from a separate Maine Department of Transportation grant.

Brett Doney, CEO of Enterprise Maine, will be on hand at a public hearing prior to the town meeting to discuss what is proposed to be done with any grant money that might be received as well as other long term plans for the mill property.

After that hearing, voters will have three choices: they can accept the newly designated area as proposed, they can reject the designation out of hand — in which case the town will withhold filing its CDBG request — or, they make alterations to the map that change the area to be designated “slum and blight.