Programming Note: Newly-elected Walpole Selectman Mike Berry, one of the most fiscally-conservative members of the Board, goes live on the record on The Sam Obar Show this Saturday, July 17 at 4:00 PM on WDIS AM 1170 (Discussion Radio) in Norfolk. With the often-poor quality of AM radio, I recommend to those who would like to listen to the interview that they listen live online right here rather than trying to tune into the often-spotty AM band. I have learned that AM radio is often very difficult to listen to, regrettably.
1. Eliminate the Kahana eyesore
The town should launch a nationwide/worldwide manhunt to pursue the owner of the Kahana and make them come back to Walpole and do something about the property. The Economic Development Officer, if the position is not eliminated, should provide regular updates to the Walpole Board of Selectmen as to the progress of the manhunt. The Kahana owner’s name and last known contact information should be widely publicized. There has to be someone who knows how to hunt the owner down.
It might also be reasonable to consider seizing the property via eminent domain, using a tax override to fund the purchase and then reselling it at a profit to someone who can revitalize or, preferably, raze the structure. Eminent domain seizures like this, in which a property is taken and then resold to developers for aesthetic purposes or for the purpose of economic development, have already been affirmed as constitutional by the Supreme Court, as in the cases of Berman v. Parker (1954) and in the controversial case Kelo v. City of New London (2005). In Kelo v. City of New London, the Court decided that the overall benefit that a community enjoys from economic growth enables plans to take land and redevelop it to be considered an allowable “public use.” I think the town of Walpole, like New London, Connecticut, should consider taking over the property and using it as part of a greater focus on economic development.
2. Do something about the Foundry
The town should open discussions with the owner of the Foundry to develop a plan for renovating that building to be more appealing and less of an eyesore. Like the Kahana, taking the property over by eminent domain should not be ruled out. That building, when it was first built, was intended to be a “Fanueil Hall-like” shopping complex. That goal has failed miserably, and if the owners really intend to make it like Fanueil Hall, they should do more to beautify the building. One way to force this to happen might be to outright threaten that the town will use eminent domain if the owners don’t revitalize the building on their own.
3. Perhaps some hope for the South Street superfund
According to the EPA webpage about the South Street superfund site, the “EPA is currently in negotiations with the potentially responsible parties for the performance of the cleanup work. The estimated cost for this cleanup is $13 million. EPA will continue to work closely with the Town, interested citizens, and state officials as the project progresses.” No company is willing to accept responsibility for the cleanup of the property, and thus it is likely that the process will continue to be prolonged.
In June, President Barack Obama proposed reinstating the so-called “superfund tax” on the oil and chemical industries to help speed up the EPA’s work to cleanup superfund sites across the country. Roadblock Republicans in Congress, who have decided that it is in their best interest to simply say no to everything the President proposes no matter what the issue, call the tax an “unfair penalty” on oil and chemical companies. President Obama is right on this one. The Superfund program has been short of cash since the 1990s, and needs this new tax to start cleaning up these properties. I urge Congress to approve it.
Asking the taxpayers for an override to have the town purchase the property and clean it up also apparently has not been considered seriously. The cost would be quite large, but if the town came up with a long-term plan for the site and lined up a few potential buyers who wanted to develop the land, it could allow the town to collect a profit in the end. A few years ago, a Walpole Superfund committee came out with a lengthy report about the South Street superfund and suggested a few possible uses for the site, that included the town taking over part of it through foreclosure and then moving forward to come up with a cleanup plan for the site. I think it’s time our town officials crack that report open again, and take a look through some of the possible uses for the site and choose one of them.
As an interesting twist, newly-elected Selectman Eric Kraus is an executive within Covidien, the company that now owns Kendall. Kendall was the company that owned the land for several decades between the 1930s and the 1980s. Although Kendall can’t exactly be blamed for fully contaminating the site, they certainly owned it for a number of years and did nothing to clean it up. Now that the original contaminators of the site are long gone, it might be reasonable for Mr. Kraus to be the middleman in going to Covidien and asking them to pay for the site’s cleanup, at least to some level. Covidien and Kendall certainly should not get all the blame for the site’s contamination, but Kendall seem like the most appropriate company to pay at least part of the ultimate cleanup cost. Furthermore, there is no better time than now to ask them to pay up since one of their executives is now on the Board of Selectmen.
