WILTON —  Asbestos abatement work in the boiler room and hazardous liquid removal from the Forster Mill site on Depot Street will begin May 1, Town Manager Rhonda Irish told selectpersons Tuesday.

The Department of Environmental Protection has funding through the federal Environmental Protection Agency for the work. EnviroVantage, an environmental and remedial contractor based in New Hampshire, will do the work.

For other abatement and demolition work, selectpersons voted unanimously to apply for a $300,000 federal loan.

There are no grants available through the state Department of Environmental Protection, she said.

Asbestos has been found in one roof and in gutters around all roofs, she said.

The town has approximately $180,000 available from the $200,000 federal EPA grant awarded in May 2016 to clean up of the Forster Mill site.

The town has $55,000 set aside in a capital account earmarked for demolition work on buildings, including the mill site. Voters will be asked to appropriate another $50,000 at town meeting in May, she said.

If the town is successful in obtaining the federal loan, it will provide $585,000 for abatement and demolition work. The amount is likely not enough to bring the whole mill down, she said.

If the loan is available, the next step is for Ransom Environmental, the town’s environmental consultants, to create a plan on what parts of the mill need abatement work and what parts are ready for demolition, she said. Once the plan is established, a public hearing will take place.

The town foreclosed on the former woodenware and plasticware mill on Depot Street in 2015 for unpaid taxes, after a four-year demolition effort stalled.

abryant@sunmediagroup.net

Forster Mill 

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