Irving Plant Manager Randy Chicoine, standing, speaks Thursday at a public hearing by the Dixfield Planning Board on proposed employee housing by the forest products company. Having four mobile units for migrants’ housing is vital to provide workers for the types of mill jobs others don’t want to do. From left are Planning Board members Ken Hinkley, Elizabeth Kelly and Grayson Child. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times

DIXFIELD — Abutters to the proposed employee housing project by Irving Forest Products on Pine Street spoke out Thursday during an hourlong public hearing by the Planning Board at the Ludden Library.

At the previous meeting, the Planning Board voted to accept the application by the Canadian-based company to build four, four-bedroom mobile homes on a 13-acre parcel in hopes to house legal male and female migrant employees to work at Irving, the largest producer of white pine in America.

Board Chairperson Ken Hickley said following the hearing, they can take up to 30 days before they have to vote on the application. The Planning Board’s next meeting in 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 15, at the Ludden Library. He said they could vote then or earlier if they decide to hold a special meeting.

The plan for migrant worker housing in Dixfield. Irving Forest Products photo

Among the 25 people at the hearing was Kate Chaisson, one of the abutters by the housing project, who said, “I’m really hoping that the town of Dixfield and also Irving that everyone is everyone is quite aware of the toxicity of that property, and we abutters are going to be certain that we let anyone who moves in there to let them know. And it’s going to be an Erin Brockovich situation for you all if you don’t heed the warning about getting people ill.”

She also said, “Who are these people who are going to be coming and living across the street from us? That was about talked about. It’s never been addressed.”

Chaisson said, “It’s completely unfair. It’s going to ruin our quiet enjoyment, that will not exist for us anymore. And it’s along a 125-year established single-family dwelling area. It’s unreal that this has gone this far. It should have been squashed a long time ago.”

She said, “We all thinking of joining together in a class action lawsuit. We’re all getting our homes appraised so we can get a baseline of what our homes are worth before they put that in. One way or another, Irving is going to lose.”

Planning Board member Grayson Child said that of the 13 acres on that parcel, only 1 acre was tested for contamination because that is the only part that this project in dealing with.

Irving Plant Manager Randy Chicoine was asked by Hinkley if the four units are placed on that 1 acre, “is anything on the rest of the property even going to be touched?”

Chicoine responded, “The only thing that going to be disturbed is the driveways going in, which is on that acre. The DEP was onsite during the testing.”

He said there is detectable arsenic, “but it’s way below the levels required for residential housing.”

Chicoine said the need for this project is because “we cannot hire enough folk locally to run the mill. Our first priority is to hire locally until we’re fully staffed. That will continue as long as I’m plant manager.”

He said, “I don’t know who’s going to live in these homes over the course of time. I do know who’s going to move in initially. I can understand the fear and the concern about who’s going to live in your neighborhood. We have very strict guidelines how these folks behave in our housing. We have similar housing in Ashland. We’ve had zero problems with migrant employees working in Ashland. The town people support it.”

Chicoine said, “Right now, we have 13 (migrant) employees. We have room for 16 there. So there’s no plans to expand this thing tomorrow or down the road. What happens five years from now, I don’t know.”

He said these migrant employees are from an agency that provides them with work permits to be in the United States.

“We have a great core group of employees,” said Chicoine. “We have about 10 or 15, maybe 20 positions, that we have trouble filling … But that fact of the matter is, people do not want to do that type of work.”

He said, “This is what we need to do to keep the mill viable. Without filling those positions, we can’t operate … This is our best solution. It will not impact the community. The expectations will be clear. Behavior will be monitored and they’ll be held accountable.”

Chicoine said he’s not concerned about these migrant employees. “We’ve had most of these folks in the mill since November. They’ve been model employees … They’re here to work and make money to send home.”

Greg Gagne, a member of the Planning Board, noted that “as an abutter, I’m speaking tonight as a member of the public. The board and the town, in my opinion, has a transparency issue.”

He said that all Planning Board meetings are scheduled for 5:30 p.m, but when this project was originally discussed, the day of that meeting, the time was changed to 4:30 p.m., unannounced.

Hinkley responded that when the process was initiated, “we were not an organized board. Our town manager called a meeting at 4:30. At that meeting, we got organized and then started the process. It was a meeting called by the town manager.”

Board member Elizabeth Kelly said, “I’ve been transparent since Day 1 … My job is independent of what I think, want or desire. When I look at an application, I have to be fair. I have to be neutral.”

Hinkley echoed that. “I think we try to be.”

Gagne said, “We’re required to give public notice on these public hearings. This public hearing, nor the last public hearing appeared on the town website. It’s not on there today.”

He added, “The ordinance is very clear, as is the state statute, of the process that should be followed. And the very reason that we are here tonight, having a second public hearing, is because that process was misunderstood and not followed by the Planning Board. Not the town manager, by the Planning Board.”

Child clarified, “The application is now complete. The Planning Board made a mistake when the first public hearing was held because there was not a complete application. That’s why we had to go back, because we didn’t follow the procedure. Once you have a completed application from the applicant, you need to call for a public hearing.”

Regarding the mobile homes, Chicoine said the housekeeping will be held to Irving’s standards at all times, inside and outside the trailers. They area will also be landscaped.

He asked that abutters go to him if there’s an issue.

Chicoine said, “There’s no tax benefits, there’s no subsidies. I don’t know where that came from. That’s 100% false.”

Someone in the public said, “That’s not true.”

Chicoine responded, “Yes, that is true. I’m not up here lying. Thank you.”

Another citizen asked, “Why didn’t you put them on your land?”

Chicoine responded, “That is our land. That’s an industrial site. We looked at a lot of different sites. That’s the site where our owner wanted to see the homes.”