BELLOWS FALLS — In spite of inclusion in the Rockingham Town Plan, and a long association with both boards in the town of Rockingham and village of Bellows Falls, the Bellows Falls Historical Society (BFHS) has found itself in the position of having to defend one of two ongoing projects currently in varying phases of completion.
BFHS members say they are baffled as to the boards' sudden interest in the Wyman-Flint building, part of a group of historic structures associated with the beginning of the papermaking industry in Bellows Falls in the 1800s.
In a letter to the Board of Trustees on Sept. 21, newly hired Town Manager Tim Cullenen requested action by the Village based on an ordinance draft that accompanied the letter.
In part, the proposed ordinance would “protect the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare as it pertains to premises and buildings used for residential, commercial and industrial purposes.”
The copy Cullenen sent the board bears only minor resemblance to the unsafe building ordinance that was adopted by Village Trustees in 1990.
There has been no explanation as to either the rewriting of the ordinance to include the words “morals” as applied to “unsafe building” ordinances, or the reasons behind Cullenen's interest in the Wyman-Flint building.
In 1998, New England Power, owner of the Bellows Falls hydroelectric plant, sold the facility to USGen New England. The company later went bankrupt and sold the facility to TransCanada in 2005, but not before donating 8.5 acres of land that included the Wyman-Flint and Adams Grist Mill buildings to the BFHS.
“We are cleaning up historical messes [created by former owners], and have been all along,” said Village President Dennis Ladd.
In his letter, Cullenen asked the Village Trustees to “cause” an inspector to go down to the building to determine its “condition as it [affects] the safety of the community and neighborhood,” introducing a motion in a letter to the board.
Chief Weston of the BFFD “inspected” the building on Oct. 18, from which a subsequent report was submitted to the Trustees.
According to Francis “Dutch” Walsh, development director and former interim municipal manager before Cullenen was hired, neighboring TransCanada workers warned that metal roofing might fly off the building onto the hydroelectric facility's property, injuring workers.
Bellows Falls Historical Society Treasurer Stuart Read said that in the years since USGen donated the Adams Grist Mill and Wyman-Flint buildings in 2008, “we've never had any problems with any kind of material falling off the buildings let alone into a neighbor's yard. Even with the hurricane.”
Read said that National Grid has people working in the transformer yard adjacent to the building doing “50- to 75-year refurbishment” work and “they haven't come to us with any concerns. We haven't heard [as property owners] of any complaints.”
“When [Cullenen] was first hired this last summer, I went in and introduced myself, and said I would like to show him what our plans are, what we've accomplished, and where we're were at,” Read said. “He said he'd love to but didn't have time right then.”
“I left it at that and never heard from him until I got this letter he sent to the Trustees,” Read continued. “He didn't even approach us or try to talk to us.”
A part of BF's history
Ladd and his wife are both teachers, and have lived and taught in the Bellows Falls area since the 1970s.
Ladd grew up across the river in Walpole, N.H., and remembers when the paper mills were still a big part of the region's economy.
“Bellows Falls was famous for its papermaking mills,” he said. “I can remember the river running red, blue, yellow, green, or purple, depending what day of the week it was” because of the dye process used for paper at the time.
“Then the mills stopped [in the 1970s], and we've cleaned up the river since then,” he said. “EPA rules have changed. Now we have this incredible riverfront legacy that is a unique part of American mill culture and history.”
One ongoing project of the BFHS is the Riverfront Park and Trails system.
Undertaken in 2009, BFHS has completed Phase I with the installation of an access road, sidewalks, and a small parking area, just above the Connecticut River, that is just a five-minute walk from the Square.
Brownfield work also continues, supported by EPA grants to the BFHS.
Ladd said the BFHS is “working with the EPA each step of the way” to create a green space beside the river through which a portion of the proposed trail system will run, as well as a “poet's seat” overlook of the river at the southern end of its property.
“The EPA was happy with how we used our last grant from them [for the brownfield remediation] and encouraged us to apply again,” Ladd said. “It's competitive, but we're hopeful. We're in the process of applying for the next round of grants.”
Once the brownfield remediation is finished, landscaping can be completed, and the park and the trail system opened to the public.
According to Read, the BFHS hopes to complete the last phase in the spring of 2012.
But the park and trail system are part of a bigger plan, said Ladd, who also chairs the BFHS.
“We thought this was a good thing for the community,” Ladd said.
Ladd said going back to the 1970s when a group of concerned citizens got together and prevented the demolition of the Grist Mill, the BFHS has undertaken to preserve this unique area of downtown, and “make it a place where people can come and see our significant history related to the paper mills.”
The Historical Society's 8.5-acre property behind the Square includes the Grist Mill and Wyman-Flint [or Penta] building. The tract extends to the water's edge and up to the tree line by the railroad bed.
A strategic planning study on the “TLR/Bellows Falls Historical Society property” was done in 2008 by Michael Singer Studio of Wilmington.
According to the study, the landscape architect and planner “conducted [an] extensive planning study and community visioning process for the town of Rockingham and the Bellows Falls Historical Society.”
The study “focused on the four remaining buildings of the TLR Complex/Bellows Falls Historical Society site and their immediately associated land.”
“The strategic planning study, while focused on a specific site, expanded its view to consider adjacent areas and their interconnectedness to the site and community,” the study explained.
The TLR building is owned by the town of Rockingham.
The study was funded by the BFHS, the town of Rockingham, the NEA, Marlboro College, Preservation Trust of Vermont, TransCanada, the Windham Foundation and the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation. The village of Bellows Falls did not participate, except to provide support in the form of “cooperation, support and [...] providing meeting spaces.”
Singer noted that “the majority of participants recognize this site as somewhat isolated and abandoned, but as an important future resource to the community, a source of its history, a place of potential innovation reflecting the resourcefulness of Bellows Falls, a legacy that should not be lost, and historic buildings in need of care.”
Moving forward
Ladd said the BFHS “has been moving forward with our plans as fast as permits and other people's schedules have allowed.”
He cited the spring flooding and the end of the summer flooding from Tropical Storm Irene as some of the complications of getting a visit from the assessor the BFHS had hired earlier this year.
The organization hired Stevens and Associates, a Brattleboro-based engineering, design, and landscaping company, to assess the Wyman-Flint building. Employees from the firm were finally able to extricate themselves from both spring-related and late-summer related flooding emergencies to visit the site in early October.
The Stevens assessment noted the extensive costs involved in restructuring the building, questioning the economic viability of such an endeavor.
One Bellows Falls resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the sudden interest “may be a vendetta from someone a way long time ago who wanted the property, and doesn't want the historical society to have it.”
Read said that the property was valuable at the turn of the 20th century, but “because of the brownfield issues and the cost involved in cleanup, and the fact that it is part of the [Connecticut River] floodplain, its best practical use is as a riverfront park. Everyone gets to enjoy the park and the river that way.”
In spite of being a riverfront village, Bellows Falls has no public access to the river.
Cullenen was out of the office due to an injury suffered in a recent fall, and could not be reached for comment.