Pittsfield planners OK Cianbro plans

PITTSFIELD – The planning board Monday night approved four major expansion projects for Cianbro Corp. that will be undertaken over the next two years.

The expansions will be at the company’s fabrication and coating facility on Lower Detroit Road along the Sebasticook River.

Even with the approval of the planning board, Cianbro is still required to obtain a permit from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said facility manager Peter “Andi” Vigue. The process to obtain the DEP permit is under way, he explained.

Two neighbors of the fabrication shop, Norman Moyers and Michael Haynes, questioned whether the expansion would increase traffic or noise generated by the facility.

Vigue said that since one of the additions will allow for projects that are now being handled outside the building to be moved and worked on inside, noise should be decreased.

He also suggested that a plan to move a large fan to the opposite side of one of the buildings also would reduce noise.

As for increased traffic, Vigue said that there could be additional vehicles coming in and out, but that the level would be basically the same as it has been for the past several years.

Vigue said no new jobs would result at the shop. “We are looking to be more efficient,” he said.

The projects approved include a two-story office building, an addition to the fabrication shop, an addition to the paint shop, a large canopy and blast room addition to the paint shop and construction of a pole barn on the property across the river, on Peltoma Avenue.

The value of the projects, once completed, is about $880,000.

In other business, the board:

. Advised Thomas Davis, executive director of Sebasticook Farms, that a proposed project on Hartland Avenue must come before the board for a site plan review.

Davis is planning to raze the former Wright’s Emporium, a restaurant that has been vacant for more than two years, and put up a new building of exactly the same size. Half the building would house a kennel for cats and dogs.

It would be staffed by the workers of Sebasticook Farms. The other half would be used for work subcontracted by Sebasticook Farms, which serves handicapped adults in Pittsfield, Hartland, St. Albans and surrounding areas.

Davis said plans for the building at first were for renovation, but bids repeatedly kept coming in over budget. It finally was decided that a new building would be less expensive than renovations.

Kennels are allowed in the building’s zoning district. Because the project will be a nonresidential use, it must have a site review.

. Approved a draft fence ordinance that now will be presented to the Town Council, and a change in the language that defines variance requirements.