‘Historic’ recycling center upgraded

PRESQUE ISLE – Improvements at the city’s recycling center and universal waste facility, which had to meet approval by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, are nearly complete, according to Dana Fowler, the city’s solid waste director.

Wider windows and doors, a metal canopy and a dock leveler were a few of the items the city purchased and installed with the $39,104 recycling grant it received from the Maine State Planning Office this fall, Fowler said Friday.

However, the improvements – including the size of openings for windows and doors and the shape and color of the building’s siding – took extra work.

They had to meet preservation commission specifications because the building is part of a Snark missile site, the only one of its kind constructed in the United States, Fowler said.

Of the six former missile hangars, each with two adjoining launch pads, the MHPC agreed approximately three years ago that only one hangar and two launch pads would come under their requirements – the building which houses the recycling center.

He said the MHPC discovered the building’s historical significance when the Skyway Industrial Park in Presque Isle, on which the recycling center is located, applied for a site location permit from the Department of Environmental Protection and had to submit an application to the commission.

The solid waste director said the new and approved doors and windows were installed to give patrons easier access to the recycling drop-off station, but that the widening will not mean the center will take any new kinds of recyclable materials.

The counter at the drop-off station, which previously had been too high for many people, including children, was lowered.

A metal canopy extends eight feet out from the building over the counter to allow people to drop off recyclables without getting wet when it rains.

The installation of an $8,000 dock leveler, an automated platform that extends from the building to waiting trailer trucks, will make loading recyclables into the trucks easier for center workers. The center previously had a dock plate that had to be moved by hand.

The improvements, which began last fall, included the Presque Isle Industrial Council’s project to install siding of an MHPC-approved dark gray color on one side of the building.

Fowler said that later this year, as part of the grant, his department will purchase one or more recycling roll-off containers for collecting recyclables.

The container or containers will be stationed somewhere within the seven communities that use the center – Presque Isle, Washburn, Wade, Perham, Mapleton, Chapman and Castle Hill.

As Fowler oversees the final phase of work covered by the grant, he said he’s already looking ahead to the next project.

“We’re going to be looking at household hazardous waste collection – the disposal of household cleaners, nail polish [remover], paints and pesticides,” he said. “That’s the next frontier.”