BREWER – Due to hazards, city leaders have limited a Friday walking tour of the defunct Eastern Fine Paper Co. aimed at updating the public about cleanup efforts and Cianbro’s plans for the site.

“After assessing the potential danger to the public posed by the current condition of the mill, we have decided to limit the 9 a.m. tour on Friday,” Tanya Pereira, Brewer economic development specialist, said Wednesday. “Members of the public will, unfortunately, not be able to be accommodated on this tour.

“With the work taking place on site, the mill is simply too dangerous a place to take a large group from the public right now,” she said.

The public is invited to a press conference at the site at 10 a.m.

Cianbro Corp., a Pittsfield-based construction company, has plans to create a module manufacturing facility to build prefabricated, self-standing building structures at the 41-acre South Brewer site.

Cianbro crews are working to remediate the dangers at the 100-plus-year-old industrial site, which has hazardous waste including asbestos and lead paint in the old mill buildings, and petroleum, heavy metals, PCBs and other hazards on the grounds – mostly from settled ash after decades of papermaking.

The remediation plan is designed to ensure that all areas of the redevelopment are up to environmental standards.

Cianbro President Peter Vigue, city councilors, local and state lawmakers, others from Cianbro, and staff from the governor’s office will be driven by van through the site during the morning tour.

The 10 a.m. press conference is where project leaders will explain to the public what they should see at the site in the near future, along with plans for an October job and vendor fair that will provide potential employees and businesses with information about how to work with Cianbro on the project.

The facility will require 500 or more skilled employees, including welders, electricians, steelworkers and others, and the plan is to start production on April 1, 2008.

A new blue Cianbro sign was installed on Wednesday, replacing the old Eastern Fine mill sign.