Former tannery building to be razed for fish bypass

HOWLAND – The former Howland Tannery building on the Penobscot River will be razed to make way for a fish bypass, but not for a few years, project advocates said Monday.

The Penobscot River Restoration Trust is preparing to apply for permits to raze the decrepit structure, but the permitting process likely won’t be completed until 2010 or 2011, said John Banks, an executive committee member of that organization.

“I don’t know if it will take three years to get the permits in place, but there is a lot of logistical work that still needs to be done to prepare for the permitting,” Banks said Monday. “The next step is to get the permitting under way.

“This is a major milestone for the project with the town approving this,” Banks added. “It shows that the town is interested in working cooperatively with the trust and moving ahead in a mutually beneficial fashion.”

The proposed $5 million bypass is expected to revitalize the tannery site, which the bypass will bisect, by 2012. The trust’s plans include building the bypass, greening some tannery land, razing three crumbling buildings, digging a channel and building a bridge over it for the on-site power station.

The Penobscot River Restoration Trust has raised the $25 million purchase price for the Howland, Veazie and Great Works hydropower dams. The project is part of the restoration trust’s plans to buy three dams and open up nearly 1,000 miles of stream and river habitat to Atlantic salmon, alewives and other sea-run fish now blocked from migrating upstream.

During a town meeting on June 10, residents voted 135-34 to allow an easement for a fish bypass and 146-23 in favor of removal of the tannery building, town officials said.

Residents knew the project would take years to come to fruition, but had no trouble supporting it, said John Neel, a town planning board member.

Seen as a symbol of the town’s stagnant business climate, the tannery hasn’t had a steady tenant since 1971.

“This is a great project,” Neel said Monday. “You really have to tip your hat to the restoration people. The easiest and cheapest thing they could have done for themselves is to tear down the dam, but they don’t want to do that. They want to leave it there.”

The town also is formulating plans to market the large portion of the site that will be developed. Neel said he would prefer to see a commercial or industrial use on that site that would help the town offset the loss of tax revenue caused by the loss of the dam’s taxable electricity generation.

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