Free Press Article : Moran Transformation Moves Ahead
July 10, 2008
The Moran plant project is on schedule, city officials report.The ambitious $21 million plan to reconfigure the decommissioned power plant, a grungy industrial waterfront hulk, was approved in March by city voters in all seven wards. Mayor Bob Kiss‘ proposal calls for a public/private/nonprofit partnership among the city, which will retain ownership and control of the building, the new Green Mountain Children’s Museum, the Community Sailing Center and the for-profit anchor, the Scottish company Ice Factor.
“We’re making progress,” Kiss said. “I wish I could just snap my fingers and have it done, but hard work is necessary.”Kiss said the project’s cost estimates are being firmed up, and the relationships between the building’s prospective tenants and the city will soon be formalized in memos of understanding. “We’re hammering out the details,” he said, “so there’s no confusion about our responsibilities.”
A draft of an agreement for the Sailing Center went this week to the City Council’s community development and parks committees. Pre-construction architectural and engineering work will be done this summer and into the fall, Kiss said, and then a formal development agreement will be signed between the parties.”We’re starting with something,” Kiss said of the brick monolith. “It can be a process that moves more quickly than you think. We can do this.”
Tuesday morning, workers from Vermont Concrete Cutting and Coring company, from Barre, drilled concrete cores from the plant’s basement (awash in 4 inches of water) and walls. Hefting one of the drilled-out concrete plugs, Russ Miller-Johnson, an engineer from Burlington’s Engineering Ventures, made an initial assessment. “It looks good,” he said. He said that at least superficially, the fortress-like concrete foundations and walls of the 55-year-old plant seemed solid and were free of obvious cracks.The samples, he said, would be subjected to microscopic laboratory analysis to ensure the concrete hadn’t degraded.
That assessment, said Kirsten Merriman-Shapiro, who manages the project for the city, will confirm that the building is structurally sound. “This is sort of the gold standard,” she said. “It should answer as many questions as you could come up with about the foundations of the building. We want to be sure we haven’t overlooked anything.”
Federal funding? Kiss’ proposal emerged from months of community forums and surveys following voter rejection – in all seven wards – of a 2005 proposal by then-Mayor Peter Clavelle to sell the power plant to the Greater Burlington YMCA. Kiss publicized his plan for nearly a year before the vote last winter and gained the support of all but one city councilor (Bill Keogh, D-Ward 5). The Burlington Business Association also endorsed the proposal.Andy Montroll, D-Ward 6, said it is crucial that councilors and the public be “watchful” as the administration puts together the development agreement, creates a budget and moves toward construction.With four partners, each with a different agenda, the project, Montroll said, is “very complex,” and the city must retain control of the building so that if a tenant pulls out, the city, rather than the tenant, will select a successor.Keogh, in remarks posted on the city’s neighborhood blog, Front Porch Forum, called the project a “laudable dream” but cautioned that coming up with the city’s share of construction costs might be hard. In an interview with The Burlington Free Press, Keogh said he had “heard nothing” from the administration about federal funding.He said he continues to be skeptical that the Kiss team can get the work done. “I still support tearing it down and turning it into a waterfront park,” he said. Kiss said the state’s congressional delegation supports the project but waited for the results of the March vote before working on federal funding. “This is not going to come in one $7 million solution,” he said of the city’s share of the building cost.Merriman-Shapiro said the congressional delegation is looking for ways to use existing federal funding (such as the money the city has been granted for brownfields cleanup) or transportation money, as well as new grants.
The tenants Green Mountain Children’s Museum spokeswoman Mia Graham Beer said the museum has arranged for its own architect to work with the firm chosen to manage the final planning. She said the museum’s fundraising campaign will begin as soon as the memo of understanding with the city is complete.Merriman-Shapiro said the initial agreements for all the tenants would reach the council by its meeting Aug. 11.
Phil McCully of the Ice Factor left a telephone message and commented about his company’s commitment to the project. He did not respond to requests for an interview.”There’s no problem with us,” he said in the message. “We’re as keen as ever.” He said Ice Factor had spent considerable “time and money” on the project, had been greatly encouraged by the March endorsement by voters, and intended to complete an agreement with the city as quickly as possible. He said Ice Factor still plans to open its Moran plant facility in December 2009.
