NORWICH – A young, not-for-profit theater company in the Village of Greene has garnered assistance from the Chenango County Industrial Development Agency in order to shoulder possible environmental-related liability costs.
The IDA agreed last week to serve as a conduit for and co-applicant with The Chenango River Theater in the event that state Environmental Restoration Program funds are needed. ERP funds are available to public agencies for hazardous waste remediation, and would be applied to afford any state mandated clean-up.
The theater company is currently leasing a 19,000 square-foot building that it renovated two years ago under a right-to-purchase agreement. The building, and adjacent 11 acres, is owned by the Page Seed Company. However, due to a chemical spill there 19 years ago, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation flagged the pending change of ownership application in order to investigate for possible trichloroethene (TCE) contamination.
Before leasing it, the Chenango River Theater contracted for environmental testing on the interior of the building and the surrounding land. No contamination was found. The actual spill site was previously remediated according to state standards.
Theater representative Bill Lelbach told members of the IDA that ongoing TCE investigations and lawsuits in nearby Broome County also prompted the new investigation. Attorneys representing a group of 90 plaintiffs recently filed a law suit against IBM Corp. in state Supreme Court seeking damages related to TCE pollution at the company’s former micro-electronics plant in Endicott.
“They are reinvestigating all spill sites,” Lelbach said.
Page Seed has agreed to pick up any hazardous waste investigation costs.
“We need access to ERP funds and have to partner with a public agency. We are requesting that if we buy the site, you will enjoin with us,” Chenango River Theater Board of Directors Chairman Jeffrey S. Brookes said. “As soon as we say we will purchase, Page Seed will do and perform the tests.”
Brookes said neither the DEC nor the Department of Health expected to find any TCE contamination at the site, but if they did, future clean-up costs could be as much as $500,000.
“It would bankrupt the corporation,” he said.
Brookes and Lelbach said unless they could partner with the IDA for ERP funds, they would be forced to choose an alternative site for the theater company’s performances. Three facilities - all located outside of the county - had already been identified, they said.
The Chenango River Theater building had been vacant for 125 years. The new venture has been widely supported and promoted as an economic development community project of the Greene Chamber of Commerce.
Last year’s performance attendance numbers “exceeded all benchmarks,” Brookes said. The theater’s stated $145,000 operating budget makes it one of the largest arts organizations in Chenango County.
Counsel James Downey recommended that the IDA enter into the same type of agreement that it is currently developing on behalf of the Northeast Classic Car Museum. The IDA is partnering with the Norwich-based museum for ERP funds, if necessary, in order to remediate a decades-old trichloroethene spill on a portion of the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad tracks located nearby. The agreement requires the IDA to hold joint title of both facilities for 10 years.
IDA board member Thomas Knapp asked whether the IDA would be held harmless in such an agreement.
Downey said, “There’s always a risk association with these things. There are some restrictions to the grant funds, including a recapture provision.” He advised the theater’s board to have their lawyers review the application process.
Knapp, IDA Chairman Hugh Kearney, and new member Supervisor Jack T. Cook, R-Greene, voted to proceed with the agreement on behalf of the theater group.