Town of Sprague

Baltic Mills

Baltic Mills Makes a Movie
Watch a behind-the-scenes clip from a sci-fi movie called Soldier 1 that was shot at Baltic Mills this summer
by Story Forge Labs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZYspIvuXmY

Look at this old cutie! Mill #10 (right and center), at 56,000 square feet, is the only remaining Town-owned building at the Baltic Mills site. The exposed brick end is actually the wall that connected it to Mill #1, which was demolished after the 1999 fire that destroyed the majority of the buildings on the 16-acre site. In 2008/09 the majority of the remaining asbestos was removed from this building as part of an EPA Brownfields grant. The photo does not do justice to the incredible granite stonework. In the foreground where the trees are you can just make out the granite tailrace, that brought water away from the mill and back into the Shetucket river, about 200 yards to the right. Note also the existing monitoring well in the lawn; this site has been the recipient of many remediation and testing activities by both the Town and the EPA since 1999.
Click here to see our Site Information Brochure for Prospective Developers

Baltic Mills Updates (most recent firsts

August 2009: the CERC Feasibility Study, conducted with a $35,000 Rural Business Opportunity grant from USDA, has been finalized and is available online! (see below for link).This new, extensive study shows potential investors/developers exactly what will have to be done to the site to make it the most economically viable entity possible, given the basic parameters of the community’s desires (conformity to historic village setting, downtown and public appeal, etc.).

Information gained from the study includes such details as the types of businesses most likely to succeed at the site, given the area’s demographics, the costs of renovation/construction/cleanup, tax benefits (for both the investor and the town), etc. This information comprises a large part of what an investor is seeking when interested in developing a site for commercial or mixed-use purposes.

May 2009: The Town’s Licensed Environmental professional (LEP), Paul Burgess, LLC, continues to oversee the Brownfields cleanup process as well as additional testing on site, conducted with a $100,000 Targeted Brownfields Assessment grant and administered directly by EPA. Although its interior

and roof have been severely damaged, the building remains structurally sound and is a good reminder of the quality of workmanship used to build these turn-of-the-century structures. Both the Sprague Historical Society and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism strongly support the preservation of this building. Although it is often more costly to renovate existing structures than to build new ones, the Baltic Mills site offers the best of both worlds—the chance to preserve one building as an example of the former mill, and the freedom to construct a mill-like complex from the ground up without having to worry about preservation, replacement of old/outdated fixtures, losing energy efficiency, etc.

April 2009: Asbestos abatement at Mill #10 is complete, the building is secure, and the firm of AES has begun their hazardous materials testing on the peninsula and other areas of the site as part of last year’s EPA Targeted Brownfields Assessment grant. We’ve already had lots of testing done, but this batch will allow us to finally have enough data and interpretation of the data to prepare what’s called a “Phase III” analysis, that tells a

all the remaining hazards on the site. That, combined with our nearly completed feasibility study (due out in May) should be enough for any prospective investor to fall head over heels in love with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Attention Shoppers!

Sprague and Baltic Mills are part of the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region www.secter.com (SeCTer), which is our liaison to the Economic Development Data Information (EDDI) website sponsored in CT by the Connecticut Economic Resource Center www.cerc.org

prospective developer exactly where, what quality, and the cost of removal, of

prospective developer exactly where, what quantity, and the cost of removal, of all the remaining hazards on the site. That, combined with our nearly completed feasibility study (due out in May) should be enough for any prospective investor to fall head over heels in love with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Attention Shoppers!

EDDI gives overviews of every town in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, and devotes pages to commercial and industrial property for sale; you’ll find the Baltic Mills site listed here. Visit it EDDI's site today!

http://www.locationone.com/lois/logon.do?username=CT-CERC&appsection=localities&community_id=6466

On-Line Information Repository

One of the requirements of the EPA Brownfields grant (and useful for anyone interested in the status of the Mills project) is the development of a repository of information regarding the site, and the progress on its cleanup. The Town has an extensive collection of mill-related documents on file, and all are available for public review, but we will be collecting pertinent cleanup-related documents and putting them in a centralized location; hopefully many of these documents can also be kept in an online archive that you can access from this page. We will be adding to this archive periodically. Below, for Mills Cleanup fans, are documents in our current archive.

·        Baltic Mills Cleanup Application
·        First Report to EPA
·        Baltic Mills property Profile Form
·        Baltic Mills Cleanup Workplan
·        Phase II TBA report
·        August 2007 Baltic Mills Public Meeting, notes and comment
·        EPA Cleanup Report (post 1999) includes photo
·        TBA Application for peninsula August 2007
·        ECAF Addendum Part II
·        Cleanup Alternative Analysis
·        Baltic Mills Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) 9/15/08
·        Mill # 10 Asbestos Test Results 9/08
·        Baltic Mills Aerial
·       Field Test Workplan (AES and Metcalf & Eddy/AECOM), approved March 2009
       (very large file 8MB)
·        Final Asbestos Abatement Monitoring Report--Mill #10
·       May 2009 ESS Lab work order 0905266 (22 pages)
·        May 2009 ESS Lab work order 0905249 (74 pages)
·       May 2009 ESS Lab work order 0905219 (110 pages)
·        May 2009 AES Map of proposed sample locations
·        Baltic Mill Feasibility Analysis
·        Feasibility Analysis Appendices
·       Baltic Mills Fuel Oil Summary 08-09

Additional Mill Resources

Your friends at the Sprague Historical Society have lots of interesting photos and documents pertaining to both the Baltic Mills operations and other Sprague lore . . . visit them!

Please Note: In order to access the information you need the Adobe Reader.
If you would like to download the reader please click on the Adobe icon.

·        Map of Fuel Oil Data 9-09
·        TBA Report 12-09
·        Baltic Mills RAP-Final
·        CRP Baltic Mills
·        Baltic Mills Analysis of Brownfield Alt-Eastern SW

Baltic Mills Committee Meeting

Agenda for 7-19-2010
Agenda for 9-13-2010 Postponed for 9-20-2010 at 5pm