Owner of former Birds Eye site has 30 days to make clean-up plan

  CARIBOU, Maine — The owner of the former Birds Eye site on the corning of Fort Street and Route 1, Steve Nasiff, of Nasiff Land LLC of Berkley, Mass., has a month to put together a clean-up plan for the property.
Nasiff met with the Caribou City Council on June 23 for a public hearing regarding the declaration of the buildings on the former vegetable processing site as dangerous.
The majority of councilors, save councilor Kenneth Murchison Jr., agreed to declare the buildings on the site dangerous as reported to the council by Code Enforcement Officer/ Assistant City Manager Tony Mazzucco. The majority of councilors also passed verbiage stipulating that the whole site would be secured in seven days.
In his report to the council, Mazzucco had outlined six structures that required immediate attention, including the main building, the “accessory” building between the main building and the freezer building, the freezer building (the big blue building next to Route 1), a storage shack, a guard shack, and another accessory building closest to the corner of the Fort Street/Route 1 intersection.
“It is my professional opinion that (these buildings) are structurally unsafe, unstable, unsanitary, are unsuitable for use or occupancy, constitute a hazard to health and safety because of inadequate maintenance, dilapidation, and abandonment … and that the buildings should be disposed of being demolished and removed in accordance with applicable state and local laws,” the assistant city manager wrote.
Nasiff had an opportunity to address the council during the public hearing, and before apprising the officials what he’s been working on at the complex, he admitted that from driving by the site, it looks like “not a blessed thing has gone on there.”
“One good thing out of it, and you have to take this away: it’s clean. It’s in the middle of your town, and it’s clean. And I cleaned it,” Nasiff said. “And I’m going to finish cleaning it, and I apologize for the unsightliness but we’ll look at getting that taken care of, and I’ll give you a plan because I have no reason not to. I’m on this ASAP.”
Since obtaining ownership in 2003, Nasiff said he’s done an extensive environmental cleanup of the site and cleaned up what was in the buildings while attempting his own re-development project.
When that project did not come to fruition, nor other business opportunities, Nasiff sold two sections of the property to a non-profit and a local businessman.
“Neither one of these sales would have been made if the buildings weren’t there, so there is some value in the buildings,” Nasiff defended, clarifying that he wasn’t there to tell council that all of the structures on the property were worthy of anything or something; during the meeting, he agreed with Mayor Gary Aiken’s assessment that some of the buildings could be “kicked over by two guys.”
But other buildings, like the freezer building alongside on Route 1, Nasiff defended to the council.
“I think the freezer building requires someone to go in there and see how the roof is, because that’s the major issue. Obviously, structurally it’s fine,” he said, adding that the door would have to be closed up and explained that they made a hole on the south side of the building because they intended to put rail through there.
“I’m not an engineer, it looks like a nice building to me from the inside. I know it doesn’t look great from the outside,” Nasiff told council, defending his decision to not have demolished the buildings, stating “I don’t know what it costs to put up a 32,000 square foot building, but I hate to (demolish it) if I can use it.”
He also outlined that potential businesses would be more attracted to a site with existing buildings than having to build from scratch and mentioned that if the facilities existed in Portland, he would have been able to sell them already.
Councilors asked Nasiff if he had a timeline for cleaning up the site, and he responded “ASAP.”
“As soon as I have the numbers, I have to get it done. You guys know that there’s a short window. I have no motivation to leave it the way it is. I need to move and groove on it, and I have to see something happen there,” he said.
Nasiff also commented that he had aspirations for parts of businesses there, but told council that it would be premature to discuss them that evening. He also mentioned that he had been mistakenly under the impression that the city wanted to purchase the site.
As Nasiff has owned the property for 11 years, Aiken questioned why the council should believe him now.
“Tell me why I should believe now you’re going to do all this stuff ASAP when really, you haven’t done anything for 11 years,” Aiken said after listening to Nasiff list off his work on the site.
Aiken also emphasized that Caribou just had a fire in a deserted building, which is speculated to have been started by kids.
“But you have the prime location for those things to happen and maybe next time they don’t get out,” the mayor stressed. “And it’s the biggest eyesore in this community — everybody mentions it, everybody that comes into this community to visit says ‘what is that? Why would you have something like that right on the main highway where someone comes in to look at it?’”
Murchison agreed with the public danger posed by the structures and reiterated that the over-arching concern in the city was that the property is unsecured.
“It’s been on Youtube — kids running through there with the raccoons and rats — it’s dangerous,” he said. “We had a building in the city that did collapse under the snowfall, it was catastrophic. If that (freezer building) comes down by itself, it’s going to blow stuff all the way to the river,” Murchison added.
Nasiff defended the structures and the work that’s he’s done on the site.
“I totally understand that as you drive by there, you cannot by any objective measure or subjective measure, see what’s gone on there because it’s been esoteric, it’s about environmental (clean up),” Nasiff said. “I do want to tell you I bought the site, I’ve paid you people tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and I don’t go to school, I don’t have kids in school, I paid money into the town … I’ve had things (stolen) from there — that’s how it is.”
Nasiff clarified that he wants to clean up the site and wants to work with the town, not against it.
“If I haven’t been perceived as a good neighbor, I’m sorry. I tried to do some projects there, they didn’t happen. Everybody wishes something great could pop in out of the sky, it doesn’t happen,” he said. “You can’t fault me for trying; we did try, and I lost a lot of money trying.”
Caribou Fire Chief Scott Susi spoke at the public hearing as well, attesting to the state of the buildings depicted in the pictures from Mazzucco’s report and explained that because the condition of the buildings, they are “non-entry” buildings for emergency personnel — meaning if, for example, a fire breaks out, Caribou firefighters can not go inside the building to make sure everyone’s out.
“There has been kids coming in and out of those, and securing those buildings in my mind is more than a piece of plywood on a corner with a screw on it,” Susi described. “I’m thinking big, big fencing jobs if they’re going to remain up, or somebody on site 24 hours a day to keep people out of them, just for piece of mind and for reasons of liability.”
Susi was also disheartened to learn that Nasiff does not have insurance on the former Birds Eye site.
The council ultimately approved a 30-day window for Nasiff to develop a plan to clean up the property.
“What’s the city’s position going to be if this is impossible to pull off in the timeframe allotted?” questioned Murchison, who opposed the 30-day agreement made by council. “Are we prepared to take this property and do something with it?”
Aiken responded that action will be determined at the end of the 30 days, and taking control of the property wouldn’t necessarily have to be the next step.
Aiken also thanked Nasiff for attending the public hearing.
“We all wish you luck, because we all want the same thing,” he said.
During the council meeting, councilors agreed to deny an abatement request for the former Corbin’s Electric building on South Main Street.
“As this property in question is located within the Downtown TIF District I have started conversations about applying for a Credit Enhancement Agreement between this business and the city,” outlined City Manager Austin Bleess. “This would allow us to move forward, instead of moving backwards, and accomplish the same goal at the end of the day.
The next meeting of the Caribou City Council is slated for Monday, July 14 at 7 p.m. in the Councilors Chambers.