CARIBOU, Maine — The dilapidated remains of the Birds Eye vegetable processing plant were finally tax-acquired by the City of Caribou late last month, a couple years after owner Steven Nasiff initially refused to make any repairs.
Nasiff owned the 18-acre site since 2003 and, when City Council ordered him to secure or remove the dangerous buildings from the property during a June 2014 council meeting, he refused to do anything unless Caribou applied for grant money and knocked it down themselves or if they paid him $100,000 for the property deed.
On August 8 of this year, Council unanimously voted to demolish the freezer building and guard shack, as it could potentially fall onto U.S. Route 1 and endanger drivers.
Costs of taking down a smaller building and adding a fence, adding up to $30,000, were added to Nasiff’s unpaid property taxes.
City Manager Austin Bleess said in August that the city would acquire the property if Nasiff continued to ignore his taxes. That action was finalized on Nov. 22.
At this point, Caribou has owned the property for about two weeks and the $87,500 job of demolishing the dangerous freezer building was recently completed by McGillan, Inc. of Fort Fairfield.
“The freezer building is down and that’s what the council ordered,” said Bleess, “though a few piles of debris are still there to my knowledge. Now that we’ve tax acquired the property we are eligible to receive brownfield grant money to help with the rest of the contamination.”
The city is currently working on a grant application, and may hear back in a matter of weeks. If they are successful, the site could be made clear and safe over the course of next year.
Looking ahead, Bleess believes the cleaned-up property could be appealing to a potential buyer.
“We’ll have a very marketable 18-acre site right in the middle of the community, in a place where everybody drives by,” Bless said, adding that there are no firm plans at the moment.
