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| Summerall Gate at McClellan is currently closed. The JPA’s budget includes money to clear the area. Photo: Kevin Qualls/The Anniston Star |
A year ago, Army transferred nearly 4,800 acres at McClellan to the JPA, along with cleanup responsibilities for a 900-acre area designated the “alpha” area and $48.5 million to do the work.
The cost of cleaning a second area, the “bravo” area, is being negotiated. Meantime, preparations for cleaning the “alpha” area of unexploded ordnance and hazardous, toxic and radiological material is gaining momentum.
The $5.7 million budget for 2004-2005 cleanup work includes $3.6 million for projects, $1.4 million for labor and more than $600,000 for expenses ranging from insurance to office setup, legal support and travel.
The plan breaks down 17 projects that Matrix, the management team hired by the JPA, intends to complete in the coming year. Much of the work is landscaping, additional work plans, along with the surface cleanup of a former range where bullet jackets and metal debris will be removed.
Privatizing the cleanup allows the JPA to prioritize the work according to development needs; the budget includes a $1.4 million planned adjustment for clearing the “Golden Triangle.” The area – at McClellan’s future “front door” – borders the Eastern Parkway where it joins Summerall Gate Road at McClellan Boulevard.
The Golden Triangle previously was investigated and cleared by the Army’s unexploded-ordnance contractor, but the Alabama Department of Environmental Management did not agree with the Army’s investigation and remediation “methodologies.” To meet ADEM’s requirements, the JPA is negotiating with the Army to find money necessary for additional investigation and removal. The $1.4 million is considered a “placeholder” in the budget.
The Golden Triangle is part of the “bravo” area, but the JPA can negotiate this piece separately to move development forward.
Another priority is covering and landscaping of landfills. Landfill I, on 12 acres on the hillside between Avery Drive and 16th Avenue, has spurred complaints from Avery Drive residents in recent months. They’ve been waiting for the JPA to improve the appearance of their street by demolishing three rundown houses on the landfill.
JPA board members said during Tuesday’s meeting that the houses would be gone in the coming year.
The board also passed the JPA’s regular budget for the coming fiscal year Tuesday. The budget projects that the JPA will receive $625,973 in revenue from leases and spend $404,858 on personnel costs and $1.7 million on operational costs. That creates a shortfall of about $1.49 million.
JPA Executive Director Dan Cleckler said he anticipates building sales and additional leases will increase revenue. The JPA has $3 million in reserves, he added.
The budget includes $308,938 for marketing and economic development and $819,576 for property maintenance, which Cleckler said is a significant increase from previous years.
“We have to start making it more marketable,” he said.
This was the last meeting for Weaver Mayor Ed Kimbrough and Anniston City Councilman John Norton will attend as members of the JPA board. Both will leave their offices soon, following recent municipal elections. They tried to spark action on a project the JPA has talked about for years – removing the railway at McClellan to possibly create an extension of the Chief Ladiga Trail.
The annual plan and accompanying budget the board approved includes a reference to the railway, directing staff to “prepare RFP (request for proposal) for rail removal for board approval.”
At last week’s board work session, State Rep. Lea Fite, D-Jacksonville, asked that the JPA meet with the local legislative delegation to discuss why the JPA wants to remove the rail. Fite and other representatives have considered it an asset for industry.
JPA Planning Director Miki Schneider said a meeting with the state legislative delegation would occur in the next two weeks.
“We’ve been putting this thing off and putting it off,” Kimbrough said. “Why not put out an RFP now and decide later? I would like to see us move ahead with the RFP at least.”
McClellan’s two-year-old land-use plan shows the rails removed. Schneider said an older plan that retained the rails had more industrial land uses than what the JPA now wants, including industry instead of an arts community in the historic warehouse area.
After Calhoun County Commissioner Robert Downing said the board needs Norfolk Southern to confirm whether it plans to condemn the railway, the board – including Norton – decided to vote on Kimbrough’s motion to proceed with the RFP before making a final decision.
The motion passed.
In other business,
— The board called an executive session to discuss contract negotiations on a lease of property that the Center for Domestic Preparedness has requested, including the complex behind the Noble Training Center and three dormitories. Cleckler said the board discussed CDP’s counter offer to the JPA’s price. The board voted to authorize the CDP committee to continue to work out the terms of the lease.
— The board agreed to allow the Canine Accelerant Detection Association to burn a building on the demolition list at McClellan to use in a training exercise at its national conference next month. The association and/or the Anniston Fire Department would have to accept liability and agree to clean up after the burn. The Anniston Fire Department would be in charge of the burning and finish it in its own training exercise.
— The JPA agreed to amend Battelle’s lease of a former Women’s Army Corps barracks to allow testing exercises in which the company demonstrates a mobile unit’s ability to decontaminate a building with chlorine dioxide. Matrix has approved Battelle’s safety plan, and representatives of Matrix and ADEM will be on-site during the test periods, which will occur on a Friday and Saturday in October, after children have gone home from the Jacksonville State University Child Development Center, and before golfers arrive at Cane Creek.