The site has contaminated ground water, and city officials need to document the extent of the pollution.
The site of the former Games and Lanes bowling alley on Walnut Street Extension in Agawam, where officials want to assess contamination left behind by a dry cleaning operation.AGAWAM — The mayor seeks authorization from the City Council to apply for $50,000 from the state to hire a brownfields site assessment consultant to evaluate the contaminated former Games and Lanes bowling alley property.
The site has contaminated ground water, and city officials need to document the extent of the pollution, according to Mayor Richard A. Cohen and Planning and Community Development Director Deborah S. Dachos. The site was occupied by a commercial dry cleaning business for about two decades.
“We are hoping to get the $50,000 from Mass Development to do an assessment so we can finally know the extent of the contamination, so we can finally get the site cleaned up and developed,” Cohen said.
“The actual extent of the contamination has not been quantified,” Dachos said.
The City Council is expected to vote on a mayoral resolution to seek state funding when it meets Sept. 4.
Dachos said officials at Mass Development have told her it could take as few as 30 days for the state agency to process and act on a request for funding. Dachos said she would like to see the assessment start this fall with work continuing in the spring when the water table is at its highest.
Potential developers have been leery of acquiring the property for redevelopment because the full extent of contamination by the hazardous cleaning solvent trichlorolethylene at 346-350 Walnut Street Extension is unknown, according to officials. The property was occupied by the uniform rental business Standard Uniform Corp. from 1969 through about the late 1980s.
Dachos said a selection committee working with the city on the project has selected O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun Associates Inc. of Springfield to do the work. At $43,900, its proposal was the lowest priced of the three finalists for the work.
The other two finalists and the amounts they proposed for work are Environmental Compliance Services, of Agawam, at $67,150 and Tighe & Bond Inc., of Westfield, at $49,100.
The other companies that submitted proposals for the job and the amounts they proposed were: Beta Group Inc., of Norwood, at $43,100; Bradburne Briller & Johnson, of Amesbury at $49,100; and Loureiro Engineering Associates Inc., of Plainville, Conn., at $97,313.