Testing contract OK'd

Environmental testing will move forward at the former industrial site on Bridge Street.

Portland Board of Works on Thursday approved a contract with IWM Consulting for the former Sheller-Globe site.

Portland Mayor John Boggs, who is also a member of the board of works, explained that IWM and Indiana Department of Environmental Management have agreed on protocols for the testing. The tests stem from a spill during the 1980s involving cleaning solvent on the former Sheller-Globe property, which spans 410 and 510 S. Bridge St. The goal is to determine if there is any residual contamination, if so, where it is located and what would need to be done to clean it up.

The contract with IWM is not to exceed $34,468.

The testing is the first round, with potentially eight quarters of testing required overall depending on what IWM finds. (Boggs noted that additional rounds of testing are expected to come at a fraction of the cost of this initial round.)

The entire process is required by Indiana Department of Environmental Management as part of the effort to sell the south portion of the site — 510 S. Bridge St. — to Chad Fifer, who owns Fifer Services. (The north part of the property is already home to furniture manufacturer TLS By Design.) Fifer plans to install a sawmill on the property and in the future expand to include furniture production.

The city in September agreed to sell the property to Fifer for $50,000. It has since entered into an independent contractor agreement with Fifer — the board voted last week to extend it to Aug. 1 — to allow him access to the property while environmental issues are being resolved.

City officials are hopeful that the environmental testing approved Thursday will return results that allow them to transfer ownership of the property to Fifer.