SOMERSET — The questions and concerns keep coming.
Months into business operations at Brayton Point Commerce Center, residents and town officials are still seeking answers about the nature of the work being done there and how conditions imposed on the property's owner by the town are being interpreted and enforced.
That's why the town is organizing a public meeting featuring input from all boards and departments, owner Commercial Development Company and Save Our Brayton Point, a citizens group that has raised worries over dust, traffic, pollution, noise and other issues at the waterfront property. A date, time and location for the meeting have not been announced.
Complaints over work at the site were numerous enough to also prompt the town to post to its website a "Brayton Point Commerce Center Complaint Form" that residents can mail to or drop off at Town Hall.
Selectman Steve Moniz suggested the meeting after fielding questions and feedback from community members at his board's Feb. 12 session. Town Administrator Richard Brown said the Zoning Board of Appeals should officially call for the meeting, since it determined recently approved conditions for Eastern Metal Recycling and Allied Salt, scrap metal and salt storage businesses, respectively. The conditions came months after the businesses began operations without required permitting, prompting outcry from local officials and neighbors of the 1 Brayton Point Road property, formerly home to a coal-fired power plant.
Moniz, who lives in the Brayton Point area of town, said he wants everyone to have the same interpretation of the conditions imposed last month and how they will be met.
The 18-page set of restrictions, approved several weeks ago after months of discussion, orders the businesses in part to keep work-related dust and fumes contained to the property, keep noise under 10 decibels and limit truck travel on Brayton Point Road to between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. In addition, Commercial Development Company, the Missouri-based owner of Brayton Point Commerce Center, must conduct regular dust- and noise-monitoring on site four days a month for the first 12 months of operation. It also will have to pay for the installation and operation of traffic cameras at the intersection of Brayton Point Road and Route 103 to ensure trucks are sticking to the required routes.
In addition to sharing concerns over home values and health, resident Edward Souza expressed skepticism that all the restrictions were being met. Resident Jeff Kardel claimed dust and noise meters had yet to be installed on Perkins Street, part of the conditions set by the zoning board. He also claimed during the meeting that his car was covered in black dust one day, that metal was being moved on the property during 60-mph winds and that trucks were traveling down Brayton Point Road before the agreed-upon time. The last complaint prompted Selectman David Berube to tell Kardel to call the police if he's concerned about traffic violations to at the very least build up a record.
Town officials have questions, too.
Moniz said he wants to know how the town would know if a traffic-monitoring camera, installed by Commercial Development Company, was working and whether the Somerset Police Department would have access to it. An attorney for the company had recommended the camera be installed, Moniz said. The selectman also asked to see for himself that the camera was working.
Board of Selectmen Chairman David Berube said he has met with the town administrator and building inspector about the mounting issues at Brayton Point, calling the matter a work in progress.
The power plant at Brayton Point operated for 60 years, closing in 2017. Commercial Development Company, which said it plans to turn the property into a hub for the offshore wind industry, has been demolishing the plant in phases over the last few years. On Feb. 22, the last of the plant's chimneys is scheduled to be demolished, almost a year after the plant's two 500-foot cooling towers were knocked down.