$48,000 sought for soil cleanup; N. Brookfield voters to address gas contamination, police station site.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Bradford L. Miner

NORTH BROOKFIELD - Voters will be asked at tomorrow's special town meeting for a show of support for the committee working on a new police station and to approve money for a cleanup plan for contaminated soil behind the town hall. The meeting is at 7 p.m. in the elementary school auditorium.

Additionally, eight other requests are on the meeting warrant.

James N. Caldwell, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said yesterday that voters would be asked to transfer $48,000 from available funds to

address the cleanup of gasoline-contaminated soil behind the Town House.

He said the town is under a 120-day consent order from the state Department of Environmental Protection to document the steps that will be taken to remove the contaminated soil.

The contamination was found, Mr. Caldwell said, as a result of test borings for the addition that will accommodate an elevator, making all floors of the landmark town hall accessible to people with disabilities.

He said the town's consulting engineer and architect for the Town House renovation project, SEA Consultants Inc. of Cambridge, was already developing a remediation plan that would meet the state's April deadline.

"The intent is to bundle this cleanup as part of the renovation project. We know we're going to have to tear the existing addition off the building and rip the foundations out, and that will require digging. While we're doing that, we'll remove all of the contaminated soil from the immediate area," Mr. Caldwell said.

"We'll deal with the off-property contamination issues at a later point," he added.

SEA's abatement plan has to meet all of the DEP's conditions for dealing with soil contamination, and in this instance, that's a fairly comprehensive plan for fixing the problem, Mr. Caldwell said.

With respect to the police station study, Mr. Caldwell said that for the town to be able...