Almost 70 people attended a public hearing on whether to sell city-owned land on Olson Drive in July 2022.
ANSONIA – The Ansonia Board of Aldermen voted on Aug. 13 to award a $1.3 million bid to a Danbury firm to clean up contaminated soil at Olson Drive.
The bid was awarded to EnviroConsultants & Recyclers, Inc. for $1,316,035. The money comes from a $3.8 million state grant that was awarded last December.
Ansonia Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley said the work will include “processing, compacting and placement of soil as well as hauling away contaminated soil” on the former site of federally-subsidized apartments, now slated to be the home of a private multi-sports complex.
The work is expected to begin sometime next week, according to O’Malley.
The property on Olson Drive used to be home to the Riverside Apartments, controlled by the Ansonia Housing Authority.
The housing authority sold the land to the City of Ansonia. The city then sold the land to The Primrose Companies, the company that received approvals to build a sports complex there.
Construction on the facility was supposed to start in March 2023.
In January, John Guedes, president and CEO of The Primrose Companies, told The Valley Indy that he expected to have a usable soccer field on the site by November.
Construction is now supposed to start in the spring, Guedes said on Wednesday (Aug. 28).
The developer is leasing use of a soccer field to Olé Soccer, a private soccer club based out of Fairfield.
At the Aug. 13 Aldermen meeting, Alderwoman Bobbi Tar asked why the city is still involved with the Olson Drive cleanup, given that it was sold to a private developer two years ago.
“I’m just curious: Why are we going to keep spending money on Olson Drive when this is a property that we’ve sold, and it’s up to the developer to start building?” Tar asked. “I’m just confused that we’re not seeing anything happening, and why are we going to put more money into it.”
Ansonia Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley told the Aldermen that the money for the cleanup is coming from state funds, not directly from Ansonia.
A 2023 illustration showing the facility (City of Ansonia image).
On Aug. 27, The Valley Indy interviewed O’Malley about what happened at Olson Drive.
O’Malley said the city gave the developer environmental reports conducted when apartments were still on Olson Drive. Those apartments were demolished in 2016.
O’Malley said no environmental tests were conducted between the demolition and the sale of the property for $510,000 in August 2022.
When the developer began their own environmental tests after the sale, they discovered that there was more contamination than the pre-demolition reports contained, according to O’Malley.
A government entity can access grants to cleanup contamination more easily than the private sector, so the city government stepped in.
“Once he (Guedes) went out there, did some testing, and determined the level of contamination, that’s when I thought ‘Okay, well, let’s see if we can’t help this project with grant funds, because that would help defer some of the costs,’” O’Malley said.
Guedes told The Valley Indy that even if he had known the extent of the contamination before the purchase, he likely still would have bought the property. He said he was surprised by the contamination since the land had been used for apartments for decades.
The Valley Indy also reached out to Ansonia Democratic Town Committee Chairman Dave Hannon for comment but did not hear back.
The land on Olson Drive was supposed to become a 39,000-square foot indoor soccer facility with an outdoor soccer field, the home stadium for Ole Soccer. A second, 49,000 square-foot building was planned there as well.
