In continuing coverage of the Hastings Creamery, Aaron Dean, construction attorney and partner of
Spencer Fane Law Firm, is counsel for the project owner, 3D LLC, and Mr. Peter Mursu. And separately, attorney Aaron Dean is also counsel for Lloyd Construction Services. Lloyd Construction Services is spearheading the creamery cleanup.
Dean shares about the progress made in removing debris from the fire-damaged creamery and offers a tentative timeline of the continuing work.
“Well, there’s a couple points that I want to make. We have already started on-site with removing the above ground storage tanks and silos, and we anticipate that work will be complete this week, the storage tanks and silos will be repurposed and used off site. We need the weather to cooperate before we can begin demolition work. We need average temperatures to exceed 32 degrees, and we need that because there has to be a constant water source to help control dust during demolition activities. So, in order to ensure that the site is protected, we need to have available water. We can’t have that available water if temperatures are hovering or hovering right around the freezing temperature. So, we had always planned to start demolition around April 15, because that we’re guaranteed to have good temperatures. And I noticed, you know what the weather forecast, we’re supposed to get light snow on tomorrow, April 2. We’re supposed to get light snow on Saturday, April 4, and we’re supposed to have temperatures between 25 degrees and 33 degrees at the low temperature between April 1 and April 7. So, all of that means our initial projections about our start date were correct, right? We just can’t get in there and start doing demolition work until we have good temperatures about the cleanup at the Hastings Creamery.” Attorney Aaron Dean continues, “you’ll see some activity next week. The goal is for Lloyd Construction Services to mobilize to the project site on Monday, April 6, and then construct construction fencing for the entire site on April 8, and then begin demolition on Monday, April 13. If we can start earlier, we will. We have all of the permits in place to begin our demolition work. And there was some ancillary work that had to be done at the outset, like coordinating with utility providers with getting these above ground storage tanks and silos, you know, removed. That removal work that I just mentioned is outside of Lloyds Construction Services work, and so Lloyds will begin their construction work and the demolition work on or about April 13, and we are hopeful, but cannot promise that we will finish by June 15. We did receive, of course, the city council’s directive to complete all demolition and cleanup work on or before June 15, and we are trying to meet that deadline. We have already contested that deadline, because we cannot predict what will happen in the future. And what I mean by that is we don’t know if we will encounter more difficult conditions. There will be hazardous materials on site that require more analysis and more safeguards. We don’t know whether there will be anything underground that requires us to be inventive with our demolition techniques, but Peter Mursu and his business partners are doing everything that they can to meet the city’s June 15 deadline. If that deadline is missed, we will keep the city and we’ll keep this radio station informed, because we recognize this a very important project to the City of Hastings and to its citizens, and they want that site cleaned up. And we want the site cleaned up. Sometimes even the best plans need adjustment because of unforeseen conditions. And if we go beyond June 15, you will know, that it was not because of lack of effort.”
KDWA will have more on this report in future broadcasts.
[To listen to the broadcast, click the soundbite.]