Plymouth: Land purchase proposal barely gets FinCom approval

The proposed purchase of 2-1/2 acres of county property next to the Plymouth Police Station got Finance Committee approval at their recent meeting, but only by a slim margin. Town Manager Mark Stankiewicz presented Article 13 calling for the million dollar purchase of the county property on Long Pond Road. Some FinCom members raised concerns about contamination. Richard Gladdys was one of them. He questioned why the town wants to buy property that is contaminated. Former DPW Director and Plymouth resident George Crombie echoed this concern:  You buy the contamination; you buy the liability—why would the town do that when they don’t know who the trash belongs to at this point in time?” Town Manager Mark Stankiewicz responded: “If there’s contamination, it’s because of the landfill operation that the  town was permitted to do on the county property—so the town probably bears a great deal of responsibility in that matter.” Although Stankiewicz, County Advisory Board Chair Dan Pallotta and County Treasurer Tom O’Brien defended the proposal, half of the committee remained unconvinced of the advisability of the purchase. The result was a tie vote, broken by Chairman Robert Naussau’s vote in favor.