Clean Up Resumes at Wonderland

After months of work at a standstill the owners of Wonderland Dog Track have resumed work, taking away piles of rubble containing asbestos.

In a letter to the council from Chip Tuttle, representing the property owners CWB Lending, regarding an update on the demolition of the site, he outlined how work will proceed.

Ward 5 Councillor John Powers said there was a meeting with the principals of Wonderland and the Department of Environmental Protection two weeks ago.

Much of the work relies on DEP inspections as the project goes along. Tuttle expected a calendar of work to come in the next few days.

DEP has implemented some conditions. CBW plans meetings with abatement and demolition contractors. Movement forward will rely on DEP inspections.

Tuttle stated that they would be continuing work for the next three to six months. Post abatement and demo contractors are ready to go. Tuttle said the time frames are conservative.

“They said they will have all of that trash out of there by the end of this month,” Powers said. “A tentative day of July 31 for completion of the demo work. I’m not going to let this go. They stopped the work because they found asbestos in there in October. They understand that (asbestos) has to be taken out of there and those buildings need to come down.”

Councillor George Rotondo said this was “foreseen. It’s not something they did not know that they had. The foot dragging has been disgusting to me.”

Powers said the DEP has been to Wonderland several times.

“The people who did that asbestos abatement did a poor job, that’s how the DEP got here,” Powers said. “There was a lot of plaster and the asbestos was used in that plaster.”

Council President Jessica Gianinno said when the city had to deal with schools with asbestos they didn’t wait a year.

“The next time they come up to us, they will be held at a higher standard so that this does not continue to be an issue,” she said.

Nick Moulaison, chairman of the Conservation Commission, said, “We want results and we want answers. The contractor wanted to remove the stuff but DEP wouldn’t let them. They knew the building had asbestos.”