SALISBURY — Voters unanimously approved spending up to $113,000 to help clean up oil-contaminated soil at the Holley Place affordable housing site in Lakeville at a town meeting Thursday, Oct. 15.
The 35-0 vote authorized using money from the Small Cities Repayment Fund for the work. The Board of Selectmen had endorsed the contribution Sept. 22.
The cleanup was previously estimated to cost between $165,000 and $175,000, with the developer, the nonprofit Salisbury Housing Committee, responsible for raising the balance. First Selectman Curtis Rand has said the town bears some responsibility because it owns the land.
Construction stopped over the summer after crews excavating the foundation detected the smell of heating oil. Soil removal began in late September.
The three-story development at 11 Holley St. will include 14 affordable rental apartments: 10 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom units.
The committee broke ground in March, with occupancy initially anticipated in spring 2027. Earlier this month, the committee had not yet said whether the cleanup would affect that schedule.
The town’s contribution will come from repayments of home rehabilitation loans issued through a regional Small Cities program.
In an interview Friday, Oct. 16, Comptroller Joe Cleaveland said the fund originated with a $300,000 state grant awarded in 2012 to serve eight towns: Salisbury, Sharon, North Canaan, Falls Village, Kent, Cornwall, Goshen and Norfolk.
The state grant funded interest-free loans to qualifying homeowners in the eight towns for repairs such as replacing roofs, upgrading heating systems and fixing wells or septic systems.
Homeowners qualified if their household income was no more than 80% of the area median income.
Repayment was deferred until the home was sold, transferred or refinanced, Cleaveland said.
Salisbury administered the program and is allowed to keep the money homeowners repay, provided it is used for affordable housing. Those repayments are the source of the town’s contribution to the Holley Place cleanup.
