The Philomath City Council has approved a contract to remove underground storage tanks and a hydraulic lift station from a city-owned property at the corner of Main and South 14th streets.
BB&A Environmental submitted the low bid of $37,954.60 for the cleanup work. The next lowest bid was $10,000 higher and the third bid came in at close to $98,000.
City Manager Chris Workman said BB&A Environmental has room in its schedule to complete the work and anticipates finishing the cleanup before the end of the year.
The property covers two tax lots and was the site of a service garage for many years. Denny Nusbaum purchased it in 1960 and seven years later added a self-service three-bay car wash. The property had fallen into disrepair and become an eyesore in the prime city location.
The city purchased the property for $285,000 from Nusbaum during the summer of 2020 through Urban Renewal Agency funds. The city had attempted to buy the property four years earlier but the agreement fell apart because of environmental concerns.
Additional testing at the request of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality discovered three underground storage tanks, a hydraulic lift station and soil samples with petroleum contamination, lead-based paint and asbestos. The Nusbaums cleaned up the soil contamination but the tanks and the hydraulic lift station remain in the ground.
In a 2020 interview, Workman said the storage tanks — two were initially found — were filled with “some type of slurry” and that no active leaks were detected.
BB&A Environmental is familiar with the property after completing two phases of environmental assessment work at the site.
“That’s probably why their bid came in a little bit lower because they’ve got a better idea of what’s there and what needs to get done versus the others probably putting some buffer in there because they don’t know,” Workman said. “So that probably helped them but I also, this is a great group to work with and I’ve got no qualms.”
The council prioritized the cleanup as a priority in the 2025-26 budget and committed funding toward its completion. In a summary of the situation prepared for the City Council, Workman said no additional funding from DEQ is available. The property cleanup will be paid for out of Urban Renewal dollars.
After the property is cleaned up, the City Council can then start thinking about future uses, Workman said. A work session to discuss the possibilities was suggested.
“We’ve heard from the community, we’ve done studies on this, we’ve had consultants make recommendations but you’re the City Council, so let’s talk about what you want to do with the property and the process for making that happen,” Workman said. “The cleanup’s got to come first but with the cleanup, that opens the invitation to start talking about what we’re really going to do with this property.”
Off-street parking, public restrooms and a site for community events were mentioned as possible uses after the property was initially acquired. At one point, a citizen suggested that it become a town square and another possibility involved a partnership with the private sector, such as retail or commercial space.
“More than likely, it’s going to be some type of request for proposals from the private sector to come to us and say, ‘Yep, we’ll do what you want us to do and here’s what it’ll cost,'” Workman said.
