WATERVILLE — The Waterville Police Department may have its own firearms training range at the site of two former wastewater lagoons used by the former Wyandotte Mill off West River Road, if all goes according to plan.

The City Council on Tuesday will consider a request to authorize police Chief Joseph Massey to spend up to $15,000 for the preparation of design plans for such a range, with those plans to include grading and drainage as well as a sedimentation-erosion control plan as required by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The council, which no longer will meet at The Center downtown, will meet for the first time in the Chace Community Forum at the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons at 150 Main St. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

The forum is on the first floor of the mixed-use residential complex that was built by Colby College and houses about 200 Colby students, faculty and staff on upper floors. Those attending the council meeting should enter the building through doors on the Main Street side and the Chace Forum is on the right, to the north.

The lagoons from the former Wyandotte Mill site, which now is Trafton Properties, are located across West River Road near the intersection of Trafton Road. The $15,000 for the firearms range study would come from the police department’s drug forfeiture fund.

City Manager Michael Roy and Massey said Monday that the city has identified the lagoon side as a possible location for a firearms training range that Massey said is estimated to cost about $200,000, but because truckloads of fill from the Colby athletic complex site under construction on the Mayflower Hill campus have been hauled to the site, that cost has been reduced by about two-thirds. Roy said the contractor working on the Colby project asked if there was a place he could deposit fill in the city and city officials cited the lagoon site, where fill has been used to build the walls for a firing range and to add another layer of cap for the lagoon containing sediment and other material.

“It was just an opportunity we couldn’t pass up because the cost is so high to have fill hauled in,” Massey said.

He said that at one time, fill was fairly inexpensive, but that is no longer the case.

People who live in the area of Trafton Properties apparently are unaware the proposal for a firearms training range is being considered.

Aimee Trafton Gilbert, who lives on Trafton Road near West River Road, said Monday that she and her father, William Trafton, who lives next door to her, had not heard about the proposal so she could not really comment on it.

“I think I’d need to know more, and what the hours of training would be,” she said.

Both Roy and Massey said the police department has been using Winslow’s firearms training range along with other law enforcement agencies, but Waterville really needs its own range as it is a large department and trains frequently. Waterville has been paying $600 a year to use Winslow’s facility, according to Massey.

“We’ve been grateful and it’s been a good range,” he said.

Massey said the contractor hauling the fill from Colby actually built part of a road near the lagoons to make it easier to haul the fill there. Massey said the training site would be far enough off West River Road so as not to affect neighbors.

“There’s a significant downslope, a natural hill, going to the pools (lagoons),” he said, adding that the northernmost lagoon is the one being considered for the range.

He noted that the proposal to put a range there is in its early stages.

“We’re not sure it’ll actually happen,” he said. “We’re hoping at some point we end up with a firing range because we desperately need one.”

The two city-owned wastewater lagoons containing sediment and heavy metals from the former Wyandotte woolen mill’s operation many years ago were remediated by the state Department of Environmental Protection in 2013.

The DEP, with help from the city, drained the lagoons, put sediment from one lagoon into the other and capped them. Roy said some of the fill hauled to the site by the Colby contractor was used to add more cap to the lagoon which received extra sediment.

The $200,000 cost for remediation was funded entirely by the state.

The lagoons are about 2.5 acres each and on 33 acres on which the city foreclosed in February 2008. Waterville Industries Inc., a defunct Rhode Island corporation, had owned the property and had not paid taxes on it since the mid-1990s.

In other matters Tuesday, councilors will consider declaring a building at 19 Western Ave. dangerous and a nuisance. As part of the vote, the city would order Leonard D. Poulin Jr. to demolish the building, which was heavily damaged by fire in 2012, remove the debris and fill in any holes left by the demolition. If he does not do so before Nov. 2, the city will demolish it, remove the debris and fill in any holes, according to the resolution the council will consider Tuesday. The cost of that work and any other fees shall be paid by the owner within 30 days or a special tax for the amount will be assessed against the land and remaining building, collectible in the same manner as real estate taxes, the resolution says.

The council also will consider referring to the Planning Board for a public hearing and recommendation a request to rezone part of city-owned land at Head of Falls off Front Street from Commercial-A to Contract Zoned District-Commercial-A. Roy said the city is thinking of offering a lot for sale so it could be developed with a multi-use building that would complement what already is at the riverfront. The building could house offices, a restaurant and other uses, for instance, according to Roy.

“We intend to be very, very careful about what use ends up happening there,” he said.

The spot he is talking about is part of the green space between the newly paved parking lot and the RiverWalk at Head of Falls. The city owns several acres near that site.

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @AmyCalder17

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