Sanford has been consistently improving in recent years, growing its business community, repurposing the old textile mills and even building a new police station. A new high school and vocational center is on the horizon, and the airport has been improved and marketed to attract more users.

Now Sanford can celebrate one more victory in its renaissance ”“ and a hard-fought one, at that. The CGA property on New Dam Road, run down and covered with debris and piles of discarded circuit boards, has been an eyesore in the town for 20 years. The site, a former copper-processing facility, has been a mess ”“ in more ways than one ”“ ever since it was abandoned by the landowners in the early 1990s. It’s been an ongoing struggle for the town to get it cleaned up, with seemingly endless negotiations with landowners and failed attempts to get federal money to get rid of the circuit boards.

Through the years, there have been steps taken to clean up the property ”“ including the removal of a burned-out mobile home, chemicals and some other wastes ”“ but it’s still littered with mounds of old circuit boards. In 2010, the town council even decided to spend $27,500 for cleanup and to secure the building that’s on the site. All of that was taxpayer money that could have been spent elsewhere, but instead had to go toward shoring up this site because of its past irresponsible owners. Tax liens, court orders and even town ownership of the property haven’t been enough to get it back in working order ”“ until now.

A Massachusetts-based electronics recycling company, Green Network Exchange, has agreed to dispose of the circuit boards once and for all, and the town, in turn, will use a brownfields grant to address any issues that exist on the land underneath them. The grant couldn’t be used for the cleanup, as the boards aren’t classified as “hazardous waste,” but once they’re gone the land can be studied and capped if necessary. The cleanup is expected to take about 18 months, and after that, the town can turn the property over to the new company and put it back on the tax rolls.

This is a real coup not only for the town but also for the environment, as these boards have been left out in the elements for years, most likely leaking their various components into the ground, causing pollution that is, as of yet, unknown.

Let’s hope that this agreement for cleanup of the CGA property doesn’t fall through like the previous arrangements have, and soon the site will be known as that of the Green Network Exchange and the long-standing mess there will be but a memory. With GNE’s expertise being in the particular field of electronics recycling, they seem well-suited for the task ahead and could be a welcome addition to the active Sanford business community once they set up their own operation on the site.

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Today’s editorial was written by Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski, representing the majority opinion of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Kristen by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.