A long -term problem for Clinton is a bit closer to a positive resolution. Town Manager Karl Kilduff announced that an investigation by the state determined the old landfill is a good candidate for capping.

For years, the former town landfill located on Old Nod Road has sat vacant. According to Town Manager Karl Kilduff, the 9.2 acres of land was actively used between 1960 and 1979. Earlier in the year, the town issued a request for proposal seeking a firm to close the landfill. On May 18, the Town Council unanimously voted to move forward with an appropriation of $45,000 to help with capping the landfill.

Under a proposal from Loureiro Engineering Associates, the town paid $45,000 for soil boring tests. Because contractors generally have to pay to dispose of the type of fill used to cap the landfill, all other costs will be absorbed by Loureiro Engineering Associates. The money was appropriated from an existing landfill capping account owned by the town.

As first step in that process, an investigation had to be done into the soil on the property to make sure the location was a good candidate for capping. At a meeting on Sept. 7, Kilduff said that the results were good and the town was now aiming to get the required permits from DEEP.

Kilduff said that the permitting process should take until the end of the calendar year, with work starting in the spring.

Part of what made the proposal from Loureiro attractive in the first place was the ability to potentially redevelop the site.

“The proposal was creative and showed innovating thinking that allows the town to find some value in the site, which has sat idle for a number of years. The approach has been used by other communities in the state to cap their landfills as permitted by DEEP. The approach is a significant change in the cost assumptions the town was tracking against since 2014,” said Kilduff earlier this year.

Kilduff said that there had been an interest expressed in the past of leasing the property to be used as a solar farm. With the capping of the landfill that would make the possibility easier to pull off. Kilduff said more thought is needed for a potential reuse since that will impact the final grading and soil level of the cap.

Since the landfill fell out of use the property has been the subject of occasional proposals and inquiry. The site was studied in hopes of finding a solution for the property most recently in 2014. The site has also been the proposed location of a failed bid to build an ice rink.