Grant will help Lee plan re-use of mills

More than five years after three paper mills in Lee shut down, the town has received a $175,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to create a plan for redeveloping the properties.

The closure of the three mills meant the loss of 350 jobs, according to Town Administrator Robert Nason.

“In a town of 6,000 people, that’s a big chunk,” he said. “And they were good jobs, with benefits.”

Despite the global recession that began a few months later, the Lee Community Development Corporation moved forward with a public-private partnership to revitalize the town’s Main Street, Nason said. The improvements made Lee a more attractive candidate for the federal grant, according to Melissa Provencher, senior planner at the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, which coordinated the application for the EPA’s Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Program grant.

Lee was one of just 20 communities nationwide – and the only town – to receive a grant this year.

“We were able to submit an application that fit quite nicely with what they were looking for,” which included dealing with mills that had closed relatively recently, Provencher said.

One aim of the planning process, which is still at a very early stage, is to get as much community involvement as possible, Provencher added.