The Brunswick Town Council Monday night granted funding requests amounting to over $1.6 million for Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, which oversees the development of former Naval Air Station Brunswick, despite tense and lengthy debates.

The authority received its contentious Tax Increment Finance (TIF) request and then some, including over $23,000 from the town’s General Fund. The Town and authority designated the funding for critical infrastructure, its Capital Improvement Budget and to conduct a fire risk study at Brunswick Landing.

MRRA’s original TIF request of $1.5 million was tabled two weeks ago amid calls to leverage the funding against the entity, pressuring it to take more comprehensive action to remove PFAS-containing fire suppression systems in its hangars in the wake of a disastrous toxic firefighting foam spill in August.

The spill of 1,450 gallons of firefighting foam concentrate mixed with 50,000 gallons of water at MRRA-leased Hangar 4 on Aug. 19 has left many concerned about risks of another spill. The concentrate that spilled in August was aqueous film-forming foam — or AFFF — which contains harmful chemicals known as PFAS, or the “forever chemical.” MRRA has disclosed that other hangars in its airport contain similar harmful concentrates.

Many criticized MRRA’s original TIF request for not having any funding clearly allocated toward PFAS mitigation at the former base.

On Monday night, the authority came back with an additional TIF request of $100,000 to fund a risk assessment study of Hangars 4, 5 and 6. The Town chipped in $23,206 from its contingency account, which is housed in this year’s general fund. This contribution is levied through property taxes.

MRRA’s total TIF request amounted to over $1.6 million, which uses up nearly all of the projected TIF funding for MRRA this year. This type of funding, said Town Manager Julia Henze, is sourced from half of the property taxes on Brunswick Landing that are set aside through a temporary tax program. The funding is set aside in an account specifically for base redevelopment and for MRRA’s use.

A longstanding agreement

The authority’s original request of over $1.5 million was initially made over the summer as part of the annual process to access the funds. In its original request, to support critical infrastructure and MRRA’s Capital Improvement Budget at the Landing, was made prior to the spill and did not include a specific line item for PFAS cleanup or mitigation.

MRRA Deputy Director Jeffrey Jordan said that the financial structure of the redevelopment plan is to use TIF funding to help with the redevelopment of the former air station. The funds assist MRRA with managing things normally funded by cities, he said, such as roads, streetlights and the like. The agreement for MRRA to maintain this infrastructure, he said, materialized years ago when the town was concerned of burdening taxpayers by taking over the roads as the Naval Air Station closed.

“These funds have been critical for us, because we’re essentially closely matching the market with what we can charge tenants within the primarily airport district. The nonairport district has been mostly turned over to the private sector at this point,” Jordan said. “We cannot afford to carry the burden of the types of public infrastructure investments from our tenants because a lot of those funds are being used to maintain the buildings and the operations on campus. So, right from the get go the capital improvement plan was really funded by tax increment financing and we’ve had strong support and we’ve appreciated that support over a long period of time from the Town Council.”

As part of standard TIF request procedure, the MRRA TIF District Committee — comprised of Chairperson Abby King, District 5 Councilor Jennifer Hicks and District 1 Councilor David Watson — reviewed and recommended approval to the Town Council on Sept. 11, just weeks after the spill. The council has 90 days to “take action” on TIF requests once recommended, Henze said.

On Sept. 12, the Portland Press Herald reported that Hangar 4 was flagged as “deficient” in an inspection 14 months before it malfunctioned in August — a revelation that spurred outrage among local officials and calls for former Executive Director Kristine Logan’s resignation. Logan resigned a month later, citing that she wanted to avoid “distracting” from foam cleanup efforts and “to ensure this good work goes on, unimpeded by outside politics and the political agendas of others.”

About a week later, MRRA also revealed that Hangars 5 and 6 were also found deficient in their inspection reports over a year ago. The Brunswick Fire Department issued a notice of violation shortly after, prompting the authority to submit a Corrective Plan of Action to fix deficiencies and perform annual testing of the fire suppression systems.

Since these revelations, residents and Town Council have pressed MRRA for more comprehensive action, such as shutting down its Hangar 6, which the MRRA Board ultimately voted against, citing legal and financial barriers to itself and tenants.

These revelations spurred pushback from leaders and the residents against MRRA’s annual request. The council tabled it to allow time for residents to workshop the request in October, which King noting that many residents had questions and also commenting that there was missing information at the time of the committee’s positive recommendation to the council in September.

On Monday, King pushed for the approval of the original and supplementary funding request and went back and forth with Councilors who wanted to add more requirements in the funding requests for MRRA’s handling of the spill.

“There are a lot of Brunswick residents that live on the landing and/or that work on the landing I don’t see this TIF money as a stick to withhold from those people,” she said. “Infrastructure that were talking about — streetlights, roads, a system [that has] the water flowing nicely — those are things those people deserve to have. This money is there to support those things.”

She also noted that council has a goal of getting MRRA to invest more into public safety, and said that the second TIF request brings MRRA closer to that step.

The $1.5 million request passed, which Councilor James Ecker amended with caveat that a portion of this money would go towards hiring a consultant to create and expedite a new PFOS — the harmful PFAS chemical found in AFFF — Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures plan in a 6-2 vote. Councilors Jennifer Hicks and Nathaniel Shed voted no.

He also proposed on the second request to include an option in the risk assessment study to provide recommendations for interim security measures for early leak detection as an “alternate” — in a contract with Poole Fire Protections. King voted against this amendment, however the amended motion as a whole passed unanimously.

View resources, past meetings and additional information on the spill at BrunswickME.com.