SUNBURY – Sunbury City Administrator Derrick Backer says city residents have been waiting for the Celotex site to come back to life since the plant closed in November of 2008…That’s why Sunbury City Council voted 3-1 during Monday night’s public meeting to explore a 50-50 partnership with Northumberland County. City officials are now sending a draft contract to county commissioners. The county owns the property.
Backer says the site hasn’t been on the city’s tax roll for at least eight years. Before Celotex closed, Backer says it had generated between $50-55,000 in revenue for the city. Their goal is to develop the site and return it to tax rolls.
Backer says the city received $1.5 million in American Rescue Funds from the county; but the money had to be used to complete a needed utility project along Susquehanna Avenue. That work would help the project, since those new utilities would feed into the site.
There’s also been some debate whether the property is contaminated. Backer says the city does have three documents saying it does have some underground contamination, so putting a residential property at the site is not feasible.
Backer says the property isn’t zoned for residential, it’s zoned industrial. He says even if the city and county wanted to make it residential, officials would have to go through the rezoning process anyway. He says there are still plenty of options for the city to have industrial opportunities at the property, calling it ‘an opportunity we will never see again in the City of Sunbury.’
