Drilling will begin soon to evaluate the environmental damage the old Pillsbury Mills property has done.
The “Moving Pillsbury Forward” people, led by Chris Richmond (pictured), welcomed perhaps fifty people to the Lanphier High School commons Wednesday night. The group’s vice president, Polly Poskin, tells WTAX News it’s vital.
“Demolishing structures of this size — you know, this is 555, 575 thousand square feet on eighteen acres of land. And it was built at a time when there was lead and there was asbestos. There might be some contamination. Luckily, this was a food producing plant. It wasn’t Monsanto. It wasn’t Fiat-Allis. So we don’t have a lot of petroleum, a lot of herbicide, pesticide in the soil.
“That said, we can’t be too careful.”
Poskin has been known as a neighborhood advocate in the south and southeast parts of Springfield but says anything east of MacArthur Boulevard should unify people and get them interested in proetcting that older part of Springfield.
Questions at the forum ranged from, can any of the buildings be preserved, to, what about drones?