Nabisco implosion: Local residents stage town hall to demand answers on contamination risk

GLEN ROCK — Amid continued uncertainty over the demolition of the former Nabisco factory on Route 208, residents in Glen Rock and Fair Lawn organized a town hall meeting Thursday where a community activist told them of a "botched implosion" that contaminated a neighborhood in Chicago.About 25 people attended the meeting at the Glen Rock Inn and expressed concerns about the potential release of asbestos or other hazardous materials from the Nabisco site, their frustration with unclear answers from local officials and worries about the warehouse proposed to replace the old bakery.

Mondelēz International Inc., the Chicago-based parent company of Nabisco, sold the 40-acre site for $146.5 million in 2021 to a limited liability company tied to Greek Development of East Brunswick. Greek Development filed a proposal in February to replace the factory with a warehouse.

Plans to implode the remaining tower on the site raised contamination concerns among nearby Glen Rock residents. Originally planned for mid-April, the implosion was postponed indefinitely last month, with local officials giving conflicting answers as to why.

Thursday's town hall was held ahead of a special Fair Lawn Planning Board meeting scheduled for Monday to consider the warehouse proposal. That meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the municipal building at 8-01 Fair Lawn Avenue.

Caitlin O'Rourke, one of the main speakers at the event, said that the community has been “begging for any sort of community meeting just where people would feel heard."

“We’re trying to be proactive, not reactive in terms of the redevelopment and in terms of the demolition so that we can avoid problems instead of worrying about cleaning up or fixing them,” said O'Rourke, a Tenafly resident who said she got involved when her friend, a Glen Rock resident, started raising questions about potential contamination from the project. O'Rourke said her friend, Laura Schnee, previously lost a daughter to cancer.

Schnee said during the meeting that she was concerned about the illnesses people could develop following an implosion.

Our view: Local officials failing to explain Nabisco implosion risks, delay to public

Fair Lawn mayor: Direct questions to state, developer

An email to the public relations firm representing Greek Development was not immediately returned on Friday. A woman who answered the phone at Controlled Demolition Inc., one of the contractors handling the implosion, referred all questions to Greek Development.

Fair Lawn Mayor Kurt Peluso said Friday that he hadn’t been approached about the meeting, but that his door was always open to listen to concerns. He said many of the questions raised would be up to the state and the developer to answer, however.

More: Homeowners start petition for more testing of Fair Lawn Nabisco factory

“I think the frustration that I’ve gathered from Glen Rock residents is that we don’t have the answers to their questions,” said Peluso. “It’s really the state and the developer that they need to get to answer their questions.”Both Peluso and Greek Development Managing Partner Matt Schlindwein have assured residents in the past that the project would follow all environmental and safety regulations, including the removal of all asbestos before the implosion can occur.

But residents at the 90-minute meeting said they worry about the lack of public environmental reports about contamination at the property as well as the potential traffic impacts from the proposed warehouse.

“There’s definitely a breakdown in communication,” said O'Rourke. “There’s inaccurate information out there. There’s an FAQ page [on the borough website], but we’ve come to learn after some calls that not everything is essentially true about the tower or the abatement. It leads to concern and people being scared and we need someone to be a leader.”

The community members at the meeting urged others to attend the Fair Lawn Planning Board meetings for the warehouse and to study the redevelopment plan and traffic study for the property so they are prepared to question the developer’s witnesses during testimony.

“Implosion isn’t within their purview" of the Planning Board hearing, O'Rourke said. "But making sure that traffic and this warehouse is something that the space, traffic and residents can all handle, is."

Chicago speaker warns of 'botched implosion'

The town hall also featured comments via Zoom from a guest speaker and community activist from the Little Village section of Chicago. The speaker said her community was affected by the “botched implosion” of a power-plant smokestack conducted by Controlled Demolition Inc.

The Chicago resident, Edith Tovar, said the implosion released a cloud of dust almost 2 miles wide.

A CBS News affiliate in Chicago reported in February that a 94-page Chicago Office of Inspector General report found several city departments and senior officials were aware of the "almost cataclysmic impact the implosion would have – but did little to nothing to stop it."

The Illinois Attorney General’s office would later file a lawsuit against a developer, Hilco Redevelopment Partners, and its two contractors, MCM Management and Controlled Demolition over the release of contaminants during the implosion, according to a report by the NBC affiliate in Chicago. The lawsuit alleged that the developer and contractors violated state law and regulations by causing "air pollution,” according to NBC.

Controlled Demolition is overseeing the Fair Lawn implosion along with another contractor, Sessler Wrecking.

Tovar, a community activist with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, discussed how before the Chicago implosion, the contractor, the developer and the state were “not really good with sharing information.” The date for the implosion wasn’t even known to the community until an email was leaked by local media, she said.

“On the day of, there wasn’t enough preparation,” said Tovar. “Basically everyone was pointing the finger at each other not really understanding why there was such a massive failure, but obviously it was because there wasn’t clear communication between departments as well as communication to the residents.”

Tovar said the community is still experiencing health effects from the situation to this day, with many of her neighbors coming forward to say "after this day, I haven't been the same."

Stella Lemberg, president of the Fair Lawn Chamber of Commerce, said during the town hall that she hopes this grassroots effort will bring more awareness to what’s happening at the Nabisco property.

“It affects not just Fair Lawn and Glen Rock, but it will affect all bordering towns in regards to traffic,” said Lemberg.

Stephanie Noda is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: noda@northjersey.comTwitter: @snoda11

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Nabisco factory implosion: Glen Rock, Fair Lawn hold town hall