“At this point in time, the Pillsbury facility is a blight in the community,” [Moving Pillsbury Forward Founder Chris Richmond] said.
Richmond expressed how he wants to see the buildings demolished and the area revitalized. He and members of the community group “Moving Pillsbury Forward” suggested the city should take the property from its private owners. They believe the cleanup, demolition and redevelopment is worth $12 million. One city leader described the effort as a ‘financial nightmare’.
MPF said the city could have an opportunity to apply for federal and state money if it took over the property. City leaders didn’t make a vote, but Richmond expressed confidence.
He said “if the city can spend $7 million supporting community health through the YMCA”, then $12 million is equally reasonable.
Community members are pushing for action to take down the old Pillsbury Mills Plant.
Chris Richmond, with the group Moving Pillsbury Forward, says the Springfield plant was built in 1929.
“When this was operating in full capacity, during Pillsbury’s heyday in 1950, there were 1,500 employees working here on a daily basis,” Richmond says.
Now, decades later, the 18 acre facility sits empty.
“The factory was sold in 1991 by Pillsbury. It operated for another ten years, and then was mothballed,” Richmond says. “What we’ve seen over a 20 year period, is the factory itself is deteriorating and unfortunately, the neighborhood and community around the facility is deteriorating as well.”
The community group, Moving Pillsbury Forward, is taking action to get the plant torn down.
“We’re a group of community volunteers, put together a few months ago, as somewhat of a think tank, to problem solve this big abandoned factory,” Richmond says.
When I was growing up in Springfield, my dad worked at Pillsbury Mills for over 20 years. I never thought much about the 18-acre site until I served as city fire marshal. I now know the former Pillsbury Mills plant has become a health and safety hazard for the neighborhood, which includes a school.
The plant, closed since 2001, continues to decay and poses dangers to the area. Regular police patrols are needed to manage frequent trespass, theft and dumping problems. Property taxes haven’t been paid in years. The community cost is significant. Here are some questions we, as citizens and city leaders, must consider. Should we continue to risk public safety and the decline the area? Or should we take control of the situation, manage our risks reasonably and provide for an outcome everyone can support?
An action plan must move beyond a dependence on private resources. After all, that is how the site became a problem. Private owners cut corners while scrapping the site to save money, then left the community with a mess. It is unlikely a new private owner would find a pathway to profitability while also providing for a re-use that is compatible with the neighborhood.
I have been working with a community volunteer group to develop a public/private redevelopment plan. We call ourselves Moving Pillsbury Forward. The group has met with several individuals in the neighborhood to listen to their views and ideas. We have also engaged elected officials and other stakeholders. Our focus is on an outcome that is both workable and reasonable for the community.
The scale of the project will require a multi-year plan. We believe the clean up and demolition of structures will require public ownership. During this period, state and federal resources could help the city through grant funding. Nearly all materials from the structures could be recycled. The concrete silos could be turned into crushed road fill for use in city infrastructure. This phase of the plan should take no more than five years resulting in a cleared site for redevelopment.
During this phase, we could consider potential uses for the site. For example, preparations for a low-rise senior living facility and a 3-megawatt community solar farm could begin. These are uses of the site that fit with the needs of the area. They also generate power and property taxes to offset much of the initial costs for the project. With such developments in place, the neighborhood and community could look forward to better days. Springfield could break free of its old rust belt image.
Let’s be proactive and provide for good outcomes. We can manage the risks. The reward of a healthier, better community is worth it.
Chris Richmond heads the Moving Pillsbury Forward volunteer community working group. He retired as city fire marshal in May 2019 after a 25-year career with the Springfield Fire Department.
While the long-shuttered Pillsbury Mills plant can easily be seen from a distance from drivers passing by on North Grand Avenue or Clear Lake Avenue, the true magnitude of the site comes into focus when standing immediately in front of it.
“When you’re right up here close to it and you’re right in front of it, you can really get a sense of the scope of what we’re working with,” said Chris Richmond, the former Springfield Fire Marshal and the leader of the grassroots group Moving Pillsbury Forward. “And you can also see the safety and security issues that we’re working with here too.”
The hulking operation — 850,000 square feet of buildings over almost 19 acres — used to process about 35,000 tons of wheat per day, which was ground down into flour, known as Pillsbury’s Best, and shipped all over the country. It shuttered in 2001.
On Saturday, Richmond led a group of about two dozen people on a walk of the perimeter of the property, highlighting the significant problems in its current state. Among them: holes in the fencing that allow scavengers and the homeless access; rampant fly dumping; and the presence of asbestos in certain parts of the property.
As an example, Richmond pointed out a hole in the fence that was closed up earlier this week with baling wire, something he characterized as a “minimal fix.”
“This is going to dissuade a 10- or 12-year-old child (who doesn’t have any tools) from getting in, but it’s not going to do a whole lot more than that,” Richmond said. “So if you’re somebody that’s interested in getting in here and you get a set of pliers in your hand, it’s not a hard thing to do, even at the front gate.”
Moving Pillsbury Forward, a community group founded earlier this year, is advocating for the City of Springfield to buy the property from its private owner, demolish the plant and facilitate the sale of the site someone who will redevelop it. This can all be done in five years, Richmond said.
But city officials have made clear they have little interest in assuming ownership of the site, preferring to have it declared a Superfund site. That process would likely take longer, and many who came out Saturday are tired of waiting.
A community group wants the city of Springfield to take over the Pillsbury Mills Plant, tear it down and redevelop the site.
But, first, they want the city to make sure the area is closed off to trespassers.
“It’s a partially demolished old factory that has some level of asbestos contamination still on site. And so it’s dangerous for folks to go in there,” said Chris Richmond, the former fire marshal for Springfield who is leading Moving Pillsbury Forward. “But what we know at this point is that is happening on a regular basis.”
The group brought its concerns to the Nov. 26 city council meeting.
Mary Frances, also with Moving Pillsbury Forward, asked council members to act on six demands from the group, including allocating $20,000 in the next budget to secure the property.
“When are you going to take control and make this a win-win for yourself and the whole city?” she asked.
A community is fed up as the Old Pillsbury Mill Factory continues wreaking havoc on their neighborhood.
On Wednesday, a meeting took place in Springfield to find answers.
People who live in the Pillsbury Mill neighborhood said it’s been causing issues for about a multitude of years.
They even said it’s causing constant crime, trespassing and fly-dumping.
The issue with tearing down the building is due to asbestos throughout the building, which means the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency controls it.
The neighborhood association said it’s working with the city to find a solution
“Finally we’re hoping we can get it boarded up and cleaned up a little bit and put a new face on the neighborhood,” said John Keller, the Pillsbury Mill Neighborhood Association president.
During the meeting, community members voiced their concerns and frustrations over the situation.
Former City Fire Marshal Chris Richmond attended the meeting to give a history of the plant and answered all questions.
He said he’s working on creating a community task force dedicated at solving the problem.
A proposal for what to do with Springfield’s power plant could be announced in November. The plan would follow a report from the spring recommending the city shut down three of its four coal generators.
Springfield residents from wards 5 and 6 asked questions about crime, homelessness, the future of City Water, Light and Power, and Pillsbury Mills at a meeting Monday night.
Terry Young, with the Trevi Garden homeowners association, said he attended to ask what city officials are doing to address homelessness and what the plan is for the coal plant.
“It’s always been about the number of employees that’d be displaced [at the coal plant],” he said. “The sooner they can come up with a plan to put those employees in other jobs without displacing them, and allowing attrition and retirement to take care of the headcount – I think that would be a move in the right direction.”
CWLP Chief Engineer Doug Brown said because of environmental regulations that are set to take effect over the next few years, it’s not a matter of if they’ll shut down the coal generators, but when.
A dog that appeared on the top of a northern section of towers of the abandoned Pillsbury Mills factory on the city’s north end has been in the sights of Sangamon County Animal Control for at least a month.
The yellow-colored mixed breed, which was sporting a collar and appeared to have recently given birth to a litter of puppies, was spotted on the tower and in a plant building connecting a southern tower on Monday.
Lt. Joe Phillips of the Springfield Police Department acknowledged that the department had been contacted Monday afternoon and responded to the scene. Phillips said he was in contact with Animal Control, which did not have authority to be on the property.
The dog in question had been spotted at various spots on the property in the past month and that Animal Control has tried to coax the dog off the property, Phillips said.