Following the acceptance last week of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Village of Brockport and the 3M Company, five houses on Oxford Street will be razed later this month.

The 3M Company purchased the five homes that bordered the west side of its former industrial plant earlier this year. Contamination levels of the soil and groundwater found there were high enough to pose a serious health threat. Since the families have moved out, the homes have sat empty and boarded up.

The Memorandum of Agreement states the asbestos removal will begin October 8. The actual demolition of homes will begin a week or two after the asbestos removal is complete.

Families who live on the west side of Oxford Street are being given the opportunity to stay in a motel during the approximate five-day demolition period. Besides paying for the motel, 3M has also offered a $250 stipened per family for the inconvenience created by the demolition. The stipend will be offered even if a family chooses to stay in their home during the work.

In other points from the memorandum: 3M guaranteed payment of taxes at the current level (in other words, the company won't seek a reduction in assessed property value once the homes are razed); 3M will reimburse Brockport for its legal and environmental consultants costs related to the demolition of the homes; and 3M will make available to the village all testing results of the properties within 15 days of 3M's receipt of the results.

One point that may be an area of contention between 3M and the village in the future is that 3M has stated it will seek a zoning change of the five properties from residential to an industrial or commercial zoning. Agrilink has expressed an interest in purchasing the property from 3M. Earlier this year, the village board emphatically stated that no zoning change would be made on the properties. Village officials want to provide a buffer between the residences that remain on the west side of Oxford Street and the industrial complex. Also still to be resolved is the purchase of the Boy Scout Cabin on the corner of Oxford and State Streets. That property, too, has been deemed uninhabitable; the Boy Scouts and 3M are currently negotiating the sale.