The Town of Malta made two big steps this week toward hosting Advanced Micro Devices’ proposed microchip manufacturing facilities.
On Monday, March 31, the town approved a revised Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) submitted by AMD for the company’s proposed three chip fabrication plants in the Luther Forest Technology Campus.
Just a week before, town officials and residents weighed in on AMD’s impact on the town’s emergency services and how the company would manage its ecological impact. With the acceptance of the document this week, Steve Groseclose, AMD’s director of global environmental, health and safety, said the town has demonstrated that we can work together.
The SDEIS’ function is to identify and address potential environmental impacts the project would have, and to offer reasonable alternatives to the processes creating those impacts. The document adopted at the March 31 meeting supplements the Generic Environmental Impact Statement that was adopted in 2004, before AMD presented the specifics of its proposed chip manufacturing operation.
Although the town has deemed the document to be sufficient in scope and content, town officials and consultants will now begin a technical review of the document, to ensure that the data provided by AMD is accurate.
Before a final draft EIS is prepared, the public will have the opportunity to weigh in on it at a public hearing scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 5, at Malta Town Hall. Written comments will be accepted through May 16.
The SDEIS is available on the town’s Web site, www.malta-town.org.
Also at the March 31 meeting, the Town Board took steps toward the construction of the 5.5 miles of interior roads the chip plants will need.
Town Comptroller Kevin King recommended the town award the bid for construction of the roads in the LFTC to Rifenburg Construction of Brunswick.
Rifenburg submitted a price of just over $33 million for construction of the roads. The LFTC roads are being paid for by a $37 million state grant, but the town is responsible for the contract and will own the roads after they are built.
King said Rifenburg was the second-lowest bid received, but was the lowest bidder that had satisfied the request-for-proposals issued by the town. Kubricky Construction of Glens Falls had the low bid, but King said a subsequent review found Kubricky had overlooked the cost of almost $20,000 worth of highway signposts. While the Rifenburg bid, at $33,054,856, was $17,000 higher than Kubricky it included the signposts, he said.
King said Creighton Manning Engineering of Albany, the town’s project consultant, has reviewed the Rifenburg bid and found no problems with it.
`They have found the bid to be acceptable, and have recommended you go ahead and award the bid,` King told the board.
The Town Board declared Rifenburg the tentative bid-winner, and will vote on Monday, April 7, on the awarding of the bid.
AMD officials plan to build three chip fab plants in Malta and Stillwater at a cost of around $3.2 billion. The project is estimated to bring 1,405 jobs to the area. The 5.5 miles of interior roads would allow public access from Stonebreak Road off Route 9, Route 67 west of Maltaville and from Cold Springs Road in Stillwater.
Although the computer chip manufacturer has yet to commit to the site officially, it is currently going through the Malta Town and Planning Boards to secure a building permit by the end of the year. The company has until July 31, 2009, to decide and still be eligible for $1.2 billion in state incentives.“
