CANTON — St. Lawrence County legislators voted to turn over a once-contaminated property in Hermon to the town.

The so-called “Carr Site” at 97 Main St. was cleaned up through a county plan to target potentially environmentally contaminated properties in the county and make “these once economically productive properties beneficial to their communities again.”

During the November Finance Committee meeting, County Attorney Stephen Button said the Town of Hermon wanted the property for safety concerns “with regard to one of the oldest stone bridges in the state.”

Button said the lot is contiguous with the old stone arch bridge. He said because of a hard turn into the village approaching the bridge, “the utilization of this land would allow them to funnel the traffic in a way that would make it safer than it is.”

"The bridge was built well over 100 years ago. It was designed for the traffic at the time. The turning radius is needed with some of the new equipment is much greater than the original design,” Legislator Larry Denesha, R-Dekalb, said at the Finance Committee meeting. “With the old service station gone, it's going to allow greater radius of turning onto the bridge, greater radius for people exiting the bridge.”

The final resolution passed by the full board on Monday, Dec. 7 says the county acquired the property due to tax delinquency in a foreclosure proceeding. It was cleaned up with an agreement with the New York Environmental Protection and Spill Compensation Fund.