NH Port Extends Contract for Scrap Recycler

Last week the Pease Development Authority, Portsmouth, NH, approved extensions of the scrap metal and salt contracts at the Port of New Hampshire.

However, the scrap contract is only a three-month extension of the existing agreement with Grimmel Industries, which expires June 30, and will now run through Sept. 30, 2007, according to published reports.

Chairman Art Nickless said the reason for the short-term agreement is because both parties are still negotiating. The PDA has requested additional information from the company, but Nickless did not want to get into specifics.

"It has to do with items they've said they could do to improve the port," he said.

Due to the size of the port, roughly 11 acres, the PDA is seeking to use the facility as a transportation center, rather than a place where material is stored while awaiting loading and unloading of vessels.

The PDA has requested that Grimmel address several questions on the operation. A spokesman for the PDA said that the PDA board has asked Grimmel to gather facts together and present the information to the full board.

The Pease Development Authority has meetings scheduled for next month and September.