Redemption center coming to Prospect

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PROSPECT — A local business man has received approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission to operate the first bottle and can redemption center in Prospect.

Roger Hamelin, 40, who has owned Prospect Limousine Service for nine-and-a-half years, recently obtained a special permit to operate his limousine service and a bottle and can redemption center inside the industrial park on Gramar Avenue.

It will be Prospect’s first redemption center, where people can bring all redeemable bottles and cans, said William Donovan, the town’s land use inspector. Oliver’s Supermarket has bottle and can machines, but nothing like this, he said.

The commission last year added a definition for a redemption center into the zoning regulations, and sometime after that, it made a redemption center an allowed use in an industrial zone, he said.

Originally the regulations allowed for a redemption center in a business district zone, but they were later expanded to include that use in an industrial zone, Donovan said.

Commission members unanimously approved, 5-0, Hamelin’s application for both businesses at 6 Gramar Ave. after a hearing on Dec. 19. Commissioner Jack Crumb excused himself because his son, Jack Crumb of JDC Realty, owns the property, where Hamelin leases space.

Donovan said the definition reads that a redemption center is any facility established to redeem empty beverage containers from consumers, or to collect and sort empty beverage containers from dealers and to prepare such containers for redemption by the appropriate distributors.

E. Gil Graveline Jr., commission chairman, said he’s happy the redemption center is here, so if a group or someone has bulk items to redeem, they can be accommodated here rather than having to go outside town.

A 16-year resident, Hamelin said he hopes to open the redemption center by April.

His businesses will be housed in two buildings that he leases from JDC Realty, he said. Between the two buildings, he leases roughly 4,000 square feet of space, he said. The limousine service will be in the building toward the front, while the redemption center will be in a building in the back of the property.

There are about 20 parking spaces available, he said.

The hours are not set yet for the center, but Hamelin is looking at 8 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. He said there may be some days it is open later, depending on customers.

Hamelin said he has four vehicles for his limo service, and six to seven qualified drivers, plus himself.