FREEDOM, Maine Power from moving water, along with the attention of a retired banker, is giving new life to a historic building in the heart of town.

Tony Grassi of Camden is awaiting approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to install a 39-kilowatt turbine in the dam on the Sandy Stream, which flows out of Freedom Pond. The dam is adjacent to the old mill building, which Grassi is restoring, following state historic preservation standards.

In addition to the FERC approval, Grassi has sought approval for his Freedom Falls project from the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the federal Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Its all sort of slowly working along, he said Monday of the approval process. Grassi took title of the old wood-frame mill building and dam on April 1. Town officials and residents have been helpful, he said, making zoning changes to accommodate the project.

The historic preservation standards were self-imposed Grassi sought and won a listing on the National Register of Historic Places for the old mill building. He is taking advantage of federal and state tax credits for historic renovation, but the project is clearly a labor of love.

A retired investment banker, he left the business in 1990 when it was still fun and became what he calls a full-time volunteer. Grassi has been active in the Nature Conservancy and, beginning in the early 1990s, he and his wife Sally began working with the Horizons National Student Enrichment Program. In fact, they took the then-Connecticut-based program, which provides summer enrichment programs for students from kindergarten through 12th grade, to a national reach.

In addition to his other nonprofit volunteer work, Grassi has served as co-chairman, with BDN Publisher Rick Warren, of the fundraising committee for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust. He chuckles at the irony of working with that group to remove a dam on the Penobscot River while working to restore one in Freedom.

Grassi and his wife moved to Camden eight years ago.

The mill project first came to Grassis attention six or seven years ago when his son and daughter-in-law bought a neighboring property, where they now operate an organic farm.

The project also intrigued Grassi as a test case of sorts, he said. If he succeeds in landing commercial tenants, the now-quiet heart of Freedom could become active again.

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