GARDINER — The city of Gardiner is one of 16 municipalities and organizations in Maine that has secured more than $7.3 million in federal funds to help clean up contaminated properties.
The money, which comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is to be used for assessing or cleaning up Brownfield sites or revolving loan funds.
Gardiner officials had applied for $200,000 each in assessment and cleanup funds for the former T.W. Dick properties on Summer Street through this program before they knew they would be receiving funds from the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments and from the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said City Manager Scott Morelli.
“Now we have $600,000 for what we think will be a $450,000 project,” he said.
Several years ago, the city was awarded $400,000 in assessment funds, $200,000 each for hazardous materials and petroleum products. The hazardous materials funds were spent on identifying the contaminants on the properties of the steel fabricator; some petroleum funds still remain.
Last year, the city was awarded $100,000 from KVCOG specifically for the redevelopment of 1 Summer St., which is expected to be turned into a medical arts building. The state’s award of $305,000 is intended to be used to finish cleanup and is not restricted to a single parcel.
With this latest award, the city can assess additional properties for hazardous materials, and it can apply the $200,000 cleanup funds to the Summer Street parcels.
Gardiner now has some flexibility.
The city will apply the assessment funds to additional properties, including possibly 2 Highland Ave., a property adjacent to 1 Summer St., that was acquired to become part of the medical arts building project, Morelli said.
And city officials can spend the EPA’s cleanup funds first. That way, Morelli said, if money is left over from the state-awarded grants, if can be turned back the to the state and made available for other projects in Maine, perhaps even in Gardiner.
“We hired Ransom Consulting Inc. to do the site assessment, and we’re comfortable with the numbers,” he said. The next step is to put the project out to bid, he said.
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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