GARDINER — As negotiations continue to advance the redevelopment of industrial properties on Summer Street, the final piece of brownfields cleanup funding is falling into place.
The Gardiner City Council is expected to vote whether to accept a grant from the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments for $100,000 when it meets on Wednesday. The grant must be used to remediate contamination on the former T.W. Dick Co. parcel at 1 Summer St., which is expected to be the home of a future medical arts building to be developed by the Portland-based Developers Collaborative.
“This is full funding,” Gardiner City Manager Scott Morelli said.
In the last several years, city officials have sought grant funding to identify the contaminants on properties along the Cobbosseecontee Stream and to remediate the pollution found on three of the four T.W. Dick parcels on Summer Street. In 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded Gardiner $400,000 in grants to assess the properties, and the state of Maine announced in December that it was granting $305,000 to clean them up.
The $100,000 grant from the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments must be matched by $25,000 in city funds. The two cleanup grants, with the city’s in-kind and cash matches, are expected to cover the cost of cleaning up the sites.
The properties at 1 and 31 Summer St. and 2 Highland Ave. are under option to be sold to Developers Collaborative for the project.
The city’s elected officials also, among other things, will:
• Consider appointments and reappointments to city boards, committees and commissions.
• Consider a dispatching services contract.
• Consider using funds it received to administer Central Maine Meats’ $100,000 workforce development grant to promote Gardiner as a local foods hub.
• Discuss changes to the formula used to determine what Gardiner and its neighboring communities pay to support the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Gardiner.
• Consider allowing Old Fort Western to make use of city property.
• Consider a pawnbroker’s license renewal for Gardiner Trading Post.
• Hold a public hearing on amendments to the sewer abatement ordinance, which is up for its second reading.
• Consider selecting the 2016 Spirit of America award recipient.
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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