Illinois EPA and Belleville Hold Brownfields Kick-off
Meeting
For Immediate Release
May 13, 2002 |
Contact: Maggie Carson
217-557-8138
TDD: 217-782-9143 |
Springfield, Ill. -- The Illinois EPA and the City of Belleville
met the afternoon of May 13, to announce plans for a $44,116 municipal
Brownfields Redevelopment Grant.
The city will use the award to assess abandoned properties along the
West Main Street corridor, which in turn, will allow them to prepare an
overall economic redevelopment strategy for this corridor. With the grant
money, Belleville will perform soil investigations on at least two properties
from 6th Street to 28th. This is an important sub-area in the city's "2000-2020
Comprehensive Plan". One property is a former gas station and the other
an abandoned muffler shop.
"Brownfields grants help communities with the funding they need to evaluate
the environmental impact of the past uses of property and enables them
to form a plan to rehabilitate the site for redevelopment," said to Illinois
EPA Director Renee Cipriano.
Governor George Ryan noted that over 50 Illinois communities have now
been awarded grants under the program, which began July 1, 1998. "Illinois
communities have received over $5 million, to date, for environmental
assessments of brownfields sites. This assistance is often the catalyst
necessary to bring sites that have been community eyesores or potential
hazards back to productive use," Gov Ryan commented.
The grants are awarded to Illinois municipalities for environmental assessments
of abandoned or underutilized properties in preparation for brownfields
cleanup and redevelopment.
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