News Releases - 2002

Illinois EPA Announces Brownfields Redevelopment Grant For Gillespie

Springfield, Ill. -- Illinois EPA Director Renee Cipriano announced that the city of Gillespie has been awarded a Brownfields Redevelopment Grant by the Agency.

Gillespie will receive $87,750 in grant funds to conduct investigation and provide oversight for work to be conducted at 110 West Oak Street, in Gillespie, under the authority of the Illinois EPA's Site Remediation Program.

The Illinois EPA is hosting a public meeting beginning with a short presentation at 6 p.m., at Gillespie City Hall, 115 N. Macoupin Street, Wednesday, September 23. The open house session will then be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. for one-on-one discussions about the project.

The former DuraCraft Kitchens property, owned by Kaan, Inc., is located in Gillespie's downtown business district and has remained unused for nearly a year, when a large fire destroyed most of the facility structures. Since the fire was of suspicious origin, the owner's insurance carrier has declined to pay an insurance benefit and no cleanup activities have been conducted at the site. Due to the property's prominent downtown location, the city has taken steps to proceed with investigation activities necessary to remediate the site.

The adjacent United Community Bank has notified the city of its interest in purchasing the property, if the environmental problems can be resolved. Acquisition of the property would allow the bank to enlarge its existing facility to accommodate an expanded loan and check processing facility. This could translate to an additional 20 to 30 jobs for Gillespie.

"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 Director Cipriano.

Governor George Ryan noted that 64 Illinois communities have now been awarded grants under the program, which began July 1, 1998. "Illinois communities have received over $5.8 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."

The grants are awarded to Illinois municipalities for environmental assessments of abandoned or underutilized properties in preparation for brownfields cleanup and redevelopment.