Madison Township to seek state grant for Expressview Drive property cleanup
Madison Township is hoping to get $55,000 from a state brownfield grant that the Richland County Land Bank is in the process of applying for in order to deal with a number of problem properties in the county.
Trustee Chairman Jim Houser reported at the board’s regular meeting Monday that the money would be used for a total cleanup of a site next to the main township fire department building on Expressview Drive, where a township owned former business building was demolished.
Trustees learned in January that sand underneath the concrete pad of the former business building contained several chemicals that are considered contaminants but not at levels they would be determined to be hazardous waste.
Trustees worked with the Land Bank and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to deal with the problem and came up with two options — remove and properly dispose of the 5,200 square feet of impacted material or encapsulate the area from the top with at least two feet of dirt, grading and seeding.
At that time, the cost to remove the sand and dirt underneath was $49,000 while encapsulating carried a $6,000 price tag for covering the site with dirt. The cost for encapsulating would be more if the township decides to use the site for a new main fire station because the dirt would have to be covered with a layer of asphalt or concrete.
The Land Bank is applying for a share of $360 million allocated for competitive grants in the new state budget to clean up brownfield sites and tear down old industrial and commercial buildings, along with residential structures. The agency is looking to demolish the former Westinghouse “A” building and the Ocie Hill Center building in Mansfield and a number of other structures in the county.
Spending cuts, ARPA funds: Madison Trustees discuss spending cuts and ARPA funds at special meeting
Money would be used to pay for removing, replacing dirt
Houser said the application the Land Bank will turn in for the township will be for $55,000 to take out and replace 484 tons of dirt.
“They’re estimating that $13,000 will be our part to pay to get the grant, but there’s another grant they want to tap into that may bring our cost to around $8,000 or $9,000,” he said. “That’s a lot more than we were going to spend just to encapsulate it (with dirt) and it will completely take care of the problem.”
Later in the meeting, trustees approved a resolution authorizing Trustee Cathy Swank to sign the grant application documents instead of Houser as chairman. Houser explained the Land Bank’s legal counsel advised he could not sign the document as a trustee because it would be a conflict of interest because he also is a Land Bank member.
Tom Craft, who was elected in November and will start his term in January, questioned whether Houser could sign the resolution to make the change. The issue was raised because Trustee Dan Fletcher did not attend the meeting.
After a brief discussion, Houser said he will get a legal opinion and indicated the issue could be brought up again at a special meeting that is expected to be held next week.
Fiscal watch: Madison Township faces fiscal watch designation
Swearing-in ceremony held for trustees
A swearing in ceremony was held during the meeting for Craft and Houser, who were re-elected in November. Fiscal Officer Leanna Rhodes, who also was re-elected, will take the oath of office at the first trustee meeting in January because family members were not able to attend Monday.
During the public comment period at the end of the meeting, resident Tom Brandt thanked Fletcher for his years of service to Madison Township as a trustee and the work he has done “behind the scenes” on behalf of the township. Swank also said she appreciated the work Fletcher has done, pointing out the landscaping around the township building and the grants he secured for various projects, while Rhodes said Fletcher “helped tremendously” behind the scenes with finance issues.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with Dan for the last four years and we had our good days and we had our bad days and those are behind us now,” Houser said. “I appreciate what he has done in the past and he has gotten us a lot of grants and he knew the ins and the outs. It’s just unfortunate that we’re losing him.”
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Madison Township seeking $55,000 brownfield grant
