Friday, May 19, 2000
Lockland, Hamilton get $500K
Grants to boost cleanup and redevelopment
By Sara J. Bennett
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The cities of Hamilton and Lockland will get help cleaning up contaminated industrial sites from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Both Hamilton and Lockland will receive $500,000 grants to set up funds from which they can lend money to clean up brownfields, the EPA announced Thursday. Brownfields are abandoned or underused areas where real or perceived contamination hinders development.
Hamilton also will get $200,000 to train people who live near brownfield sites in the skills needed to help clean them up. The idea is to create jobs out of brownfield rehabilitation.
The grants are a boost to redevelopment efforts in both communities. Hamilton plans to use the money for further work on the 6.2-square-mile Urban Enterprise Zone on the city's east side. Lockland will put some of its funds toward cleaning the American Tissue paper mill site near Interstate 75 that the village bought last month.
“We needed $200,000 to clean it up and we got $500,000,” said Mayor Jim Brown. “It's just another step in the right direction as far as us coming back from the downturn we had when Jefferson Smurfit left us about eight or nine years ago.”
Lockland and Hamilton are two of 20 communities in the EPA's Region 5 to get grants. Nationwide, 102 grants of more than $35 million were announced Thursday.
To get the grants, communities had to have received funds to help study sites for contamination.
The $500,000 that Lockland and Hamilton each received will allow them to set up loans helping developers or community groups clean up brownfields. Communities can set terms for the loans such as interest rates and payback deadlines. Then, when the money is repaid, it can be lent again.
Hamilton plans to use its loan grant to supplement an existing citywide loan program. Hamilton's second grant will help the community develop job training.
The residential area within the Hamilton Enterprise Zone suffers from a 12 percent unemployment rate and a 36 percent poverty rate, according to the EPA.
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