The Knox County Building Committee heard a presentation last night from Prairie Hills Resource Development President David King urging the county to apply for a “brownfield” grant.
A brownfield, is a property that’s been contaminated over the years by anything from gasoline to laundromat chemicals.
King says the Environmental Protection Agency will select a handful of sites in western and central Illinois to clean up and redevelop.
“There’s a lot of economic factors involved, “King says. “It could be (redeveloped as) a store front, a private business. It could also be a greenspace.”
The entire county board will hear the presentation later this month and decide if they’d like to apply for an assessment to examine hazardous brownfield’s in the county.
The county can apply for up to $400,000 in redevelopment funding, though if they are selected, the amount given would vary. King says sites are chosen based on severity.
Cost to the county would be nothing up front and if selected, would likely only cost the appointment of a person to a special brownfield committee.
In other business, Cody Basham from Klinger and Associates says repairs to the Knox County Courthouse are about halfway complete.
Basham says they are projecting to be done next week after having a set back.
“Three of our six hard drives failed,” Basham says. “We lost a little bit of work. We were then able to recover the work but it was an unfortunate set back.”
Work to repair steps, resealing the building and caulking windows has been underway for some time.
