Old Rocky Top buildings, land eligible for ‘brownfield’ grants
Lydia Birk, brownfields grants coordinator, presents information about the available grants for abandoned Main Street properties during last Thursday night’s Rocky Top City Council meeting. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The grants – each of which could range from $4,000 to $50,000 – would pay for so-called “brownfield assessments,” with the money coming from the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration through the East Tennessee Development District. That’s according to information given to Rocky Top City Council members last Thursday night.
Lydia Birk, the brownfield grants coordinator, presented the program’s details to the council, and said the money would pay for the assessments in full, with no charge to the property owners.
And even if problems were found that should be corrected, the property owners would not be required to do so just as a result of the assessments and the grant money, Birk said.
The goal is to get the assessed properties “ready for the next step” in the revitalization of Rocky Top, she said.
“The program is near and dear to my heart,” she said, because she lives in the Rocky Top area.
The focus of the brownfield grants would be property along Main Street from Interstate 75, Exit 129, through Rocky Top to Lake City Middle School, she said.
“It’s part of the master plan form the revitalization of Rocky Top,” she said.
The assessments are intended to discover and record problem areas such as old gasoline filling stations with underground fuel tanks, and buildings with asbestos construction materials and lead paint, Birk said.
Because U.S. 25W was long used as a major highway thoroughfare through the area, prior to the development of I-75, there were gas stations on “just about every corner,” Rocky Top City Manager Michael Foster said.
“There were lots of gas stations and lots of underground tanks,” he said.
Rocky Top Chamber of Commerce President Maria Hook spoke up in favor of the grant program, saying, “Anytime you’ve got free money, I suggest you take it. This is the first step toward revitalization.”
The definition of a brownfield, according to a flyer distributed by Birk, is: “Real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutants or contaminants.”
Also in the flyer: “Grant funding can also be used for Hazardous Materials Surveys for asbestos and lead paint, often found in properties constructed prior to the 1970s.”
In other business Thursday (Oct. 20), the council:
-Approved seeking up to $2 million in grant money from the Tennessee Department of Transportation to repair existing sidewalks or install new ones along Second, Third, and Fourth streets to tie in with new and refurbished sidewalks along Main Street that will be part of a TDOT Main Street repaving and widening project.
The sidewalks on the three side streets are eligible for grants that the city would have to pay only a 20 percent match for, Foster said.
“These are for areas where people tend to walk,” Foster said, “They are cut-throughs to the [elementary] school and the post office.”
-Heard from Foster that the estimated $4.1 million sewer system rehabilitation project should be going out for bids soon, with construction expected to begin in early 2023. Most of the money to pay for the work is expected to come from grants and loans, with some parts of the loans potentially eligible for “loan forgiveness,” which would basically turn them into grants.
-Learned that the Rocky Top Christmas parade will be held at 7 p.m. Dec. 2, and that the city’s Christmas lights will be put up and turned on the week before Thanksgiving.
This year, the city has switched to LED lights, and there will be more of them than before, Foster said. Additionally, the city has obtained a new Nativity scene for display during the season.