Brownfields 2005 Grant Fact Sheet

Downtown Revitalization Corporation, Norway, ME

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.

CLEANUP GRANT

$68,000 for hazardous substances
EPA has selected the Downtown Revitalization Corporation for a brownfields cleanup grant. The grant will be used to remove asbestos from the Cummings Mill complex, a former wood dowel mill operated on the site in Norway for 150 years.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION

The Downtown Revitalization Corporation was selected to receive a brownfields cleanup grant. The target site is in Norway, one of Maine's six Main Street Communities, which is a distressed rural community transitioning its economy from natural resource-based commodity manufacturing to a more diversified mix of niche manufacturing, tourism, and service. A small community (population 4,611), Norway has a median household income that is approximately 68 percent of the national average. Unemployment is 50 percent higher than the statewide average, and nearly 13 percent of the community lives in poverty. Cleanup of a former mill complex will facilitate its redevelopment into a mixed-use downtown housing, office, retail, and recreation center that will create jobs, improve the tax base, and support the revitalization of historic downtown Norway. Because Norway has very little commercially useful land, reuse of the existing 4.5-acre site in the heart of downtown is critical to the community's future.

CONTACTS

For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields.

EPA Region 1 Brownfields Team
617-918-1221
http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/

Grant Recipient: Downtown Revitalization Corporation, ME
207-743-8830, ext. 150

The cooperative agreement for this grant has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.