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PITTSTON — Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday announced the approval of new funding through the Industrial Sites Reuse Program (ISRP) for Pittston to assess new uses for a former industrial site, possibly as a recreational area.
The Benedict Street property has been an industrial site since the early 1900s. Most recently, it was a powder-coating operation and warehouse. The property was acquired as part of the Luzerne County Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program in 2017. The program acquired properties damaged by flooding in 2011.
The ISRP grant will provide $15,000 for preparation of the work plan and project guidance documents, project management, site survey, geophysical survey, sensitive receptor survey, subsurface investigation, vapor intrusion evaluation, laboratory analysis and report preparation. Once the site is assessed, the city intends to maintain the property as open space and as a possible location for recreational fields. The total project cost is $20,000.
The ISRP provides loans and grants for environmental assessments and remediation carried out by eligible applicants who did not cause or contribute to the contamination. The program is designed to foster the cleanup of environmental contamination at industrial sites, thereby bringing blighted land into productive reuse.
“This project is a win-win for everyone,” City Manager Joseph Moskovitz said. “The property owner was able to relocate out of the floodplain, the city will address an environmental concern, and city residents will have open space available for recreational endeavors.”