City of Rushville to host Brownfields Informational Meeting on January 29th

The City of Rushville was recently awarded a $364,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  The grant supports EPA’s goals and objectives to promote sustainable and livable communities.  The City’s goals for its Brownfields Program are to create jobs, eliminate public health impacts, and remove blighted/unsafe conditions and environmental threats to area residents.

By definition from the EPA, a brownfield is a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. There will be extensive community outreach to inform Rushville citizens of the plans for this assessment process and to solicit public input.

The first of these public meetings will be held Friday, January 29, 2016, 3:00 p.m.at the City Council Chambers, 270 W. 15th Street, Rushville. The City has contracted with the engineering firm, SME, to provide environment services for the coordination, direction, conduct and/or oversight of the Brownfield Assessment activities approved by the grant. Representatives from SME will be presenting information at this meeting, and will be on hand for a question and answer session. Local oversight will be provided by the Rush County Economic & Community Development Corporation.

Who should attend these meetings? Community partners, health department, City and County elected officials, Chamber of Commerce, local financing institutions, real estate developers, area plan commission and any other interested citizens.

Further questions about the meeting or other grant activities can be directed to the ECDC at 765-938-3232.