Brownfield Initiative discussed at council

At the May City Council meeting, Vannessa Frazier, coordinator for the Howardville Community Betterment, spoke about the Brownfield Initiative.

She is assisting in heading up a similar initiative in Howardville. This will soon be looking for local folks to employ in the construction phase.

Below is some information that was shared with council, and urged the City of Portageville to consider using a program like this for some of the unoccupied buildings in Portageville.

Kansas State University is working with the Howardville Community Betterment to provide technical assistance for these grants. Dr. Wendy Griswold was contacted to give a presentation to the Bootheel Regional Planning Commission to see how they can help other communities like Howardville. "I assisted her with this presentation. Their program is called Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB). They cover 21 states," said Frazier

Portageville alderman, Jessie James, was at that meeting and asked me to come and present to the Portageville City Council.

Frazier discussed how the program works.

Brownfield: This is a way of revitalizing old buildings, vacant properties, abandoned gas stations, and dry cleaners, etc. These places are mostly located in downtown or corridor areas of a city and in smaller communities, within the neighborhood.

Assessment: The city can get an assessment grant from the Department of Natural Resources at no cost to the city. If they have a building or land they want assessed, a Phase One, or an on-site inspection and visual of condition of the building is performed.

Phase Two consists of samples taken of the soil and inside the building.

Most old buildings have Asbestos and Lead-based paint. Asbestos occurs naturally over time. Lead-based paint is still around and can cause children to get sick. Asbestos causes mesothelioma- cancer of the lung for which there is no cure. When children and vandals enter abandoned buildings, later in life they develop debilitating illnesses.

"The city is liable for their properties. Most people do not like the Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA), but the secret is to ask them for help. Their resources, contacts and partners will help you get the problem solved at minimum to no cost," she said. The Assessment will tell you what is in the building and how much or level of contamination, she added.

Cleanup Grant: After the City gets the report from the Assessment, you (the City) can apply for a cleanup grant. The City of Howardville applied and received a grant to cleanup the asbestos and lead in the Old Howardville school. Some people tear their buildings down, but it costs more to do that, because it still have to has the contaminates removed before demolition. "It makes more sense to cleanup the contaminates and reuse the building, especially if the sound. The majority of this grant is for the contractors to pay their workers. A federal grant has stipulations, and the most important one is local source hiring must take place. The catch is, the local men must be certified," Frazier said.

The Howardville Community Betterment applied for and received an all expense paid scholarship to send one person to a one time, train the trainer event.

Only 20 people can be accepted and the competition comes from all over the country, she added. This 10-day training will be held on June 2, 2014, in Davenport Iowa. Upon return, he or she will be a certified trainer to train local men to get a job as a waste site worker. The prevailing wage for New Madrid County is $22.04 an hour. Mississippi county is $28.00 and Scott county is $32.00 an hour.

Environmental Workforce Job Training Grant: This is a $200,000 grant that will pay for the health exams and all materials needed for training, including supplies needed for the job. These materials (manuals, wetsuit, tools, etc) cost over $2000.00 per person. The Asbestos class alone costs $1100, if an individual wanted to pay for their own training. The good news, the classes are free and when the training is over, they get to keep their gear and will need it at the work site or any other environmental job they pursue. It will take two weeks for their certification to come back, but they will have OSHA, State and Federal certifications and can take them anywhere in the country to find employment, said Frazier.

"In larger cities, these types of jobs pay $50 plus an hour. The country is going green and our people in the Bootheel need to be ready. The Howardville Community Betterment applied for this grant, and has not been kicked out of the first round of elimination, which is good news."

"We will know if we received the grant, sometime this month. We have a tentative schedule date of July 7, 2014, to start the first 8 week class. It will be 25 people from New Madrid County. We will be offering this training to the five counties of the Missouri Bootheel: Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Scott."

"The cleanup grant and the job training grant go together, but you have to apply for both and get awarded. A requirement for this grant is, recruiting Probation and Parole, Veterans, unemployed and underemployed citizens," added Fraizer.

Redevelopment Funding: This is available to restore the building, trained workers can move right into these jobs as well. It is more beneficial for contractors that will have to come from other states or other areas of the state of Missouri (we don't have any down here). They have a higher prevailing wage, and if they bring their workers they will have to pay their regular salary, plus housing. "We are pushing this concept at the pre-bid meeting, we have contractors from Ohio, and MO. (Kansas, Indiana and the St. Louis area, St. Peters and O'Fallon). The prevailing wage is mandatory for cleanup and redevelopment grants. It's taxpayer money and it has to benefit the area it was sent to as opposed to contractors and their crew coming in, doing the work and the money leave with them to be spent in their community," said Fraizer.

Downtown and Community Revitalization: "Our citizens can become employed for a very long time, with good paying jobs and helping to beautify their community and create needed businesses," she concluded.