Public Meeting held on City's $1.5 Million 'Clean Ohio' Request

Dorothy Peachock was a little lonely Wednesday night.

She was the sole Kent resident to show up to about the city's $1.5 million grant Brownfield Revitalization program. The city is asking for money to finish efforts at cleaning the former RB&W property at 800 Mogadore Road.

The latest Ohio EPA report on the project shows contaminated groundwater that originates at the property — albeit at concentration amounts acceptable by the EPA.

The purpose of Wednesday’s public meeting, held at the , was to review public comment that's been received on the application and to give any residents a last chance to discuss and ask questions about it.

"I think the major reason for these public meetings is to make sure there's nothing detrimental taking place," Dan Smith, Kent's Economic Development Director, said.

Aside from Peachock and Smith, the only other people to attend were representatives from Mentor-based HzW Environmental, which is the consulting firm managing the environmental issues at the property. No direct representatives from the property owner, Memphis, TN-based Thomas & Betts Corp., attended Wednesday night.

Smith said the next step in the brownfield grant application process will be for representatives from the city to travel to Columbus and pitch their redevelopment plans for the property to state officials. If Kent is awarded the grant money, Thomas & Betts will transfer the land to the city for $1. That would potentially kick-start the property’s redevelopment, and one idea is to in cooperation with Kent State University.

Matt Knecht, president of HzW, said the bulk of the grant money — as much as $925,000 — would be used to fix the underground chemical containment system that's leaching contaminants into groundwater, which is then migrating off the property and toward the river.

Knecht said the soil on the property meets EPA standards for human contact.

"It's the groundwater on the site that needs addressed," Knecht said. "The primary groundwater problem at the site is associated with the (former) oil lagoons at the south end of the site. We’re concerned about that groundwater going into the river … and that is what we want to stop.”

The problem with the property is an underground, clay “slurry wall” that was built in 2005 to try and seal in the remains of five former open-air oil lagoons that were used by various manufacturers at the property throughout the early and mid 1900s. HzW and Ohio EPA officials surmised this year that the slurry wall containment system had failed after groundwater test wells on the property showed . The slurry wall is not directly visible, but it encompasses about two grassy acres at the southern end of the property.

The Clean Ohio Fund grant award, which usually requires a local match or expense on the receiving community’s behalf, would not cost Kent any money out of pocket. Thomas & Betts has already spent about $2 million cleaning the property, including the demolition of the former RB&W plant, and that money can be used as the local match for the grant.

“They made a commitment to clean up the property and did a large portion of it,” Knecht said. “We’re in the home stretch of the cleanup.”

Smith said this land and its potential for redevelopment is a perfect example of what the Clean Ohio Fund money is designed for.

“We would like to see that become a technology park,” he said.