The state is distributing $540,000 in federal funds to help Middletown, Montville and Willimantic restore contaminated industrial properties to productive use.
In Middletown, the city will receive $200,000 to clean up the Remington Rand site at 180 Johnson St. The state has already provided $765,000 for environmental investigations and infrastructure improvements to support the project and small businesses that operate at the site.
Other “brownfield” project grants will clean up a parcel at 14 Bridge St. in Montville and complete environmental site assessments and remove underground storage tanks at a former textile mill and oil delivery service in Willimantic.
“This latest funding will be used to actually do the environmental remediation that is needed at the former Remington Rand site,” Gov. M. Jodi Rell said. “The city then plans to transfer it to a private owner to be used as small business ‘incubator’ space – a place for new firms to get a solid start. This will put the property back on the local tax rolls as productive source of revenue for the city while adding jobs back into the local economy.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also provided $600,000 in supplemental funding to the state’s Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund in August, Rell said. The state Department of Economic and Community Development, which administers the revolving loan fund, chose the projects.
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