A group of University of Connecticut engineering students and the town of Hamden are partnering on a project, the Connecticut Brownfields Initiative (CBI). The program trains undergraduate students to work with municipalities to remediate brownfields sites.
With a substantial inventory of former industrial properties but limited staff resources for substantial remediation work, Hamden poses a suitable challenge for such an undertaking.
CBI trains the student workers, then deploys them into the partner municipality on a pro bono basis. There they work with staff on grant-writing and then proceed to actual remediation work under the watchful eye of UConn faculty experts.
“We are pleased to collaborate with the UConn students for this brownfields research project,” said Dale Kroop, who has been Hamden’s director of economic and neighborhood development for two decades. “Hamden has been in the forefront of brownfield restoration and redevelopment during my entire time here.
“We formed the Hamden Economic Development Corp. in 2004 specifically to address the need to remake these derelict properties functional and tax producing again,” Kroop added. “This collaboration will set us up for years of continued good work in our neighborhoods to get rid of these blighted properties and eliminate the threat to the health and wellness of our residents.”
According to Eli Freund of the UConn School of Engineering, “This program is a win-win, because it is training a new generation of brownfield remediation experts, and it’s giving municipalities like Hamden the resources it needs to eliminate these unusable sites, and turn them into parcels ripe for economic development.”
Contact Michael Bingham at mbingham@newhavenbiz.com
