Workshop sheds light on grants

While churning up dirt to construct a new children’s center a few years ago at Our House, a Little Rock homeless shelter, contractors collided with a $250,000 problem.

Three fuel tanks were lodged underground, relics from a Department of Veterans Affairs maintenance building that previously occupied the land.

Our House had already leveled that structure, Ben Goodwin, the shelter’s executive director, said Wednesday at a workshop in North Little Rock. But the tanks were a surprise. Petroleum sludge had to be scraped from their innards, Goodwin said.

The unforeseen cost would have sunk the whole operation if not for the Brownfields Program administered by Pulaski County, Goodwin said.

“There’s a lot of work to do between buying it and building it, and that’s where Brownfields came in,” he said.

Goodwin addressed a crowd of about 40 central Arkansans who attended the half-day workshop at the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce on how to harness brownfields grant money, and other incentives, to buoy their projects.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency holds the purse strings for the program. The agency distributes money to government groups, like Pulaski County, to clean up and reuse properties that are difficult to develop because of hazardous material or the immediate threat of hazardous material.

Investing dollars on a blighted space begets economic development, supporters say.

Some buildings sit dormant for decades. Asbestos and lead-based paint are just a couple of contaminants a new owner might contend with, said Terry Sligh, who coordinates the state’s brownfields program.

“If it’s not a green field, it’s a brownfield,” Sligh quipped.

Pulaski County was awarded $3 million from the EPA in 2005. With that money, eight brownfields projects were completed, including the work at Our House in 2014.

A ninth project was announced Nov. 6. The downtown Little Rock branch of First United Methodist Church will clean up 307 W. Seventh St., previously Ms. Kitty’s Saloon.

The grant agreement with the EPA for the $3 million is set to run out by Dec. 31, said Josh Fout, who oversees the county brownfields program. About $342,000 is left, he said.

In 2016, the county was awarded another $820,000 from the EPA. No projects have been approved for that new funding yet, because the county has been using up the remaining money from the $3 million grant first, Fout said.

Pulaski County brownfields money is doled out in two ways: loans to private entities or subgrants to nonprofits. Subgrants are capped at $200,000, whereas loans are judged on a case-by-case basis, Fout said.

Grant applicants must own the property they aim to use the money to improve, be financially sound and complete an environmental site inspection. They can’t have polluted the land they’re trying to improve, Fout said.

To be approved, there must be a real or perceived threat that a hazardous substance has been or will be released on the site, and that substance must post imminent or substantial danger to public health, Fout said.

Wednesday’s workshop highlighted “success stories,” like Our House, to spur ideas in the next generation of brownfields applicants.

Goodwin told the crowd that when construction was complete, a boiler room and ambulance bay gave way to gleaming children’s and career centers, a basketball court and green space. Chainlink fencing was swapped for natural wood.

“It transformed our campus and transformed our organization,” Goodwin said, noting that the new space can serve many more people.

Fout estimated that with the $820,000 awarded last year, the county can bolster at least three projects over the next five years. None is currently in the works for that funding source.

Sheila Cooney said she attended the workshop because she helps communities rethink their neighborhoods. Right now, some people in the McAlmont neighborhood want to build a baseball and softball complex to keep their children invested in the area when they’re grown, she said.

Through the grant money, the hope is to “find solutions to improve the overall quality of life” in Pulaski County, said County Judge Barry Hyde, who opened the workshop.