State grant will help park cleanup
POTTSTOWN >> A grant of more than $56,000 will help with an environmental cleanup of Pollock Park necessary before it can reopen.
The grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development for $56,704 was announced by the office of state Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-146th Dist.
The new funding is through a Industrial Sites Reuse Program grant and will pay for an environmental assessment and remediation plan for Pollock Park on the former Mayer Pollock Steel Co. site on Cross Street.
The borough plans to remediate the site, which has been closed since 2017, and return it to recreational use.
“With the commonwealth’s help, we will restore this recreational space in Pottstown and make it safe once again,” Ciresi said.
“With this new funding, we come a step closer to properly cleaning and reopening Pollock Park, which will lead to years of enjoyment of this outdoor space for our residents. I’d like to thank the DCED and Governor Wolf for their support of public health and outdoor recreation with this funding,” Ciresi said in a prepared release.
Pollock Park is located on the 800 block of Cross Street and
serves a residential neighborhood on Pottstown’s south side. It is also a designated trail head park for the Schuylkill River Trail.
Heavy metals and Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) have been identified in the soil throughout the property. It is believed
that contamination originates from the previous use of the site as a scrap yard.
The grant will provide $56,704 to perform the comprehensive scope of work which includes soil tests, installing and monitoring ground water wells, data validation, reporting of results and drafting of a DEP-approved remediation plan.
“Pollock Park is a very
important park to the surrounding residential neighborhood and to Pottstown at large, and it has real potential as a destination park with appeal to the wider community,” said Pottstown Parks and Recreation Director Michael Lenhart.
“This DCED grant, supported by the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority, is crucial support for the effort to restore a
key Pottstown recreation space to public use. The borough offers its sincere thanks to PA DCED and Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority for their support of the Borough’s Parks and Recreation system.”
“This investment will provide the neighborhood with a recreational space that will promote a sense of community while ensuring the preservation of
public health and safety,” said DCED Secretary Dennis Davin. “The Borough’s leadership in remediating this space will serve as a benefit to the residents of Pottstown both now and in the future.”
The Industrial Sites Reuse Program provides loans and grants for environmental assessments and remediation carried out by eligible applicants who did not cause or contribute
to the contamination.
The program is designed to foster the cleanup of environmental contamination at industrial sites, thereby bringing blighted land into productive reuse.
For more information about the Industrial Sites Reuse program or DCED, visit www.dced.pa.gov.
This article first appeared as a post in The Digital Notebook blog.