Contract awarded for business center assessment
A contract has been awarded to do an environmental mitigation assessment of the former Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital property off Division Street — now known as the Battey Business Center.
The Rome-floyd County Development Authority received a $500,000 federal grant in May. The grant funds will be used for, among other things, environmental cleanup assessment and planning purposes for sites like the former hospital property.
The call for proposals brought in seven bidders, said Missy Kendrick, authority president and CEO, and GEI Consultants was awarded the contract.
The development authority purchased the vacant 132.5-acre hospital complex from the state with $2.25 million from the SPLOST packages.
Even with the site in its current state, the authority is seeking to recruit new manufacturers to locate on the site. There’s also the potential that nearby industries could choose to expand using the available property.
That environmental assessment will cost approximately $100,000, leaving the rest of a $500,000 grant for other projects — including the former O’neill Manufacturing location, a 7-acre tract off Anderson Street in North Rome.
The property has been eyed as a potential site for manufacturing recruitment for over two decades but the presence of hazardous chemicals is an issue.
The company treated and manufactured custom wood products until it closed in 2000 following the death of Sean O’neill, its last chief
executive officer.
The site came under scrutiny the year O’neill died after a site assessment by S&ME, a private engineering firm. An assessment at that time found two 500-gallon containers of Wood Life, a wood treatment preservative known to contain significant amounts of the probable carcinogen pentachlorophenol.