BELGRADE, Mont. — Belgrade is moving ahead with plans to update older buildings after receiving an EPA brownfields grant.
Brownfields grants are very flexible. They can help pay for properties that were contaminated or are suspected of contamination. The funding can cover assessments for city-owned sites or private property, and if problems are found, the money could then be used for cleanup.
Those grants were often used at old structures like former gas stations or dry cleaners, where chemical contamination concerns were more likely.
Katharine King, Belgrade community and economic development director, said the funding could help the city make better use of sites that already have key services in place.
“Once we're able to sort of jump those hoops, figure out what the issues are and resolve them. These are typically properties that already have infrastructure to them. So, now we're really talking about infill and efficient use of municipal infrastructure. So, the streets, the road and the pipes in the ground, all of that,” King said.
The city bought Big Red, an old grain elevator off Main Street, in February. They plan to eventually repurpose it. King said the building once held a large amount of fertilizer, raising concerns about whether it was safe to work in.
“If you were to walk into the building, you would see that there's a layer of dust throughout the entire structure. And so that will need to be remediated prior to any potential reuse in that specific case,” King said.
Once remediation is done, the city plans to move forward with public engagement to come up withan reuse plan for the structure to keep it alive for the community, she added.
Besides Big Red, Belgrade is also looking at using grant money on the Heck and Quaw elementary buildings, which the city recently took over. Officials anticipate finding asbestos because of the age of those buildings.
“It's really an important financial tool to help a community unlock properties that are otherwise going to go unused,” King said.