The Department of Community and Economic Development recently approved a $352,500 Industrial Sites Reuse Program grant for the city of Scranton.
The city will turn an approximately quarter-acre site, formerly owned by RSM Properties, into a public park. The site was used as lumber storage in 1884 and was home to a dry cleaner from 1956 to 2000.
Funds will be used to remove several deteriorated concrete building slabs and to remove and dispose of soil. Funding also will be used to create a health and safety plan update, monitor well abandonment, and remediation from the soil excavation.
This will not only clean up a contaminated site but repurpose it so the public can enjoy for years to come, Patrick McDonnell, Department of Environmental Protection secretary, said.
“This is the final piece of the funding puzzle that will allow us to bring to reality the conversion of a blighted, vacant parcel to a beautiful downtown neighborhood park,” Scranton Mayor Wayne Evans said. “It’s more important than ever as our downtown is evolving into a burgeoning destination for new renters and homeowners alike.”
The Industrial Sites Reuse Program was designed to encourage the cleanup of environmental contamination at industrial sites to bring blighted land into productive reuse.