NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) - The city’s mayor is looking to the federal government for assistance getting more than 13-acres of land restored and repurposed in the city. 

Joel Day says New Phila is applying for a federal EPA grant to assess the former Howden Buffalo and Puritan Laundry properties on Mill Avenue where chemical spills have tainted the area’s reputation for potential buyers. Day says at the Puritan Laundry site, they hope to find out how extensive cleanup could be, and where those efforts need to be focused.

“That plume [of] dry cleaning fluid had migrated across Mille Avenue around to where the Gradall entrance gate is,” he says.

Day says there was also a spill at the Howden Buffalo plant nearby that was already under remediation. he says if they hope to sell those sites to new businesses or utilize them for city purposes, the sites will need to be shovel ready.

“Because that was in the vicinity of the Howden Buffalo chemical spill that was being remediated by the water towers that used the strippers that you see at our water plant, the EPA at the time said the owners of the property didn’t have to do a cleanup there,” he says.

Day says there’s also 11-buildings they hope to have inspected for asbestos if the city receives money from the grant to pay for that assessment.  

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