The Environmental Protection Agency has selected the Town of Robbins for a Brownfields Cleanup Grant. Two Hundred Thousand Dollars of Petroleum grant funds will be used to clean up the former Robbins Mill-Smokestack parcel located at 200 South Kennedy Street. Grant funds will also be used to conduct community involvement activities.
The .5 acre cleanup site operated as a woolen weaving mill form the 1920’s to 1990, and was briefly used by a sign manufacture during the late 1990s and 2000s. The historic building remained until 2008, when it caught fire.
The Town completed an assessment of the Smokestack parcel using EPA Assessment Grant funds, which identified soil contamination due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are likely from years of burning fuel in the mill’s boilers. Grant funds also will be used to conduct community involvement activities.
Robbins was awarded two Brownfield cleanup grants in 2016 to clean up the Northern Parcel of the former Robbins Mill at 200 South Kennedy Street and the Southern Parcel at 100 South Kennedy Street. The funds were used to cover the expensive process of removing asbestos containing materials and properly disposing it in a qualified landfill.
“The town has made tremendous progress with our previous two clean-up grants and this additional grant will assist us in turning a blighted area into a community asset. We are ready for a come back!,” said Town Manager David Lambert.
The Robbins Mill site is part of the “Robbins Rising” Rehabilitation Program created this year. While there are many opportunities for redevelopment of this site, town leaders hope to leverage funds to create additional industrial prospects and the development of multi-family housing. Housing options are needed to meet the demands of a growing economy.
