Feds award $500K assessment grant for former NWGA hospital site
Posted May 16, 2022 in Authority News
The Rome Floyd County Development Authority has been awarded $500,000 in federal funds to start addressing hazardous materials on the former Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital site.
It’s part of a $1.5 billion national allocation to “advance environmental justice, spur economic revitalization and create jobs” by cleaning up contaminated, polluted, or hazardous brownfield properties.
Brownfield projects can range from cleaning up buildings with asbestos or lead contamination to assessing and dealing with abandoned properties that once managed dangerous chemicals.
Approximately 86% of the communities selected to receive funding in the $180 million distribution announced last week proposed projects in historically underserved areas.
“We’re turning blight into might for communities across America,” said Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Thanks to President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are significantly ramping up our investments in communities, with the bulk of our funding going to places that have been overburdened and underserved for far too long.”
The development authority purchased the vacant 132.5-acre hospital complex off Division Street from the state with $2.25 million approved by voters in the 2013 and 2017 SPLOST packages. Last week, the Rome City Commission rezoned the site for Heavy Industrial use.
Plans are to raze all but a few buildings and offer the land for economic development projects.
Rome and Floyd County officials are also seeking a $5.1 million congressional appropriation for asbestos mitigation and demolition. Georgia’s senators, Jon Ossoff and Rafael Warnock toured the property in late March and expressed support.
