City hires Indianapolis company to tidy up former Richmond Gas Company site

City hires Indianapolis company to tidy up former Richmond Gas Company site The former Richmond Gas Company building, 100 E. Main St., was built in 1855. It was last used by Indiana Gas Co. in 1977. After that, it sat empty except for use as a haunted house for several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was demolished shortly before Christmas 2009, about two months after a then-13-year-old Richmond boy fell through its roof. He was severely injured but made a good recovery. AMEC will be paid $160,031 for the clean-up. Tony Foster, city director of Metropolitan Development, said the project ought to be complete by late summer. "This is great news," Foster said. "It"s obviously an eyesore and it"s something the city has been working on for quite some time. It will be good to have it completed." The 1.53-acre site has been unused since 1977, but has been in need of cleaning since officials found a tar well there in 2000. The city in 2008 demolished the former gas company plant that was built in 1855. Clean-up work began in 2010, but was stopped when workers found a cistern and two brick tunnels underneath the former plant that contained contaminated liquid. Jeff Nelson, an environmental consultant from AECOM in Bloomington, said the tar well was not an immediate health threat since it was buried 16 to 20 feet in the ground, but it, like the cistern and tunnels, had to be removed if the site is going to be used again. "These residuals must be removed to make the site safe," Nelson said. "This is revitalization, returning the property to a function so it can contribute to society." Nelson said approximately 2,200 cubic yards of material will be removed from the site. Andrea Robertson, senior environmental manager for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said the site has been in IDEM"s brownfields program since 1998. She has worked on the clean-up project since 2000. "Anytime a site is cleaned up for a new recreational space for the entire community to enjoy, it is in line with the vision of the Indiana Brownfields program to remove blighted areas," Robertson said. The city received a $150,000 IDEM brownfields grant in 2008 to remove the tar well and received another $200,000 from IDEM and $150,000 from Vectren, which previously owned the property, for investigation, engineering and clean-up. Foster said a contract with AMEC should be complete in the next few weeks. "It"s exciting to get to this point," he said. "Now we can get on with our plans to build a new entrance to veterans park." The city of Richmond might be moving ahead with a plan to clean the former Richmond Gas Co. property to build another entrance into Veterans Memorial Park. Flip, shop and save on specials from your favorite retailers in Richmond, Indiana City hires Indianapolis company to tidy up former Richmond Gas Company site Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 13/05/2012