Belfast will receive $2.5 million from the federal government to help clean up contaminated sites around downtown, including the former Waldo County Superior Courthouse that the city purchased last year and the derelict structure at 74 High St. known as Bradbury Manor that local officials are trying to demolish.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced earlier this month that the city will receive a $2 million grant for the remediation of those two sites, as well as another $500,000 to assess the condition of another 10 properties in the city.
The funding comes as the midcoast city has largely moved on from an era when its downtown was characterized by industrial operations including the Penobscot McCrum potato processing plant — which closed after it was destroyed in a 2022 fire — but which in some cases left behind environmental contamination.
According to the EPA, priority sites for the environmental assessments include 5.5 acres used as office space and a potato products company, and 1.5 acres formerly used as an industrial freezer facility.
The funds will come through the EPA’s Brownfields program.
“Rarely is my breath taken away,” said Belfast Mayor Eric Sanders, in reaction to the grants. “These funds will benefit both the health and vitality of current and future generations of Belfast citizens. Keep the Faith has become a mantra for our city, and these grants embody why we use it.”
The former courthouse at 137 Church St. played a central role in the region’s judicial system for over 160 years. It closed in 2018, when judicial operations were relocated to a new building at 11 Market St. Belfast has since repurposed the building for storage and municipal record-keeping and intends to expand city hall there once a cleanup and renovation is complete.
Originally opened as a hospital in 1922 and later converted to a nursing home, Bradbury Manor was vacant for years and has now been declared a dangerous property. The city used eminent domain last fall to move ahead with razing it.
Both buildings are contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, metals and volatile organic compounds, which pose risks to human health and the environment, according to EPA.
The assessments of other properties around downtown — including the former Penobscot McCrum potato processing plant site — could help with ongoing efforts to redevelop the area around the Belfast waterfront.
Belfast is among several communities across the state chosen to receive grant funding for environmental cleanup efforts, the EPA announced.
Elsewhere in the midcoast, Warren received $4 million to deal with a property contaminated with piles of toxic carpet material.
