Two B&N Brownfield Projects Receive Clean Ohio Fund Impact Awards

WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Ohio Department of Development recently announced winners of the 2009 Clean Ohio Fund Impact Awards, which recognize exemplary Clean Ohio brownfield projects in four categories. B&N projects received two of the four awards presented at the Ohio Brownfield Conference held May 12-14, 2009, in Wilmington, Ohio.

The Clean Ohio Fund restores, protects, and connects Ohio's important natural and urban places by preserving green space and farmland, improving outdoor recreation, and by cleaning up brownfields to encourage redevelopment and revitalize communities.

Best Downtown Success Story: Orr-Statler Hotel, City of Piqua
This award recognizes the most significant, unique or visually dramatic change brought to a core urban area as a result of a Clean Ohio Revitalization or Assistance Fund project.

The newly-refurbished Orr-Statler Hotel, built in 1891, once hosted Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the hotel closed and sat vacant since the 1980s.

Federal, state and local monies, combined with donations, funded the refurbishing of the historic hotel. The first step in the renovation was environmental cleanup due to the presence of asbestos and lead paint, two diesel fuel tanks in the basement that were used to fire the furnace, and an adjacent gas station. Because of the environmental concerns at the site, the state considered it a vertical brownfield.

B&N provided the Phase II Environmental Site Assessment and prepared the Voluntary Action Program Covenant Not to Sue that states the City has met requirements for addressing the environmental issues at the site.

The four-story building is now home to the Piqua Public Library and a conference and banquet center and has been renamed the Fort Piqua Plaza. The City of Piqua received a $1.4 million Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant in 2003 for the $21 million public renovation project.

Best Environmental Stewardship:
Whittier Peninsula, Metro Parks, City of Columbus
This award recognizes the most significant environmental change or remediation as a result of a completed Clean Ohio Revitalization or Assistance Fund project.

At Whittier Peninsula, 160 acres of historic industrial sites, warehousing, railroad operations and scrap yards are being redeveloped into an urban park with wetlands, bike paths and the Grange Insurance Audubon Center.

After helping the Metro Parks obtain brownfield cleanup grants to fund the project, B&N performed Phase I and II Environmental Property Assessments, Human Health Risk Assessments, and supervised remedial activities on the site. As civil site engineers for the new Grange Insurance Audubon Center, B&N incorporated many sustainable features into the design including constructed wetlands, a rain garden, a stormwater retention pond, bioswale and pervious pavement in the parking lot. In 2005, Metro Parks received more than $740,000 in Clean Ohio Assistance Fund grants to clean up the brownfield site.

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