City 'Ecstatic' About $3 Million Grant to Aid Chrysler Cleanup

When Larry Finch left the Clean Ohio Council offices on last Friday, he was more than thrilled to be the former Chrysler stamping plant.

“I was really ecstatic because the property has some environmental issues and the cost of demolition has been horrendous for the owner,” Finch said.

The money was the highest awarded grant (CORF), to help the city cover costs to complete remediation and demolition activities at the 167-acre CornerStone Business Park.

CORF is a state program that provides money to communities to clean up and restore contaminated properties.

Finch said there were 19 total projects from around the state submitted for grant money, and the top ten were given funds from $400,000 to $3 million, the maximum amount. Going into the presentation, Twinsburg's project was ranked No. 1.

Finch, along with Mayor Katherine Procop and two of the firms working with the city on the grant, went to Columbus to present their proposed project to the Clean Ohio Council. That day the group left with exactly what they came for.

“You know when you leave the meeting if you got funded or not,” Finch said.

While much of the building on the property has been torn down, he said there is still some expensive demolition to be done.

Not only will this grant cover the cost of demolition, it will help clean up the site, addressing environmental concerns. There are 5,593 cubic yards of affected soils and asbestos-containing materials that need to be removed from the site.

"It's exactly the project this money was intended for," Procop said. "It will bring new jobs and income and it was ranked No. 1 for good reason."

Grants for the Chrysler site now total $5.2 million, after the city got Grant, which prepares properties for commercial use and job creation.

“We were very fortunate to get both,” Finch said.

The projects still need grant agreements to be signed and executed, Finch said, so things won't get moving right away.

“You’ll continue to see demoliton but site cleanup won't happen for another month or so."