Plymouth Board of Public Works waives financial guarantee for environmental work at 123 E. Washington St.

The Board of Public Works and Safety approved the request of Roberts Environmental to waive the financial guarantee for work they will be doing in the city’s right-of-way. 

The environmental company will continue to test the soil and groundwater at the former Indiana Heat Transfer McCord’s building at the northwest corner of Washington and Water Streets. 

City Attorney Jeff Houin said they have been working with MACOG and Brownfield Grant to do environmental testing on the building that’s been going on for a couple of years. He said, “There was a lapse because the funding for the grant ran out and they had to wait for the next grant round to be funded and available.  They are ready to start moving forward again.”   

Roberts Environmental will submit an application to the city for work in the right-of-way for soil boring and monitoring. This work is through MACOG on behalf of the city, so they have asked the Board of Public Works and Safety to waive the financial guarantee requirement. 

Plymouth Plan Director Ty Adley said Phase I and II Environmental Assessments have been completed.  There is a need to do additional soil testing and water sampling wells for monitoring. 

The city is looking at residential development in the future at the site.  Adley told the board, “Residential has one of the most struck requirements when you are doing a clean-up process because somebody is getting ready to lay their head there pretty much every night so you want to make sure when they go to sleep they are reducing the amount of opportunity for chemicals of issue to come in contact with.” 

Currently, they are waiting on EPA approval to continue with the monitoring.  Roberts Environmental has its proposed action plan for the project to begin the testing as soon as the EPA approves. 

One of the testing sites will be in the city’s right-of-way.

Councilman Dave Morrow questioned if the plan was only for testing and not mitigation and Adley confirmed the plan is only for monitoring. 

Mayor Listenberger said the property is a privately owned parcel.  He said a few years ago the council determined the property was an important part of the downtown area.  He said, “The owners are working with us and are willing to sell the property at a reasonable price for demolition and future development.  We’ve been working through this, and this is just the next step.” 

The Board of Public Works and Safety unanimously approved waiving the financial guarantee for Roberts Environmental.