County Commissioners approve Brownfield Coalition Memorandum

Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at 10:10 PM

By Kathy Bottorff

This week the Marshall County Commissioners approved a memorandum to the agreement in place with MACOG for the Regional Brownfields Coalition which included Marshall, St. Joseph, Kosciusko Counties and Tolson Center in Elkhart.

Leah Thill from MACOG said the revision to the agreement is changing Elkhart County and including the Tolson Center. The purpose of this agreement is to formalize Marshall County’s participation in the coalition so that all incorporated and unincorporated areas within the county have access to the grant funding.

Thill said this if $1.5 million of EPA funding for environmental assessments over the next 4-years. She noted that this is MACOG’s third grant, so the memorandum is an update to the two prior years.

The proposed sites are ranked and prioritized and then the Regional Brownfields Working Group works to have an equitable distribution of funds with the needs in each county. She noted that Ty Adley, the County Plan Director and Jeff Houin the Plymouth City Attorney both sit on that group.

One of the new sites they are and will continue to work with is 123 Eat Washington Street in Plymouth. Thill said the main purpose of the Brownfield grants is redevelopment of properties that may have contamination, helping with environmental issues and making the properties productive again.