City to seek grant funds

Article originally appeared in the Index-Journal
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The City of Greenwood will seek help from the Environmental Protection Agency to address cleanup efforts at three defunct mill sites.
Greenwood city manager Charlie Barrineau confirmed Wednesday the city will be submitting a Community Wide Brownfields Assessment Grant Application to the EPA later this week (middle of October).

The city manager said there are three old mill properties in question:
1. The former Greenwood Mill No. 5 at 701 Kitson St., near Maxwell Avenue.
2. The former Abney Mill at 212 Pelzer St., in the Grendel community.

3. The former Greenwood Mills Foundry, off Foundry Road and South Main Street. The former Greenwood Mill No. 5 was sold by Greenwood Mills in 1995 to medical textiles company Facemate. Facemate declared bankruptcy in 2003. The old mill eventually was obtained by its current owner, Timberworks LLC, which had planned to salvage or recycle the material used to construct the mill.

While there has been some demolition and salvage done at the Kitson Street site, work now seems to have ceased. Barrineau said the property taxes at the site have not been paid in two years and there has not been any cleanup or salvage work done there in months.
In fact, it appears nature is beginning to take back some areas of the Kitson Street site, as grass and plants are starting sprout up on some of the long dormant rubble piles.

Meanwhile, the mill structure has been removed from the old Abney Mill site on Pelzer and the property is now vacant and overgrown. The property is currently owned by C&P Property and Materials LLC, of Georgia.

The city manager said the old foundry structure has been removed from the Foundry Road site. That property is also vacant and overgrown. It is owned by the nonprofit Greenwood Housing Authority.

Barrineau spoke to a pair of local neighborhood associations - Greenwood Mill Village Association and Grendel Village Association - Tuesday night, providing them with information about the Brownfields Assessment Grant application.
According to city officials, 325 historic mill homes make up the Greenwood Mill Village Association, while the Grendel Village Association is comprised of 200 historic mill homes.

"It is the city's goal that the grant will allow environmental assessments to be performed in an effort to reduce the amount of environmental uncertainty associated with the properties, so that some form of redevelopment or green space can be encouraged," Barrineau said. "Should the grant be awarded, the public and neighborhood residents surrounding these properties will be extensively involved.

"Task forces groups and committees will be organized."