#Abandoned gas stations windows

Work has already begun on the second site in Marion County that has been awarded money through the grant, a former gas station at Ohio 309 and Ohio 98 in Claridon Township. Only certain former gas stations are eligible for the program, namely ones that are designated as “Class C” sites, where petroleum has leaked and the entity responsible for the leak no longer exists or is financially unable to pay for the cleanup.

The applicant must either own the property or enter into an agreement with the property owner allowing the applicant to make decisions about the remediation, according to the program guidelines. Local governments and county land banks can apply and receive up to $500,000 for cleanup and remediation of former gas stations. “It’s an environmental cleanup that allows these properties to become marketable again,” Warr-Cummings said. The Abandoned Gas Station Cleanup Grant, the grant that La Rue received, gives local government a way to address blighted and abandoned gas stations in their communities. So any type of business that we get to come into the village can’t hurt,” the mayor said.ĭuring the 2008 recession, not only houses, but stores, gas stations and other commercial sites, were abandoned and fell into blight, said Evelyn Warr-Cummings, assistant director of the Marion County Regional Planning Commission. We are slowly losing businesses because they can’t compete with the bigger box stores, I guess you’d call it. The prospective buyer went as far as to do an environmental study on the site, but then pulled out, Lightfoot said.īut once the site is cleaned up, Lightfoot hopes it, or any other retail store or business, will buy the land and build there. Several years ago, Family Dollar expressed interest in buying the lot from the village, which has owned the lot since 2010, said Mayor Paul Milton Lightfoot. that at one time had been a gas station and car repair shop. Last month, the Village of La Rue was awarded $150,000 through the grant to clean up a vacant lot at 36 N.

The sites here, one in La Rue and one in Claridon Township, have been sitting idle for years, despite some interest from developers. The goal is to cut out blight, remove environmental hazards and return the old gas station sites to usefulness. Two former gas stations in Marion County will soon be cleaned up using money from a state program that has been giving out grants since 2016 to dig up underground fuel tanks, clean up contamination found on old gas station sites and demolish any buildings that still stand.

#Abandoned gas stations windows

The concrete cracked, brush growing out of the pavement, the windows busted in - it’s an abandoned gas station. MARION - You have probably driven past one. Originally Published by Sarah Volpenhein, Marion Star Published 4:23 p.m.