A Brownfield Revolving Fund Loan (RFL) loan agreement with Williamsport Ballpark Inc., approved by the Lycoming County Commissioners brings $670,000 to the proposed project to develop the former site of an unregulated landfill into an athletic complex. The property, which is approximately 28.43 acres, is located at 2 Rose St. in Williamsport.

The RFL funds will be used to perform cleanup-related activities at the site to deal with any environmental contamination. The county has hired Brownfield Redevelopment Solutions (BRS) Inc. to prepare an analysis of brownfields cleanup alternatives in support of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant proposal.

A brownfield is a property that was previously developed but is now largely abandoned and may be contaminated.

In her presentation to the commissioners at their meeting this week, Jenny Picciano, of the county’s planning and community development department, said, “what we’re looking at here in our community is any property that is underutilized for a variety of reasons, either real or perceived.”

She explained that many counties have a redevelopment authority or another organization that deals with industrial redevelopment but the county is running the program in-house with a partnership between the planning department as well as other county departments and BRS.

From approximately 1960 to 1978, wastes were deposited at the site, including commercial, construction, household, industrial, patient care, septic tank as well as various hazardous wastes.

When the landfill ceased to operate, the site was still used for minor disposal of tree and roadway waster through the 1980s and for the storage of road salt and cinders until the early 2000s according to information from the county. Since that time, the northern part of the property has been vacant and now has some trees and grass. The southern portion was utilized by Susquehanna Supply Company. Both portions are now vacant except for a single building on the southern parcel.

“We had looked at it knowing that there really wasn’t going to be any other opportunities for redevelopment of the site,” said Jason Fink, president and CEO of the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce.

They also looked to the state which encourages turning former city landfills and municipal sites like that into play fields, he said.

The state actually has a brownfield play field program which the chamber looked at which was cohesive with the concept of putting in youth baseball fields.

The RFL loan will be used to fund the grading and earthwork needed to support the storm water management which will be constructed later.

“This project is important in that this money is funding the very first phase of this project,” said Michele Christina from BRS.

“We’re in the process right now in the process of pulling all this together. Getting the financing in place. This is one of the key elements for us to be able to do this first phase of it,” Fink said.

“Once we are completed with this project, we will receive Act 2 clearance for the site which will make us clear of any of the issues that may come from property,” Fink said.

He noted that, in 2020, an environmental assessment firm was brought in and found there was nothing to be concerned about with the property.

“Methane was not found topside when they did the boring,” he said.

Commissioner Scott Metzger praised the chamber for its work on the project.

“They did their homework when they decided what type of facility to put at this location — it was best utilized as ballfields,” Metzger said.

“Studies show that it can bring a lot of visitors to the area and hopefully some of the visitors will relocate here and increase our population,” he added.

The Pennsylvania College of Technology will also use the fields.