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Phoenix: a mythic bird that is reborn out of its own ashes as a symbol of immortality and hope.
Phoenix Award: a national nod given to communities for transforming contaminated industrial sites, or "brownfields" into productive new space.
The Astoria Mill Pond project has been selected for a Phoenix Award this year out of brownfield cleanup efforts in Alaska, Idaho, Washington and Oregon to be eligible for the national and the people's choice awards that will be given at the Brownfields 2001 conference in Chicago next month.
"It's a big deal," said Astoria Community Development Director Paul Benoit, who helped bring all the players in the cleanup to the table. "Of all the projects in the region, they've recognized this one."
Benoit said the award brings national attention to Astoria, which may prove helpful in future projects.
Brooks Koenig, Policy Analyst for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, was looking through a stack of brownfield cleanup sites and thought the Mill Pond project was one of the best examples of successful public and private partnerships.
"The thing with (the Mill Pond project) is, there are units built and more are on the drawing board. We have a number of projects in the beginning stages and fewer at the completed stage. It seemed like Astoria was the best candidate."
So he sent in an application, and Astoria won.
"This project utilized strong, well-developed public and private partnerships, civic spirit and perseverance to overcome many obstacles," said Denise K. Chamberlain, chairperson of the Phoenix Awards
Executive Committee. "The use of community workshops to develop a vision for the site and the project's positive impact on the community also are truly impressive."
Koenig called the process an example for "how other jurisdictions might be able to do something along the same lines. There's a lot of misperception that when people are talking about brownfields they're always envisioning the east coast, with hundreds of acres of abandoned industrial lands. The fact is a lot of brownfields are in rural communities. That small plot could have a lot more of an effect on a small place."
The process began in the early 1990s with a series of community brainstorming sessions on what to put at the former plywood mill.
The Environmental Protection Agency provided a $200,000 Brownfields Pilot Grant as well as funding to address PCB contamination.
DEQ then offered to cover half of the projected cleanup costs, if the city would also agree to pay for half. For an estimated total cost of $1.4 million, the city couldn't foot it.
Washington-based Shorebank Enterprise Group, Pacific, a nonprofit economic development corporation, loaned the city $750,000 and with that commitment, DEQ was back on the wagon and the cleanup got under way. The city was able to repay costs and loans when it sold the site to Venerable Properties, the private developer that started the first phase of construction last spring on the planned waterfront neighborhood.
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