Brownfields Projects Foster Partnerships

Blaine Smith, Executive Director of the Association of South Central Oklahoma Governments (ASCOG), reports ASCOG is currently working on more than 100 brownfields sites.

These sites range from former public housing to machine shops, plating shops, old refineries, former oil sites (drilling), former railroad maintenance facilities, clothing manufacturing facilities, meth labs, hospitals and nursing homes.

A former public housing site in the small community of Frederick will become a soccer field and general recreation area following a county-funded cleanup. ASCOG contracted with the U.S. Soccer Foundation to develop plans for the site. A former plating company site, where barrels of contaminants were dumped and caught fire, was assessed and cleaned up by the county. A hospital site in Commanche County, abandoned for 30 years, is now owned by the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache Intertribal Land Use Committee, and may be transformed into a senior center.

Administrative costs are covered by the Kiowa and Comanche tribes, the Apache Intertribal Land Use Committee and the Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation. Smith estimates that the administrative costs are about $20,000 each year. For other general funding, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality helps fund Phase II assessments at no cost to the region.

ASCOG has been able to access funds from the Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP), a $15 million annual state funded program, available to communities and unincorporated areas with less than 7,000 people. These communities have small tax bases and are not able to generate income to fund brownfields projects. Sixty-nine of the 72 communities served by ASCOG meet the REAP population criteria. Of the $15 million available each year through the REAP program, ASCOG receives $1.5 million (the funding level is not constant from year to year).

ASCOG’s two major brownfields impediments are property ownership and liability. In most cases, the original owner is not able to be located and prior acquisitions have not enabled landowners liability relief.

Most of the region’s Phase I assessments are completed in-house by the COG. Phase II assessments and cleanups are contracted out to consultants. The county and state typically help pay for cleanups and assessments. The COG’s revolving loan fund will be used mainly for redevelopment. Smith explains, “Most of our sites are relatively small, so the majority of the work can be done at the local or county level.”

Hagar Pant Factory

This 33,531 sq. ft. facility, owned by the Lawton Chamber of Commerce, was once a clothing manufacturing facility but has been vacant since the early 1990s. Manufacturing firms showing interest in purchasing the building were dissuaded because the building’s low ceilings prevented forklifts from performing lifts. In October 2004, Fort Sill National Bank (FSNB) purchased the building for a subsidiary company to be used as a nationwide storage center, customer call center and data processing facility.

With the assistance of ASCOG, environmental remediation cost $27,000 and was completed within 30 days. FSNB took possession of the building in January 2005 and began a $1 million total reconstruction of the interior and addition of a parking lot and outside lighting. Approximately 200 employees will be hired by the end of 2006. There will eventually be almost 300 full-time employees, with an average salary of $20,000 a year with benefits.