Old Town -
In the heart of Old Town, along side the traffic of city streets, lies nearly six acres that has become no man's land.
"It's an old, old factory," said city manager, Bill Mayo.
Lined with asbestos and accented by dreary and dilapidated walls, the three former buildings of Old Town Canoe have sat practically untouched since the company moved out two years ago.
"We were afraid that it would stay here in this condition and not have any reuse," said Mayo.
That is, until the city bought it for $1.00 in November.
"The biggest thing was to make sure we had control of this facility," said Mayo.
Second on their list was to find a way to remodel and possibly convert the buildings into apartments, or maybe even create a city park.
"It was going to be approximately six million dollars to renovate," said Mayo.
Instead, Mayo decided to try for a Brownfield Grant, a federal fund used to finance environmental cleanup projects.
"We had to apply for three of them and they're $200,000 a piece and it's for the remediation work, which is to clean up asbestos or any contamination in the soils."
Mayo says they will find out in the spring if the city has been selected.
"There's applications from all over the country that are competing for that money."
If denied, they plan to apply for other grants in hopes of breathing life back into a valuable part of downtown, while preventing any wear and tear on the city's budget.
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