In just 17 days of work the Cortland County IDA has done what many haven’t been able to do in years, clean up the former APEX Tool site.
The IDA purchased the property earlier this year and began a coordinated effort to have the site properly cleaned after an out of town company tore down the original building, scrapped what they could, and left it a mess.
Certified abatement contractors and asbestos project monitors with air sampling experts worked on the site in the possibility of residual asbestos materials being buried in the debris.
In total, 4,500 tons of material from the site was removed from the site to the Cortland County landfill, with one load of ACMs (Asbestos Containing Materials) was discovered and was transported to a certified landfill in Seneca County.
“We are very fortunate in that regard because discovery of significant asbestos there could have had a significant economic impact,” Executive Director of CCBDC Garry VanGorder said.
The Cortland County IDA will spend over $300,000 dollars for the project with funds it receives on project fee charges from developers seeking tax benefits in return for capital investment in the Cortland area with no local impact to local taxpayers.
The mayor’s office and the City of Cortland have supported the IDA, which they helped expedite a deal to extinguish a tax lien that the property had in order to clear a path for the IDA’s purchase.
The next phase of the project will be having engineers perform environmental analysis of soils and other compounds at the site. The findings of what lies below will then determine the next steps.
