North Attleboro gets $81,000 'brownfield' grant

January 23, 2020 : The Sun Chronicle, by Jim Hand

NORTH ATTLEBORO — The state awarded an $81,000 grant to the town Thursday to do an environmental evaluation of the former Webster Mill on Broadway.

The dilapidated building is on a 1.64-acre site and has been unused for years.

Lyle Pirnie, the town economic development director, said doing the environmental evaluation is the first step toward cleaning up and eventually rehabilitating the site so it can be used for affordable housing.

He attended a ceremony in Boston with Gov. Charlie Baker during which $2.6 million for 16 projects across the state was awarded for “brownfield,” or polluted, properties.

“The Brownfields Redevelopment Fund breathes life into vacant or underused properties where redevelopment may be complicated by environmental contamination,” Baker said. “Today’s awards will provide communities with the resources they need to transform some of the state’s most challenging sites, clearing the way for much-need new housing units and opening the door for new jobs across the Commonwealth.”