A safer place for kids
Grant to expand childcare center’s play area
Frank Walton is now more educated on the topic of brownfields than he probably cares to be.
As the director of business operations at the Salvation Army in Tacoma, Wash., Walton has much on his plate, including overseeing the organization’s many programs, from its emergency shelter to its food bank. Walton really doesn’t have time for one more thing, especially if that thing is a brownfield. After all, he’s in the business of helping people, not in the business of cleaning up contaminated land.
However, maybe it’s because he’s in the business of helping people that he’s taken on the challenge of cleaning up the petroleum-contaminated lot adjacent to his Salvation Army location. When completed, the unique project will take a vacated piece of land and turn it into an expanded area for the Salvation Army’s childcare center. It will also add green space to the neighborhood and be available for the community’s use.
This is a project that will affect not only the families Walton serves now but those yet to come. “This will be a great site that has a long-term impact, especially for the children,” he says.
The Salvation Army Joyful Noise Child Care and Learning Center in December was awarded an $117,900 cleanup grant by EPA. Owned today by the Salvation Army, the adjacent site was first developed as an automotive service station in 1936. It’s been cleared of pavement and debris since 1985 and today is vacant. A Phase II assessment of the property found four “subsurface anomalies,” presumably underground storage tanks. Site soil is contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons and will be removed with the USTs in the cleanup phase.
Currently, the Salvation Army is reviewing responses to its request for proposals on the cleanup phase. Walton doesn’t expect the cleanup work to begin until spring 2010. When completed, the project will then expand the outdoor area for the childcare center, which is licensed for 46 children. The community also will be able to use the land, Walton says.
This project is unique it is a childcare center, says Laura Caparroso, EPA program officer. In her experience, Caparroso knows of no other brownfields project that involved a childcare center.
For Walton, this project has allowed him to look at the bigger picture: what kind of long-term impact it will have on the community. “I’m hoping we have a cleaner environment and safer place where children can be kids,” he says.
