Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs have announced 13 rural Indiana communities will receive more than $8 million in federal grant funding to create and expand community facilities, remove blight and improve water infrastructure. Among these recipients is Tell City, which received $500,000 to demolish the former Perry County Memorial Hospital, now sitting vacant overlooking the Ohio River.
All environmental hazards will be remediated prior to demolition, including the abatement of identified asbestos and the removal of an underground storage tank. The building and surrounding debris will be cleared and voids will be filled to give the site a uniform slope. The project will reduce health and safety hazards for residents.
The former Perry County Memorial Hospital site completed construction in 1950, with additions being made in 1963, 1975 and 1995. It currently spans 89,300 square feet, sitting on 6.442 acres of land on the southern end of Tell City. It has stood vacant since the new Perry County Memorial Hospital building was opened in 2015, north of the city on State Road 237. Once the abandoned structure has been removed, the city could redevelop the site.
The funding stems from the Blight Clearance Program, which strives to encourage communities with blighted properties to focus on long-term community development and revitalization through improving quality of place, generating jobs and spurring economic revitalization. Eligible projects to receive grant funding through BCP are deteriorated or abandoned downtown buildings or vacant and unusable industrial sites.
“Rural Indiana is the next great economic frontier,” said Lt. Gov. Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “But to achieve that success, we can’t ignore the needed maintenance of basic, but vital, aspects of community infrastructure. This grant money will enable these 13 Hoosier communities to find economic growth while improving health and safety across the state.”
Read more on this story in this week’s issue of the Spencer County Leader!
Featured Image: A picture of the old Tell City hospital that is set to be demolished
