Brownfields
Success Story
United Community Fam ily
Services
Griswoid, Connecticut
For 139 years United Community and Family Services (UCFS) has provided
primary, preventative, and behavioral health care to the communities in
eastern Connecticut. Its workforce of over 400 doctors, nurses, and other
staff serve more than 20,000 individuals in the area. With the need for
expansion, UCFS was committed to finding another location to serve the
Town of Griswoid. Town officials approached UCFS to consider the
former Triangle Wire property at 226 East Main Street. The Town had
taken ownership of this brownfield with the goal of redeveloping it for
the benefit of the community and had received funding from both EPA
and the State of Connecticut to address brownfields concerns.
Priming the Property for Redevelopment
The former Triangle Wire site had been abandoned since 1995. It was
used for the manufacturing and coating of wire products since the 1940s
leaving the site with environmental challenges and the need for cleanup.
The Town applied for and received Brownfields funding from EPA in 2004
to assess the site. After completing the assessment, the Town acquired
the property for back taxes and then received a Brownfields cleanup
grant from EPA in 2010. This funding, along with State funding from the
Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development
(DECD), enabled the Town to address most of the environmental issues
on the property, making it ready for re-use.
In 2014, UCFS entered into an agreement with the Town of Griswoid to
acquire the property to create a new public health center. The Town and
UCFS worked with the Connecticut Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection (DEEP) to enroll the site into the State's
Abandoned Brownfields Cleanup Program, which provided liability relief
and enabled the Town to use both the State and EPA funding to complete
the cleanup at the site. UCFS purchased the property in 2015, and
construction was completed in the summer of 2018. The new $6.8M
health care facility has been open since July of 2018 and employs
upwards of 40 staff.
Figure 1: Front entrance.
Credits: UCFS
EPA Grant Recipient:
Town of Griswoid
Grant Types:
Assessment, Cleanup
Former Uses:
Coating and Manufacturing of wire
products
Current Use:
United Community & Family
Services - Griswoid Health Center
i m




Figure 2: Waiting Area Credits: UCFS
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection

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Figure 3: Lobby
Credits: UCFS
EPA has invested $400,000 in Brownfields funding at this site. The 2004
assessment grant provided $200,000 for the Phase 1 and Phase 2
assessments, which defined the extent of contamination at the site and
helped determine the parameters for the cleanup. The 2010 cleanup
grant provided the Town $200,000 to initiate the site cleanup, and a
DECD grant of $250,000 in Municipal Brownfields funding allowed the
Town to complete the cleanup, which included excavation of
contaminated soils and abatement of hazardous materials. Construction
at this site began in July 2017, leveraging jobs that involved 33 trades and
over 160 construction workers on site during the redevelopment
Today
With the success of this project UCFS can better serve nearly 2,000
residents of the Griswold area. UCFS employs 27 health care
professionals at this facility, with plans to increase the staff to
approximately 40. The newly built environmentally-friendly facility
includes climate-controlled automated heating and cooling, LED lighting
and green products. With significant financial investment in Brownfields
grant programs at the federal, state, local and the private sector, this
project is a great example of how investment by EPA leverages further
investment by project partners.
"It would be difficult to find a
finer example of the synergy
resulting from the collaboration of
two critical federal programs than
this project. United Community
and Family Services, part of a
Community Health Center
program, can serve three times
the number of clients at our new
community health center building,
erected on property that was
returned to sustainable
commercial use by the Town of
Griswold through the EPA
Brownfields program. The
community benefit of improved
health and economic
development will have a lasting
impact".
Jennifer Granger
UCFS President & CEO
For more information:
Visit the EPA Brownfields website at
www.epa.gov/brownfields or contact
Frank Gardner, 617-918-1278,
Gardner.frank@epa.gov
EPA 560-A-19-004

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