The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing a $200,000 Brownfields grant to the City of Shelby, Mont., to clean up and redevelop the historic Rainbow Hotel property (pictured left) in the city's downtown business district.
The Rainbow Hotel operated from 1923 until the early 1990s, when it was closed and abandoned. The property is contaminated with heavy metals, inorganic contaminants and mold. The EPA's Brownfields grant will be used to clean up the property and make the building ready for reuse.
‘Restored Brownfield properties can serve as cornerstones for rebuilding struggling communities,’ says EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. ‘These grants will be the first step in getting pollution out and putting jobs back into neighborhoods across the country. Clean, healthy communities are places where people want to live, work and start businesses. We're providing targeted resources to help local partners transform blighted, contaminated areas into centers of economic growth.’
(Photograph courtesy of Sherry Murphy)
