SK Tool Site May Benefit From Grant Money

Just what con­t­a­m­i­nants exist on the for­mer SK Hand Tools prop­erty in Defi­ance may be learned soon if an EPA grant comes through. Dur­ing their Mon­day meet­ing, Defi­ance County com­mis­sion­ers dis­cussed the lat­est devel­op­ments in efforts to clean up and mar­ket the prop­erty, which has report­edly dete­ri­o­rated greatly since the fac­tory and grounds were aban­doned in 2010 when SK Hand Tools filed for bank­ruptcy. It was pro­posed at Monday’s meet­ing, that the county com­mis­sion­ers apply for a grant, through the EPA, for a tar­geted brown­field assess­ment, to give them a bet­ter view of just what they are deal­ing with there. Funds it was learned, may be avail­able for such things as asbestos removal, reme­di­a­tion and demo­li­tion. Mean­while, unpaid prop­erty taxes, which total $146,494.31 for the build­ings and lands, remain an issue.