WASHINGTON, DC – Tomorrow, Congressman G. K. Butterfield (NC-01) will join Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Heather McTeer Toney and City of Wilson Mayor C. Bruce Rose at 10:00 a.m. at Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, 112 Goldsboro Street East, Wilson, N.C. at a ceremony to award the City of Wilson and the Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments a $1 million Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund Grant and a $400,000 Brownfields Community Assessment Grant, respectively.
The grants, funded by the EPA, will enable the recipients to assess, cleanup, and redevelop Brownfields sites, which will help boost local economies and create jobs while protecting public health.
Butterfield said, “I applaud the City of Wilson and the Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments receipt of these grants. Retrofitting formerly polluted sites into safe, usable properties will improve the health of the community and provide opportunities to expand Wilson’s economy. I thank EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Regional Administrator Heather McTeer Toney for awarding these much-needed funds to Wilson.”
Following the grant ceremony, the Congressman will attend a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) StrikeForce for Rural Growth and Opportunity outreach meeting at 1: 00 p.m. at Cornerstone Baptist Church, 1095 Allen Road, Greenville, N.C. While there, Butterfield will discuss the importance of the StrikeForce Initiative, which seeks to grow economies, increase investments, and create opportunities in poverty-stricken rural communities in eastern North Carolina.
For more information on the EPA grants visit: www.epa.gov/brownfields. Information on the StrikeForce Initiative can be found at: www.usda.gov/strikeforce.