Sep. 20--The New Albany Redevelopment Commission has tendered an offer of $600,000 for the former Hoosier Panel property.

Located along Silver Street, the site was most recently used to house CCE, Inc., a tire shredding business surrounded by controversy due to complaints by neighbors and city-issued citations for illegally storing materials outside.

An environmental study ordered by the commission revealed soil contamination at the site, which only fueled disagreements by some who questioned why the city would be interested in dealing with a business they say has broken rules time and time again.

The business is owned by Jeff Eastridge, and Deputy Mayor Carl Malysz said "the deadline is approaching" for him to decide on the city's offer.

Appraisals put the worth of the property at $1.2 million, Malysz said. It's estimated the environmental cleanup will cost $600,000, a price the city would bear if the transaction is accepted by Eastridge.

The city would pay for the environmental cleanup as part of the deal.

Several attempts to reach Eastridge for comment in recent weeks have been unsuccessful.

A resolution to include the Hoosier Panel property into a tax-increment financing district narrowly passed through the City Council Thursday, as it was approved 5-4.

That means the city will be able to capture property taxes from whatever business goes into the site to use for infrastructure upgrades for the surrounding area.

Malysz said the city would like to see it used for light industrial purposes. The commission wanted to buy the site because of the constant complaints about Eastridge's business, Malysz added.

Buying the site seemed to be the best solution, he said.

A measure before the Board of Zoning Appeals to approve relocating CCE along Ind. 111 has twice been postponed.

"We didn't discover the environmental problems until after we made a decision to pursue purchasing the property," Malysz said. "We're not surprised that this old industrial site would have some level of contamination. There's some issues there, but we're perfectly able to handle it."

But Council President Dan Coffey said the commission's attempt to buy the property should have ceased when they found out how much contamination was really embedded at the site.

"We probably don't have the funds to clean it up," Coffey said during Thursday's meeting.

Due to the inclusion of the Hoosier Panel site, TIF funds can be used to purchase the property or pay for the cleanup. Coffey said the Environmental Protection Agency may have paid for the work if the city would have refused to buy the land.

Another extension that would have placed the former Coyle Dodge property along Spring Street into a TIF zone failed by a 5-4 count Thursday. There has been talk of using the site for a new city-county building, though Malysz said negotiations are still ongoing about purchasing it.

If the TIF expansion had passed, it would not have necessarily meant the property would be purchased by the city. Malysz said there's not enough money in the State Street parking garage TIF zone -- which would have encompassed the Coyle site -- to pay for the purchase of the property.

Environmental cleaning would also be needed for the Coyle property. Coffey believes the estimates the city has provided for cleaning it are too high, as he voted against the request.

-----

To see more of The Evening News and The Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspapers, go to http://www.news-tribune.net.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.