Brownfield Grant Awarded for Hayswood Cleanup

Tom Manning-Beavin, CEO of Frontier Housing, announced Thursday at a Maysville City Commission meeting that the United States EPA had awarded $1,999,900 in brownfield funding to clean up the Hayswood Hospital property. EPA’s Brownfields Program provides grants and technical assistance to communities, states, tribes and others to assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse contaminated properties. 

“This is a first step with Hayswood Hospital, but a critical first step, and perhaps the hardest step to take,” Manning-Beavin said.

“Administrators and staff had worked for years to try to find a solution for the building, and it’s like finally the stars aligned,” said Mayor Cotterill. “This is very exciting for the City of Maysville.”

Mayor Cotterill said that the idea came about during a meeting when Frontier Housing was doing other work in the county, and Buffalo Trace ADD Director Amy Kennedy had put forward the idea of the Hayswood project. Mayor Cotterill told Manning-Beavin how much she appreciated him being open to investigating it and taking on that 18-month process.

Manning-Beavin said that getting the EPA grant award had been a team effort and thanked Amy Kennedy and Christie Dodge from Buffalo Trace ADD, Mayor Cotterill, Mason County Judge-Executive McNeill for City and County staff, the Kentucky EPA which conducted studies, as well as Senator Mitch McConnell who issued a letter of support.  

“It’s been our pleasure to be working on it with you and with the whole team,” Manning-Beavin said. “We’re just looking forward to the opportunity to plan what’s next and implement it. I believe it is going to be a community asset once again. That’s what we all want.”  Dodge, he said, was able to express in the grant application that the Hayswood Hospital property impacted the whole community. “Cleanup of this property doesn’t just matter to the property itself. It matters to the community.”

Manning-Bevin said that work would not begin on the cleanup until July when the grant funds became available.

The brick structure served Maysville and the surrounding area for nearly 60 years, but has set empty since hospital services were moved to Meadowview Regional Medical Center in 1983.