Cleanup is for new township emergency squad building
By:Vanessa S. Holt
SPRINGFIELD Put on your work gloves, grab a broom and head to Jobstown-Juliustown Road on Sunday if you’d like to volunteer to be part of a cleanup crew for the new township emergency squad building.
Emergency squad members and community volunteers will sweep up dirt and dust inside and clear out brush and trash outside of the building.
The Springfield Township Emergency Squad currently shares a building with the Springfield Volunteer Fire Company on Jacksonville-Jobstown Road. The new building is the former site of Kauffman and Minteer, a trucking company that closed in 1992.
The 5-acre property, located at 7 Jobstown-Juliustown Road, was declared a Superfund site in 1989 because of contaminated wastewater that was discharged into an on-site lagoon on the property.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has removed more than 18,000 tons of contaminated material from the site in the last decade.
Only about 2,200 cubic yards of soil and the most heavily contaminated groundwater remain to be addressed, according to the EPA.
Councilman Richard Toone, who is coordinating the cleanup, noted that contaminants are no closer than eight to 12 feet below the surface of the ground. The continuing EPA cleanup will take place away from the building and will not interfere with the work of the emergency squad, he said.
"The intent is to get the work done so we can have a building permit by the end of the year," he said.
People interesting in volunteering are invited to show up, rain or shine, at 9 a.m. with work gloves and any shovels, brooms or scrapers they can bring. The cleanup is expected to last from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Lunch and drinks will be provided.
For more information contact Mr. Toone at 261-3415.

