By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com Reporter
MOUNT VERNON — As part of the downtown sidewalk renovation project, workers discovered three old gas tanks on West High Street. Mayor Richard Mavis said that two of the tanks received a clean bill of health. The third, however, has contaminated soil.
The city has engaged McCabe Engineering to evaluate and test the soil, and then determine what needs to be done. The company is also working on a grant for the city to submit to help offset the cost of remediation.
“In the meantime, we have 2 ½ businesses there that are very negatively impacted because we couldn’t replace the sidewalk because we didn’t quite know what to do next,” said Mavis. “Our plan is to put something temporary in there as soon as we find out what the long-term strategy will be. In some cases, we may have to dig a lot of dirt out of there, and in some cases, we may just have to run soil testing. So as soon as we find that out, which I understand will be a week or so, we will be able to make a determination on what we can do.”