After standing for decades, the Mercer Coal Fuel Towers will come down this Wednesday, Oct. 7 in a demolition marking last step in the remediation and cleanup of the contaminated industrial site.
The Town of Stratford has secured more than $700,000 in grants for the demolition and clean-up of the site at 2350 Stratford Ave. The one-acre parcel was previously owned by C.J. Mercer and Sons Inc., which operated a bulk-storage coal and petroleum distribution facility from 1929 to 1979. Eight underground storage tanks were removed in 2011, but the concrete towers that held coal remain.
The town foreclosed on the Mercer Towers property in 2011 as a tax delinquent property. The site had been abandoned since the late 1970s.ÂÂ
The demolition is part of a longstanding effort by the town to clean up contaminated industrial properties known as brownfields. The Stratford Redevelopment Agency was reported earlier this year to have secured more than $5 million in grants to be put toward the remediation of the Stratford Avenue property as well as other brownfields.
