BEATRICE – In the ongoing effort to rid a southeast Nebraska community of a dilapidated industrial property, another attempt will be made to obtain federal help.

The Beatrice City Council approved applying for an EPA Brownfields Grant, to assist in taking down part of the vacant and condemned Dempster Manufacturing Plant. The council conducted a public hearing Monday night on the application for a grant that could aid cleanup and remediation efforts.

City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer says if the grant is received, it would allow the city to demolish the front face area of the plant along South Highway 77 and remove two feet depth of soil. He said the maximum grant available is $4 million. 

"What we found is inside that green box, which is mostly the main buildings that front Highway 77...demolition costs and remediation of two feet of soil came up to be three-point-nine-million dollars."

Doing more than that, Tempelmeyer said, brings in more cost.

"If you want to use the site to have an enclosed structure on there....a house, a commercial building, anything of that nature...you have to do fifteen feet of soil remediation. That number is estimated, for just inside that 3.7 acres there, at just under $19 million."

Interior of Dempster plant, seen through removed window
Interior of Dempster plant, seen through removed window  

Following the hearing, officials approved a resolution to apply for a 2026 round of funding. An initial application the past year was not successful. The head of a city council committee on the Dempster project, Ted Fairbanks, says the intent is to turn the area into park space.

"The plan that we have, is a park and a park setting. The proposed park would include a fitness course, dog park, canoe dock at the Big Blue River, soccer fields, picnic areas, playground, concessions facility.....none of that is set in stone. That may or may not happen, but it's in our grant application."

The grant application is to be submitted in late November or in December. Officials hope to hear the outcome in about six months. The Dempster site is about 17 acres in size.

A company hired to remove asbestos from a part of the property completed part of that process. The city council approved a final pay request of nearly $69,000 to McGill Asbestos Abatement. Fairbanks says there’s more removal work to be done.

"This was the stuff out of the building, but the asbestos in the roofs of the buildings that are still standing...and ones that we've knocked down or the fire took down...there's still asbestos in there. So, somewhere along the line here, we're still going to have to pay to have more asbestos moved from the site....and I didn't want the public to think this is the final bill for it."

Part of the asbestos, in the roof tar of the structure can be taken to the local landfill. Fairbanks said since the major fire that destroyed part of the property last March, the city has incurred expenses at the site of nearly $260,000.

---

By consent vote, the Beatrice City Council also approved contractor payments totaling over $1 million. The payments include this year’s mill and overlay street improvements, the upgrade of east Lincoln Street and work done at the Corral Crossing and Heritage Heights housing developments.