City News & Updates

Contaminated Facility’s Teardown Projected to be Complete by Late Summer 2025

The Community Development & Redevelopment Department (CDR) provided a community update during December 16’s Reuse Advisory Committee meeting about ongoing efforts to abate contamination at the former H.K. Porter industrial site.

Participating in the meeting were:

• Bryn Keplinger, CDR director, City of Huntington.
• Adam Cuttriss, Public Works & Engineering Services director, City of Huntington.
• Paul Pike, Huntington City Council District 2.
• Andrew Rensberger, Huntington City Council at-large.
• Michael Yergin, SME Contractors project consultant.
• Haley Faulds, Indiana Finance Authority (IFA) Brownfields Program.
• Melanie Sorman, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Alice Harris, community volunteer, H.K. Porter Reuse Advisory Committee.

Key Change

The City of Huntington has met bi-weekly with SME, EPA and Indiana Brownfields Program representatives since the last community meeting in July. During this time, the EPA has reviewed and processed the City’s initial work plan for abatement and demolition at the site.

In a key change, the EPA has determined that Brownfields grant funds awarded to the City can be used for demolition and abatement in place. Previously, the funds were reserved for pre-demolition abatement, or cleaning, of asbestos-containing materials.

This means the City will now use a “wet demolition” approach that involves spraying water on asbestos-covered surfaces to eliminate dust during teardown. The building will be demolished piece by piece in its current condition, with debris to be hauled to a landfill approved for asbestos-containing materials. Air monitoring and independent analysis will be conducted on-site throughout the demolition process.

The most significant factors in altering the work plan were unsafe structural conditions resulting from a 2022 arson and continued deterioration.

Funding & Timeline

The City of Huntington received the previously mentioned EPA Brownfields grant in 2022 for $991,000. Additional local funds will be required. Accounting for cost-savings in the adjusted work plan, the City estimates its portion to be $400,000

Project bidding is expected to go forward early in 2025. Demolition is projected to begin shortly thereafter and be completed by mid to late summer. Weather will be a factor, as wet demolition necessitates temperatures above freezing.

Future Reuse

Subsurface sampling at the site cannot be fully completed until after demolition. State partners with IFA will inspect the site for remaining contaminants at that time to help determine suitable reuses for the site. The City has established a Reuse Advisory Committee to gather public input and consider various ideas suggested for reuse.

Site History

Located in a residential area in the eastern part of Huntington, the former manufacturing facility used what are now known to be hazardous materials in the production of automotive parts for much of its operational history.

The facility operated in Huntington for several decades. It opened in 1919 and expanded several times over the coming years, employing hundreds at its peak. Operations ceased in 1999, and then-owner Friction Materials declared bankruptcy the next year.

Original owner Rapid Rim Co. sold the facility in 1924 to the Asbestos Manufacturing Company, which began making brake pads and clutch facings there. The facility continued producing automotive parts while operating as H.K. Porter starting in the late 1940s and Friction Materials from the late 1980s until its closure.

Until the city acquired it more than a decade later, the property remained under private ownership following its purchase at bankruptcy auction in 2001. It has been vacant since 2008 when the Indiana Department of Environmental Management hauled away hazardous materials that had been transported from other locations and stored there.

Vandalism at the site has been a regular occurrence, and an April 2022 fire that was determined to be arson left the building with significant structural damage.