Judicial center staff told air there poses no threat

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Judicial center staff told air there poses no threat

By FRANK BOYETT, Gleaner staff

September 27, 2002

Workers at the County Judicial Center were told Thursday that the

$10 million building is relatively free of mold spores.

Since its completion at the first of the year the building has been plagued

by high humidity because one of the main air conditioning units is too

small. The high humidity has caused condensation in the building, prompting

mold to grow. That sparked employee fears that the mold could be toxic.

A month ago Judge-executive Sandy Watkins met with employees and told them

that air testing would be done -- and that they would be informed of the

results as soon as they were available.

Watkins handed out the test results during a meeting Thursday afternoon,

noting that he had not yet seen them. " All of us are going to see them the

same time you see them, " he said.

The tests were performed by Steve Plough, owner of PACE Field Services of

ville, which collected samples on Sept. 2. They included 18 air samples

and 15 samples from surfaces such as ceiling tiles.

" Do we have a mold problem? " asked Assistant County Attorney Ron Woodard.

" Steve's conclusion was we do not. We don't have that problem based on what

the experts are telling me. They said they don't see a problem. "

While there are common mold spores in the building, he said, they do not

approach levels of concern. The " rule of thumb in the industry, " he said, is

to raise a red flag if indoor levels of viable spores are at least 10 times

the level of spores just outside the building.

" None of the results we have are even close to that figure, " Woodard said.

" The inside readings are much lower than the outside readings. It was not to

where it would cause a health hazard or a problem. "

In other words, Circuit Court Clerk Sonny Burton said, " you're 10 times more

likely to get an allergy problem outside than you are in here. "

That doesn't mean that there isn't a problem, Woodard said -- just that

there is not a health problem. The problem with the air conditioning unit

continues, he said, but a new unit " is going to be ordered in a week or so "

and will be installed in another eight to 11 weeks.

Meanwhile, he said, adjustments made to the existing air conditioning system

appear to have lessened the humidity problem.

" It's no secret we had very high humidity, " he said. " When we first started

it was 70 percent in some parts of the building or higher. " But over the

past month, he said, " our humidity has gone down. It's been pretty much 45

to 55 percent humidity. "