Given mold woes, revive court plan

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Article created: 09/15/2005 04:22:57 AM

Bridgeport,CT

Given mold woes, revive court plan

http://www.connpost.com/opinion/ci_3030775

Recent complaints by several employees over the levels of toxic mold

in one of the state's two Superior Courthouses in Bridgeport should

give new urgency for Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the state's judicial and

legislative branches to consider building a new courthouse in the

downtown of the state's largest city.

Some workers at the 120-year-old Superior Courthouse on Golden Hill

Street maintain that the levels of mold in the building have made

them ill, prompting a state study of the building's environmental

hazards. The study confirmed a high amount of several varieties of

mold spores in the structure. The mold problem has grown so bad that

public defenders and prosecutors have been allowed to work reduced

shifts until the state's cleanup of the building is completed.

While the levels of mold and its effects are a matter of debate

between the state and the courthouse's employees, there's no denying

one basic fact — the Golden Hill courthouse, while an architectural

gem, is antiquated and needs to be replaced. A new Superior Court

structure has been on the state's drawing boards for more than a

decade now and, in fact, at one time was the judicial branch's

highest priority for new construction.

During the administrations of disgraced former Gov. G. Rowland

and former Mayor ph P. Ganim, Bridgeport even went so far as to

secure the downtown property for the proposed courthouse, spending

$5 million of city money to acquire the land with the understanding

that once the property was secured the state would reimburse the

city and the new courthouse would get under way.

Unfortunately, the proposed facility was caught in the crossfire of

the corruption scandals of both Ganim and Rowland and has been on

the backburner since. Plus, Bridgeport remains out its $5 million.

The complaints of toxic mold in the Golden Hill courthouse gives new

reason for Rell and the legislative branch to get a new Bridgeport

courthouse project back on track. The state's other Superior

Courthouse on Main Street is already bursting at the seams.

Conditions in the Golden Hill courthouse, while currently being

remediated, have grown bad enough for employees to complain that the

building is uninhabitable and unhealthy to work in. It's time for

the state to get its state courthouse plan for Bridgeport pointed

back in the right direction.