Rodents, mold plague police evidence building

[Guest guest]

By MIKE WIGGINS

The Daily Sentinel

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

An infestation of rodents and

mold in a run-down building where Grand Junction police store evidence and

property has sent the city scrambling to find another location to keep items

seized in criminal investigations.

The City Council unanimously approved an emergency request Monday night to

spend $343,000 to remodel the Colorado National Guard armory building at the

city shops complex on River Road so police can relocate thousands of pieces of

evidence there.

With no room left in the Police Department crime lab, officers for the last

several years have stored drugs, weapons and other evidence in a Quonset hut

immediately west of the police station at 625 Ute Ave. But the metal building

was burglarized and items were stolen three times between 2003 and 2005. Then,

earlier this summer, Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents who were helping

police take an inventory of evidence found rodent droppings, drugs that had been

consumed by mice and mold growing in marijuana in the drug storage room. Agents

were so concerned they donned respirators to guard against the potential of

airborne bacteria hantavirus and aspergillus, police said.

The CBI recommended to police that they move evidence to another facility as

soon as possible to address health concerns and protect evidence.

Police contacted Martyny, an associate professor of the Division of

Environmental and Occupational Health Services at National Jewish Medical and

Research Center in Denver, who conducted testing and collected samples from the

Quonset hut. Martyny recommended employees entering the Quonset hut wear a

respirator, a protective suit and boot covers.

“It was almost like, we need to get out of here as quickly as possible, not

only because of the integrity of the evidence in such a place, but first and

foremost the health and safety of the employees going in and out of there,” said

Assistant Financial Operations Manager Jay Valentine, who presented the funding

request to council members Monday.

Police Cmdr. Bob said the Quonset hut is used to store evidence in

criminal cases pending before local judges and adjudicated but in the appellate

process.

Deputy Police Chief Troy told council members the department’s first

evidence audit in more than 10 years revealed police could not account for 10

cents of more than $100,000 in U.S. currency and a small amount of marijuana.

said the marijuana likely was ingested by rodents.

“Is it going to compromise the case? Probably not, no,” said in regard

to the missing marijuana.

said the problems with mice and mold, which he said police have known

about for some time, are symptoms of an inadequate facility that has no heating

or air conditioning and insufficient storage space. Valentine said the Quonset

hut was built in the 1960s and previously used by the military and School

District 51.

“This is something we’ve been working on for three or four years,” said

of trying to move out of the Quonset hut and encouraging city officials to plan

for a new public safety building. “It goes beyond mold. There are a whole host

of problems.”

Kristy Westerman, spokeswoman for the Mesa County Health Department, said Mesa

County has had only one hantavirus case in its history, which was reported near

the town of Mesa on Grand Mesa in the 1990s. She said while hantavirus is “very

rare,” it is a virus that people should be concerned about because it cannot be

treated.

Rice, indoor air quality coordinator for the Health Department,

characterized aspergillus as a household mold that can cause health problems for

people allergic to mold. She said she would recommend to people who find mold in

their house to either clean it themselves or have it professionally cleaned,

depending upon the extent of the contamination.

The city will hire PNCI Construction, Inc. of Grand Junction, which is

currently remodeling the Grand Junction Regional Communications Center on the

second floor of the police station, to remodel the armory. The work consists of

separating the armory into three sections, with the first being used for vehicle

processing and evidence collection, the second for evidence storage and drug and

gun vaults and the third for the permanent home of the city’s facilities

division.

Valentine said the contractor will begin remodeling the armory immediately and

should be done by February.

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Mike Wiggins can be reached via e-mail at ' ); document.write(

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